Njas-Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences最新文献

The growing concerns about food security, especially in the disadvantaged regions of the world, often point out the inadequacies of strictly sectoral approaches to addressing the problems of agriculture. Such policy approaches coincided with the rise of a global, top-down, formal, science-driven development of agriculture. Over time, such interventions have drawn criticism from multiple corners as inadequately addressing the need for local variation in institutional contexts. The objective of this paper is to adopt a bottom-up perspective to address the need for cross-sectorality in food security policies. Sustainable Rural Livelihood (SRL) and Grassroots Innovation (GI) are two well recognized schools of thought which emphasize the cross-sectoral approaches to livelihood and local level problem-solving. By embracing a frugality lens, we can offer a conceptual regularity in the patterns of behaviour and decision-making highlighted by the SRL and GI schools of thought. Taking a step further, the frugality lens, by focusing on the usefulness of a decision in the actual environment, emphasizes the need to diagnose local institutions better. Note, however, that the contention of the current paper is not to posit ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ as two competing paradigms. It only argues that a frugality lens helps us to better appreciate the strengths of a bottom-up approach for effective policy formulation, an appreciation of which would promote a dignified marriage between the two perspectives.

We conduct a structured search of the academic literature that assesses the impact of development interventions that aim to build and strengthen local-level institutions to facilitate Inclusive Green Growth. Inclusive Green Growth extends the standard growth perspective to include welfare enhancements both the poor (‘inclusive’) and for future (‘green’) generations. We restrict our search to studies in the domain of agriculture and poverty alleviation in the developing world. We access ten online databases and various working paper series and focus on summarising evidence from quantitative studies that use rigorous evaluation methods. Together, this yields 158 studies. We then retain 66 studies that contain a credible counterfactual. We visualize the interventions and outcomes in an Evidence Gap Map, highlighting both the available evidence and remaining knowledge gaps. Most studies suggest that strengthening local institutions can improve the delivery and targeting of public services and overall satisfaction with local governance. There are however, clear limitations and knowledge gaps highlighting priorities for future work. Few studies assess impacts on final outcomes such as household income or agricultural productivity and no studies assess inclusive and green outcomes jointly. We discuss the key benefits of a structured literature search and Evidence Gap Map for policy-makers and development practitioners and illustrate how it serves as a knowledge repository and identifies where evidence is lacking, thus setting the agenda for future work.

National challenges of food insecurity and unemployment in South Africa prompted an increase in expectations for agricultural land acquired through land reform programmes to make meaningful contributions. Embedded in these expectations is the need for understanding the situation in reformed farms. This study reviewed policies and literature on land reform, and analyzed beneficiary participation in reformed farms and the impact of land reform on land use in land restitution and land redistribution farms in the Waterberg District Municipality. Data were collected through individual surveys, key informants interviews and stakeholder workshop. Beneficiary participation levels were significantly lower in restitution farms (18% per farm) than in redistribution farms (65% per farm). The changes in land redistribution policy over time resulted in significant differences in beneficiary participation among land redistribution models, with participation levels increasing with time. Land redistribution model SLAG had the lowest beneficiary participation level (19% per farm) while the latest model PLAS had the highest (100% per farm). The changes in land redistribution policy over time resulted in significant differences in extent of land used among land redistribution models, though the trend was not systemic. On average, redistribution farms under SLAG and LRAD2 models used ≤70% of the farm land, while farms under LRAD1 and PLAS models used more than 90% of the farm land. The research approach used in this study found similar results in beneficiary participation to those in literature where case studies approach was used in restitution farms. On the contrary, in redistribution farms the research approach resulted in findings that differed from case study literature and revealed the needs for representative sample and time if conclusive recommendations were to be reached.

