6 research outputs found
Long-term annual climate trends around the Breton Plots area, Alberta: is there any evidence of local climate change?
No full textThe objective of this research was to investigate the long-term trends in historical climate variables using the data collected near the classical Breton Plots (Alberta, Canada) and to determine if the data show any evidence of local climate change. The climate data used for the study were obtained from the Alberta Climate Information Service (ACIS) for the years 1901 to 2020. Various parametric statistical analyses were conducted to determine if monotonic trends occurred in the climate variables over time, and the analyses were conducted on the annual data as well as the 30-year climate normals. Large fluctuations in annual climate variables occurred, but a positive linear trend was observed in the average annual and growing season minimum air temperatures over time. Between 1901 and 2020 the annual minimum air temperature average increased at a rate of 0.3The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Historic climate change trends and impacts on crop yields in key agricultural areas of the prairie provinces in Canada: a literature review
No full textThe objective of this literature review was to compile research findings on climate change and its impacts on crop production in Prairie Provinces of Canada. Our search strategy included finding primary literature articles from various databases. Seven articles reported increases in average and minimum air temperature over time in the Prairie Provinces of Canada. Increases in maximum air temperature were smaller than that for minimum air temperature. Growing degree days (GDD) and corn heat units (CHU) also increased over time, which has allowed for potential expansion of corn growth northwards. While overall increases in average annual precipitation and growing season precipitation have occurred in Canada between1900 and 2021, western Canada showed increases in some regions but decreases in others. Off-season precipitation and snow cover duration in Canada have decreased since 1950. The number of frost-free days has increased across Canada, on the Prairies and southern Saskatchewan since 1900. Annual snowfall has decreased since 1950 and across Canada the annual maximum snow depth has also decreased. Overall, studies focusing on the Prairie Provinces in Canada have shown accelerated changes in several climate parameters over time, affecting cropping areas and crop yields.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Management impacts on organic carbon under continuous perennial grass, perennial grass-legume mixture, and annual cereals on a thick Black Chernozemic soil
No full textImpacts of annual and perennial pasture management on soil organic carbon (SOC) and equivalent SOC stocks (equal soil mass basis) were investigated in two trials [(CAESA (1994 to 1997) and BMP (2008 to 2012) trials] conducted on the same experimental paddocks at Lacombe, Alberta. The original site was broken from perennial grass in 1992 and the CAESA trial established in 1993. Between 1994 and 1997, half of the paddocks included winter triticale and a mixture of triticale and spring barley; half included smooth and meadow bromegrass; and each paddock was light, medium, or heavily grazed. The BMP trial (2008 to 2012) on the same paddocks included fertilized, direct seeded barley as silage; grazing and haying of unfertilized meadow bromegrass, fertilized meadow bromegrass, and meadow bromegrass and alfalfa mixture; and unfertilized oldgrass that was continuous since 1994. Between trials (1998 to 2007) all paddocks received no fertilizer. In the 0-15 cm depth SOC under oldgrass was constant between 1994 and 2012 and averaged 88 Mg C haThe presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Climate Smart Agriculture in the African Context
No full textAgriculture remains vital to the economy of most African countries and its development
has significant implications for food security and poverty reduction in the region. Increase
in agricultural production over the past decades has mainly been due to land area expansion,
with very little change in production techniques and limited improvement in yields.
Currently one in four people remains malnourished in Africa. CSA integrates all three dimensions of sustainable development and is aimed at (1)
sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; (2) adapting and building
resilience to climate change from the farm to national levels; and (3) developing
opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture compared with past
trends. It is an approach to identify the most suitable strategies according to national and
local priorities and conditions to meet these three objectives. There is no such thing as an
agricultural practice that is climate smart per se. Whether or not a particular practice or
production system is climate smart depends upon the particular local climatic, biophysical,
socio-economic and development context, which determines how far a particular practice
or system can deliver on productivity increase, resilience and mitigation benefits. For Africa to reap the potential benefits CSA, concrete actions must be taken to: enhance
the evidence base to underpin strategic choices, promote and facilitate wider adoption by
farmers of appropriate technologies; develop institutional arrangements to support, apply
and scale-out CSA from the farm level to the agricultural landscape level; manage tradeoffs
in perspectives of farmers and policymakers; strengthen technical, analytical and
implementation capacities; ensure policy frameworks and public investments are
supportive of CSA; develop and implement effective risk-sharing schemes
An impact assessment of the SADC FTA on bilateral trade relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe
No full textThe Journal paper uses the Gravity Model of International Trade to investigate the impact of the Southern African Development Comuunity (SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA) on trade between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The study found out that South Africa gained more in trade by 88.4% if the country used the SADC FTA than the 1964 Bilateral Trade Agreement which was between South Africa and Zimbabwe. In addition, there was trade diversion of 176% for Zimbabwe when trading in SADC FTA. Furthermore the paper showed that South Africa will in future trade more with countries such as the Seychelles and Angola whilst Zimbabwe will gain more in trade if it trades with South Africa. The paper recommends that there is need for Zimbabwe and South Africa to expand trade with SADC Countries in order to promote intra-regional trade.TFij - This is the dependent variable which shows annual trade of exports plus imports of SADC member states. Other studies which have used the gravity model as their methodology such as Sunge & Mapfumo (2014) and Simwaka (2011) have used the log of exports as the dependent variable arguing that imports in Africa are understated in order to minimize their import bills. However this may not be holistic view in all countries and will not reflect the true picture of trading activities in Africa.
