Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment最新文献

Growing worldwide interest in Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) requires an exploration of how countries approach PGS institutionalization. Through document analysis and semi-structured interviews, a comparative cross-country study was conducted in nine Latin American countries to examine how PGS are defined, regulated, and promoted at a national level. The results demonstrated that the countries take differing approaches to PGS institutionalization, and that there is a widespread lack of financial and/or technical support structures specifically targeted at PGS initiatives. While most national competent authorities do not have an overview of the current status of PGS initiatives and PGS consumers, several case study countries indicate a common interest in the development of PGS export opportunities.

Using data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies, this study investigates whether diversifying agricultural production can enhance dietary diversity, particularly by increasing the consumption of animal-based foods. We introduced refined measures of dietary diversity and categorized them into animal-based household dietary diversity scores (A-HDDS) and plant-based household dietary diversity scores (P-HDDS). Additionally, we categorize production diversity into crop production diversity (CPD), livestock and aquaculture production diversity (LAPD), and mixed production diversity (MPD). Our results show that most households exhibited high dietary diversity, except for low-income and hilly households. Specifically, CPD positively influenced dietary diversity, and all three types of production diversity promoted A-HDDS. Moreover, CPD primarily serves as a substitute for enhancing household self-sufficiency, affecting all three dietary diversity measures, especially among hilly households. Increasing LAPD and MPD can improve A-HDDS through self-sufficiency and agricultural commercialization income pathways, benefiting farmers in hilly and mountainous regions.

Scientific conferences foster career development and collaborations while nurturing scientific communities that are especially critical to transdisciplinary research and mentorship. Recent transitions to virtual conference formats mitigate financial and logistical barriers to attending but the social and intellectual implications are less well understood. In this mixed-methods study, we examine participation by gender and country income level in the second virtual year of a well-established agriculture, nutrition, and health conference in 2021. These data are interlinked with qualitative insights into the challenges and benefits of virtual participation. We find that virtual conferences facilitate access for women and participants in low- and middle-income countries by removing visa requirements and travel costs and enabling attendance alongside care obligations. Virtual interactions can disrupt power dynamics and increase the efficiency of knowledge exchange, but the loss of rich in-person human connections, compounded by inequitable internet access is not conducive to nurturing scientific communities. We need an intentional shift in how and why we organise and participate in conferences in order to maximise the benefits to inclusion, equity, and sustainability; and minimize trade-offs to intellectual and social connections online.

Global food systems are vulnerable to disruptions caused by natural disasters, political crises, and health emergencies. Recent events like the COVID19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis have exposed weaknesses in food systems, leading to hunger and malnutrition. These shocks provide insights into food system resilience and its relevance to climate change. To improve resilience, continuous monitoring of all aspects of the food system is crucial. Assessing responses and resilience at various levels, from households to global, is essential amidst climate uncertainties and frequent shocks. This knowledge enables a better understanding of food system contexts and the formulation of action plans to enhance food security and resilience. This systematic review summarizes how the assessment of food systems resilience (FSR) has evolved, identifies driving factors for the evolution, and speculates how FSR assessment can inform policies and plans to ensure food security. The concept of FSR and its assessment have continuously evolved in response to extreme global and regional shocks causing large-scale impacts. The necessity to measure progress against goals has contributed to more studies at a national level. The findings demonstrate the need for a comprehensive framework to assess FSR and its metrics that work at more granular levels. Additionally, the efforts toward FSR should continue to build on the lessons learned during extreme food shocks to create and maintain resilient food systems over the long term. This review aims to follow the work to develop a comprehensive framework to measure and track the level of resilience in food systems which can then inform better policy-making.

Reducing micronutrient malnutrition (“hidden hunger”) in low-income countries is a global challenge, particularly among women, children, and high-poverty households. Countries like Tanzania have developed diverse strategies to combat malnutrition, including the biofortification of staple foods. However, broad awareness and knowledge of micronutrient deficiencies and beneficial foods are needed for these strategies to be effective. The objectives of this study were to (i) examine Tanzanian consumers' initial awareness and knowledge of deficiencies for four micronutrients and associated biofortified foods, and (ii) to examine the effectiveness of targeted communication approaches (i.e., information and branding) to improve knowledge. Data were collected from 1029 respondents in Tanzania using an online survey. Respondents were randomly assigned to treatments across two experiments in the survey. One experiment examined the effect of information about susceptibility and severity of micronutrient deficiencies and foods that reduce the risk of deficiency, and the other experiment examined the impact of ‘branding’ biofortified foods. The combination of providing information and branded biofortified crops most effectively reduced knowledge gaps about negative health outcomes and risk-reducing foods. Results suggest a need for evidence-based interventions that provide broad nutrition education and financial assistance for purchasing food.

This study examines the impact of political instability – Nepal's decade-long Maoist insurgency – on undernourishment using data from the Nepal Living Standard Survey before (1995), during (2003) and after the insurgency (2011), and Uppsala Conflict Data Program (1996–2009). A two-level (household and community) random-intercept logistic model of the probability of undernourishment is estimated using LASSO and instrumenting for insurgency. Traditional household and community characteristics have expected and statistically significant effects on the undernourishment status. The average effect of insurgency on the probability of undernourishment is 27 and 15 percent during 2003 and 2011, respectively, but substantial heterogeneity is observed with implications for institutional quality and stability.

We analyze rural households’ purchases of food (cereals and non-cereals) in Sub-Saharan Africa using nationally representative data with 65,000 observations covering 7 countries over a decade. We distinguish between three strata of countries: lower stratum in income and urbanization, middle stratum, and upper stratum. The paper breaks ground by the breadth and time length of the sample. We find that purchases form the majority of rural food consumption whether in favorable or unfavorable agroecological zones and over country and income strata and for most food products. Rural nonfarm employment (as a cash source) plays an important role in household food purchases across all study countries and food products. Policy implications include the importance of food purchase markets and supply chains to and in rural areas as well as nonfarm employment.

This paper examines the relationship between food insecurity and trust. Trust improves public institutions, social capital, public health interventions, and economic development. Vertical trust is represented as an index of trust in national institutions, while horizontal trust is represented as a measure of trust in friends and family. We find that food insecurity is associated with a decrease in both measures of trust. We further document heterogeneous effects of food insecurity across economic development rankings. Our results suggest a need for governments to increase food security to bolster public trust, strengthen the social contract, and enhance the effectiveness of future development efforts. Given the greater difficulty in restoring trust once it has been damaged, ensuring food security is critical for maintaining trust in institutions.

Food trade plays a key role in global nutrition, but the essential nutrients within this trade are understudied. We investigated the global nutrient trade network from 1986 to 2020, examining the relationship with income level and health outcomes. Bilateral nutrient trade data for 48 nutrients and 254 countries/economies was produced, made accessible through an interactive online application. Nutrients of interest in the context of food security and health (protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and B12) were examined using network analysis, animated graphs, and logistic regression to demonstrate the inequitable nature of nutrient trade, but its positive role in current nutrition-related disease. Food trade policy should be set with micronutrient content and deficiency in mind to address food security, nutrition, and health.