1,721,148 research outputs found
Competing for coffee space: Development-induced displacement in the central highlands of Vietnam
No full textMetadata only recordThis article investigates the impact of coffee production on ethnic equality in Vietnam. As the second largest coffee exporter in the world, coffee has been a major contributor to economic development and success. However, it is observed that the economic benefits of coffee production have been unevenly distributed between native and non-native groups. Vietnam has become one of the most successful socialist nations due in large part to its coffee production, but this has come at the expense of the overall goal of economic and social equality.SysCoor-5 (Policy and Governance
Measuring the opportunity cost of carbon sequestration in tropical agriculture
No full textAlthough a market for carbon sequestration does not yet exist, it is important to assess the cost of sequestering carbon in agricultural systems in anticipation of this market and assess weather such markets might be viable. A method is presented for measuring the opportunity cost of sequestering carbon on tropical farms. Rates of carbon sequestration are derived for timber and agro-forestry systems, and used to compute incentive compatible compensating payment schedules for farmers who sequester carbon. The method is applied to data for an agricultural watershed in the Philippines. Area- and land quality-adjusted total costs are estimated. Furthermore, the effects of these systems on environmental externalities are assessed. The results show that the present value of the opportunity cost of carbon storage via land modification falls between 62.50 per ton. Carbon storage through agroforestry is found to be more cost-effective than via a pure tree-based system
The role of health and education in household labor allocation and returns: Evidence from rural China
No full textThis thesis describes the links between farmers’ human capital and their off-farm activities in rural China. Previous research on the link between human capital and off-farm employment has focused primarily on education; this thesis uses two rounds of the China Health and Nutrition Survey to address the role of self-reported and objective health measures as well. The impacts of education on wages, labor supply, and off-farm participation have been measured repeatedly, especially in China. However, very little attention has been paid to the role of health in the allocation of labor. I seek to fill this gap by measuring the relationship between farmers’ health and their off-farm employment for male and female labor in rural China. By separating the decision to participate from the intensity of labor supply, and estimating wage responses to education and health, I shed light on the mechanisms through which human capital affects labor supply decisions. The results suggest that education plays an important role in the determination of wages and participation in off-farm wage employment for rural Chinese workers. Individual health, measured as self reported health status, is closely related to the offered wage as well as the decision to participate in the off-farm labor market. Finally, the ability to find employment at the village level is dependent on transportation infrastructure and the presence of local enterprises
Child nutrition, agricultural production and satellite remotely sensed images: Exploring linkages in nepal
No full textThis thesis investigates the connections between agriculture and child nutrition outcomes in Nepal. Nepal has experienced economic growth and a general decline in poverty over the past decade, but continues to fall behind the rest of the world in child malnutrition rates. Sources of nutrition are often determined by local agricultural conditions. Harsh terrain, high transportation costs and poor infrastructure make it difficult to redistribute food from food-surplus to food-deficit areas. Using data from the 2011 Nepal Demographic Health Survey and satellite remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), I augment the standard approach to explaining child nutrition outcomes by including information about the intensity of green vegetation for growing season months during critical periods of a child\u27s growth and development. NDVI measures are used in two Probit regressions to evaluate whether interannual variability in weather and its impact on food production influence a child\u27s probability of being stunted or wasted. In a separate analysis, household level agricultural production characteristics from the 2010/2011 Nepal Living Standards Survey are used in a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) to explain variation in height-for-age and weight-for-height Z-scores. Results suggest that increases in NDVI anomalies for harvest months during the time a child is in utero are associated with modest reductions in the probability of stunting. Results from the SUR model highlight the importance of overall yields and specific crop groups in improving long-term nutrition outcomes. Larger shares of fruits and vegetables in the household crop portfolio and the production of meat or animal by-products are associated with significantly higher height-for-age Z-scores
Essays on Malawian agriculture: Micro-level welfare impacts of agricultural productivity; profitability of fertilizer use; and targeting of fertilizer subsidy programs
Get PDFThis dissertation comprises of three essays that address different aspects of agriculture in Malawi using a two-wave panel data collected by the National Statistical Office of Malawi with support from the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) program. Each essay stands alone as an independent study because of differences in research questions and the methodologies used in addressing the questions. The first essay analyzes the micro-level welfare impacts of agricultural productivity. Welfare is measured by various dimensions of poverty and food insecurity; and agricultural productivity is measured by maize yield and value of crop output per hectare. Depending on the measure of welfare, the impact of agricultural productivity was estimated with a household fixed effects estimator, a two-part estimator or a correlated-random effects ordered probit estimator. The results indicate that increasing agricultural productivity has the expected statistically significant welfare improving effect, but the magnitude of the effect is small given the