Yj and Yi - These are explanatory quantitative variables which show the economic sizes of the exporting and importing countries. Ogunkola (1998) explains that the higher the GDP for exporting and importing countries, the higher is the respective countries' potential for foreign product demand
Distij- This is a quantitative explanatory variable which is a proxy to transportation costs in bilateral trade. Simwaka (2001) uses the quality of infrastructure as a proxy for transport costs as the author highlights that distance may be biased if the poor and not well connected. However distance is a traditional variable which is calculated in kilometers from the capital city of one SADC member state to the other capital city of a SADC member state
contig- This is a dummy explanatory variable which represents the common borders between SADC member states. The variable will show one if there is a common border between an importing country and the exporting country and zero if there is no common border between the two. Countries with common borders will trade more than countries without common borders.
lang- This is a qualitative variable which takes the value of one if the importing country has a common language with the exporting country and zero otherwise.
TC- The variables show trade creation in the SADC region. The dummy variables takes the value of one if both the importing and exporting countries are in the SADC Free Trade Area and zero otherwise
TD- The variable shows trade diversion in SADC trade. The dummy variable represents one if one of the member states is in the SADC FTA and zero otherwise.
llc- This is a dummy variable which represents one if the exporting country is landlocked and zero otherwise
excij - Bergstand (1985) explains that the exchange rate variable is important to show trade variation between member states. The quantitative variable will determine annual exchange rate by the importing country's currency unit per one unit of the exporting country's currency. Following Binh et al (2013) the variable is calculated as the annual average of the importing country's currency unit per US dollar divided by the annual average of the exporting country's national currency unit per US dollar per year.
PIi & PEj- These two quantitative variables estimate the market size of member states. A member state with a larger market size than the other is more likely to trade more in the region.
This is a panel data set consisting of 16 SADC countries. and data was obtained from World Bank's World Development Indicators, CEPII and own computations in terms of dummy variables .Data was collected from various websites such as the World Bank World Development Indicators , CEPII and own computations of dummy variables. The data was colllected and arranged in excel documents and stata files
Independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and improved complementary feeding, on child stunting and anaemia in rural Zimbabwe: a cluster-randomised trial.
No full textBACKGROUND: Child stunting reduces survival and impairs neurodevelopment. We tested the independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on stunting and anaemia in in Zimbabwe. METHODS: We did a cluster-randomised, community-based, 2 × 2 factorial trial in two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Clusters were defined as the catchment area of between one and four village health workers employed by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care. Women were eligible for inclusion if they permanently lived in clusters and were confirmed pregnant. Clusters were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to standard of care (52 clusters), IYCF (20 g of a small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement per day from age 6 to 18 months plus complementary feeding counselling; 53 clusters), WASH (construction of a ventilated improved pit latrine, provision of two handwashing stations, liquid soap, chlorine, and play space plus hygiene counselling; 53 clusters), or IYCF plus WASH (53 clusters). A constrained randomisation technique was used to achieve balance across the groups for 14 variables related to geography, demography, water access, and community-level sanitation coverage. Masking of participants and fieldworkers was not possible. The primary outcomes were infant length-for-age Z score and haemoglobin concentrations at 18 months of age among children born to mothers who were HIV negative during pregnancy. These outcomes were analysed in the intention-to-treat population. We estimated the effects of the interventions by comparing the two IYCF groups with the two non-IYCF groups and the two WASH groups with the two non-WASH groups, except for outcomes that had an important statistical interaction between the interventions. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01824940. FINDINGS: Between Nov 22, 2012, and March 27, 2015, 5280 pregnant women were enrolled from 211 clusters. 3686 children born to HIV-negative mothers were assessed at age 18 months (884 in the standard of care group from 52 clusters, 893 in the IYCF group from 53 clusters, 918 in the WASH group from 53 clusters, and 991 in the IYCF plus WASH group from 51 clusters). In the IYCF intervention groups, the mean length-for-age Z score was 0·16 (95% CI 0·08-0·23) higher and the mean haemoglobin concentration was 2·03 g/L (1·28-2·79) higher than those in the non-IYCF intervention groups. The IYCF intervention reduced the number of stunted children from 620 (35%) of 1792 to 514 (27%) of 1879, and the number of children with anaemia from 245 (13·9%) of 1759 to 193 (10·5%) of 1845. The WASH intervention had no effect on either primary outcome. Neither intervention reduced the prevalence of diarrhoea at 12 or 18 months. No trial-related serious adverse events, and only three trial-related adverse events, were reported. INTERPRETATION: Household-level elementary WASH interventions implemented in rural areas in low-income countries are unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia and might not reduce diarrhoea. Implementation of these WASH interventions in combination with IYCF interventions is unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia more than implementation of IYCF alone. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNICEF, and US National Institutes of Health.The SHINE trial is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1021542 and OPP113707); UK Department for International Development; Wellcome Trust, UK (093768/Z/10/Z, 108065/Z/15/Z and 203905/Z/16/Z); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; US National Institutes of Health (2R01HD060338-06); and UNICEF (PCA-2017-0002)