attention that agriculture usually receives. Efforts to effectively improve the welfare of rural agricultural households should therefore go beyond increasing agricultural productivity. The second essay estimates the profitability of inorganic fertilizer use in maize production using fixed effects and multilevel models. The study finds that fertilizer use is generally unprofitable at prevailing market conditions when one assumes farmers incur positive transaction costs in the use of fertilizer. The main factor that drives low fertilizer profitability is low nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) which is estimated to range from 9.24kg to 12.09 kg on average, depending on the model specification. In order for fertilizer use to be profitable on average, the NUE would have to increase by at least 137% if maize output is valued at the farm gate price and by 50% if maize is valued at the lean season market price. Essay three provides guidance for the targeting of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) by estimating the difference in inorganic fertilizer use efficiency and crowing out of commercial fertilizer by subsidized fertilizer between poor and non-poor households. The difference in inorganic fertilizer use efficiency is estimated with a multilevel model of maize yield while the difference in crowding out is estimated with a double hurdle model of demand for commercial, inorganic fertilizer. The results indicate that non-poor farmers are significantly more efficient in the use of inorganic fertilizer, but have significantly higher levels of crowding out, compared to poor. This suggests that there is a trade-off between targeting the non-poor farmers and targeting poor farmers. Further analysis of the trade-off however indicates that targeting non-poor farmers instead of poor farmers, after accounting for the difference in crowding out, would result in an overall yield gain of 3.14 - 4.33kg per kilogram of nitrogen. Therefore the food security objective of Malawi’s farm input subsidy program would be better served if non-poor farmers are targeted instead of poor farmers
Fish Consumption and Accessibility and the Implications for Household Nutrition and Food Security in Ghana and Tanzania
Get PDFThis dissertation empirically investigates aquaculture adoption on food security, fish demand and fish accessibility in Ghana and Tanzania. There are three separate chapters, each discussing a specific issue relating to food security and fish consumption. Data for chapters two and three are from the round 6 of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS6) while chapter four uses the Household Budget Survey (HBS) for Tanzania. The second chapter of this dissertation applies the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach in logit and probit frameworks to a cross section of 4,011 Ghanaian households, to analyze how fish farming is associated with household food security. The results show that on the margin, the probability of adopting fish farming increases with wealth, location, ecological zone and household size but decreases with household income per capita. The study also observes from the average treatment on the treated (ATT) that, on average, fish farming households have food security scores 15.5 points higher than non-fish farming households. The results also suggest that fish farming households have higher food diversity and frequency of food consumed than the non-fish farming households through direct consumption. Post-estimation analysis indicates that female-headed households have equal probability of being food secure relative to their male counterparts if they adopt fish farming. Chapter Three uses a latent class model of structural heterogeneity in a linear regression framework to examine the importance of location and ethnic group affiliation on fish demand in 2,185 households in Ghana. The results suggest that Ghanaian households fall into two classes concerning seafood demand, which I refer to as ‘Traditional’ and ‘Non-Traditional’ households. For Traditional households, fish and poultry are complementary goods and fish and red meat is substitutes. For Non-Traditional households, fish and poultry are complementary goods and fish, red meat and pork are substitutes. Price is a major concern for consumers in the rural and peri-urban areas, who tend to be more Traditional while taste, diversity: health and nutrition concerns pertain to urban consumers, who tend to be more Non-Traditional. Traditional households are identified as being Akan Christians and located in the forest and savannah areas while Non-Traditional households are identified as a mixture of Akan, Ewe, and Dagomba. Religion does not affect fish consumption by Non-Traditional households, located in mainly the savannah areas. Chapter Four relies on simple linear regression to evaluate the correlation between electricity, communication networks and transportation on access to seafood in 1,730 Tanzanian household. Two measures of seafood accessibility are used, namely: the Fish Access Count (FAC) and the Fish Accessibility Index (FAI). Results showed that access to electricity, communication, and transportation are positively correlated to seafood accessibility by Tanzanian households. Access to transportation is a primary component of access to seafood in urban areas, access to electricity improves access to seafood in rural and peri-urban areas while access to communication is associated with improved access to seafood in rural and urban households
Explaining forest degradation in Malawi: Asset poverty, income shocks, and activity choice
No full textThis dissertation asks what policies might be useful to reduce incentives to degrade forests in Malawi, where forest cover is being lost at a rate of 2.4 percent per annum. Conservation efforts have often been limited by an inadequate understanding of the varied ways in which forest users incorporate forest activities into their activity portfolios. The core of the dissertation is a set of essays that use household survey data from rural Malawi to examine the factors associated with smallholder-led forest degradation and to assess the many contributions of forest resources to rural livelihoods. Essay I uses a systems approach to examine the determinants of activity choice impacting forest use among low-income households in Malawi. Results from constrained ML estimation indicate greater incentives to degrade forests where the returns to forest use are high. Factors that reduce forest pressure include: availability of low-cost fuel substitutes, on-farm tree planting, favorable returns to wage-work, and opportunities in the self-employment sector. Essay II investigates whether forests provide a safety net for rural households in Malawi. Results from a dynamic Tobit model of forest extraction appear to suggest that access to forests as a source of income assists households, particularly very poor households, in coping with income shortfalls. Random-effects models of income and savings indicate that households save out of transitory income. The findings of the essay suggest that policies that help to alleviate asset poverty can reduce household dependence on forests for coping with income shocks and subsequently reduce forest pressure. Essay III examines economic reliance on forests and its effects on rural household welfare. The data show that sample households depended on forests for about 30 percent of household income. Tobit model estimation indicates a positive relationship between asset poverty and forest reliance. Analyses of the impacts of forest use on poverty and income inequality indicate a potentially important role for forests in improving living standards in rural Malawi at the household and community levels. Based on findings of the three essays, interventions are proposed that aim to slow forest decline in Malawi without harming the current well-being of the rural poor
Improving forest management for sustainable livelihoods: Measuring the performance of Malawi\u27s forest co-management program
No full textThis thesis investigates the impacts of Malawi’s forest co-management program (FCM) on rural households’ behavior, their decisions and economic and environmental outcomes. We evaluate the contribution of the FCM to household income and to protection of forest resources. We also evaluate whether household maize sufficiency influences participation in the program. The study uses panel data collected in 2002 and 2009 from 218 households in Kasungu and Machinga Districts of Malawi. The program was implemented through forest user groups (FUGS) that were responsible for a set of activities related to setting, implementing, and enforcing rules governing forest management and use. To study the impacts of the FCM, a two stage regression approach is used. In the first stage, a multinomial logistic model (MNL) is estimated to identify characteristics of program participants. Generalized propensity scores are predicted following estimation of the MNL model. In the second stage, an ordinary least square regression model is used in which the inverse of the propensity scores serve as sampling weights to estimate the effects of the FCM on household forest and household total incomes. A difference-in-difference model (DID) is also used to measure the medium term effect of the FCM on household forest income. A weighted Probit model is used to identify factors correlated with observed decisions to clear forests. A weighted Tobit model is further employed to assess the effects of program participation on forest clearing. Results suggest that participation in the FCM program decreased household income derived from forests. The program had a negligible short term effect on overall household income and a similarly small and insignificant medium term effect on income derived from the sale of forest products. Maize sufficient households were found to be more likely to participate in the program. Results suggest that the program was successful at lowering the rates and extent of forest clearing. Households that participated in the FCM program were less likely to clear forests compared to non-participants. FCM participants cleared 0.25 hectares less forest land per household for agricultural expansion compared to their non-participating counterparts
Food Waste, the Double-Burden of Malnutrition, and the Sustainability of the Global Food System
No full textSustainably meeting the food demands of a growing population based on finite resources while protecting the environment is one of the great challenges of humanity in the coming decades. This dissertation combines three essays that examine how future patterns of global food consumption will affect human health, and how the food system changes driven by the ongoing global nutrition transition will affect the environment. The production of food needed to meet a growing population combined with changes in food consumption patterns are placing unprecedented levels of stress on the planet’s scarce natural resources. In this context, while the existing literature has mainly focused on increasing production, the magnitude of loss and waste is too large to be ignored. The first essay contributes to the literature by examining the linkages between consumers’ food waste at the national level on the one hand, and global food security and environmental health on the other hand. Absent significant behavioral changes or successful policy interventions, food waste will nearly double by 2050. Emerging economies are likely to play a key role in driving this growth in global food waste. Further findings indicate that the global benefits of food waste mitigation are greatly enhanced in the context of a more open international trade regime. Yet even as food loss and waste has been undernutrition and overweight/obesity levels have also been increasing. Together, these trends form a triple challenge for food security, global sustainability and human health. In the second essay I examine the role of the excessive calorie availability as an historical driver of adult BMI. I find that, in part driven by excess in calorie availability, individuals in more recent cohorts are overweight or obese earlier and for larger proportions of their lifespan than those in earlier cohorts. This highlights the potential for unintended health consequences of agricultural and trade policies directed at increasing calorie supplies. In the third essay I introduce a novel framework that extends the UN-FAO’s methodology for assessing undernutrition to also assess the extent of overconsumption and obesity. This framework allows for examination of the dynamics of the double burden of malnutrition between 2015 and 2050. Specifically, this framework shows how shifting towards healthier and more sustainable food consumption levels and reducing food waste could synergistically address multiple health and environmental burdens
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