Intraspecific diversity of crops producing volatile organic compounds could harbor different assemblages of flower visiting insects, improving agricultural landscape heterogeneity and thus, natural regulation of crop pests. In this context, the objectives of this work were i) to evaluate the composition, abundance and richness of floral visitor assemblages in different coriander crop genotypes and sowing dates and ii) to determine the relationship between insect assemblages and volatile signals emitted by the different coriander genotypes. Two field experiments (Exp. 1 and 2) were conducted in a completely randomized design with four replications, at the Faculty of Agronomy in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Exp. 1 included early and late sowing dates while Exp. 2 included only late sowing date. Treatments were three coriander genotypes from different origins: Leisure 2008 (L) a variety from USA, GSN 2008 (G) a variety from France and a population from Argentina (A). At full flowering, floral visitor insects were sampled using an entomological net. The sampling units were the coriandeŕs umbels contained in squares of 40 × 40 cm. Two squares were randomly placed in each plot and several samplings were made in each of them, along 10 min-periods. Floral visiting insects were classified into pollinator, predator, parasite, herbivore and decomposer functional groups according to their habits and food preferences. Composition and abundance of floral visitor assemblages differed among genotypes, mainly for the early sowing date. Differences could be attributed to the intraspecific variability of volatile signals to which some insects were sensitive. Although richness was similar among assemblages related to each genotype, different species composition suggests that the combination of different coriander genotypes in cropping systems could enhance insect species diversity of the agricultural system and natural pest regulation.

In many developing countries like Ethiopia village poultry makes up a large part of the national poultry meat and egg production and plays important roles economically, nutritionally, and socio-culturally. Households in Ethiopia have not fully benefitted from the potential of village poultry as little attention is given to the sub-sector from research and development efforts. The little research and development efforts tend to explore improvements largely via technical approaches by overlooking the socio-economic and institutional context under which the producers operate. This study aims to identify the technical, household, infrastructural and institutional drivers or barriers that influence village poultry production and its productivity in Ethiopia. Across sectional survey of 5004 households was undertaken in the four highland regions of Ethiopia. Descriptive statistics and econometric tools such as probit and Heckman’s two stage models and their marginal effects were used to analyze the status and driving factors of village poultry production and productivity. Distance to all weather roads decreased flock size and the probability of poultry ownership. Contact with development agents and participation in training increased flock size and the probability of purchasing inputs and adopting commercial breeds. Flock size and ownership of commercial breeds raised households’ likelihood of purchasing poultry input. Our results indicate that research and development efforts have to improve not only production performance through better use of inputs and technologies but also have to equally emphasize increasing the benefits for smallholder producers by providing infrastructural and institutional support to proper target households.

Technological innovations in agriculture have transformed the farming systems of smallholder farmers, leading to the realization of economic incentives of higher outputs, profits, and sustainability. However, attempts to model their adoption behaviors have failed to consider the possible interdependencies and simultaneities in the adoption decision process. This may cause invalid inferences and incorrect conclusions to be made regarding smallholder farmers’ adoption decisions. This study, therefore, models smallholder farmers’ adoption decisions while taking into account the possibility of interdependencies and simultaneities of adopting rice productivity-enhancing agricultural technologies in Ghana. Cross-sectional survey data on 1016 smallholder rice farmers sampled using a three-stage sampling method from four municipalities in two regions in Ghana were used for the study. We fit a multinomial probit model to analyze the decisions to adopt or not to adopt varied combinations of improved rice variety, fertilizer, and herbicide. Our study finds that when faced with improved rice variety-fertilizer-herbicide technological options, smallholder rice farmers’ adoption decisions fell into any one of four possibilities: (a) reject all technological options, (b) adopt a particular technology only, (c) adopt two of the technologies, and (d) adopt all technological choices. We show that such adoption decisions were consistently and most significantly predicted by farm size, extension contacts, education, participation in field demonstrations, complementary input availability, and extent of commercialization. Modeling smallholder farmers’ adoption decisions to capture interdependencies and simultaneities provides useful information for integrating diverse perspectives into the design and promotion of technological innovations based on their nature of adoption, the specific technological innovations, and influencing factors. We recommend that to achieve the maximum benefits, future technology promotion activities should concurrently reduce farmers’ subjective uncertainties and risks, promote credit access and subsidies, as well as ensure effective input delivery systems while targeting specific technological innovations.

In many countries the biosecurity system is under financial strain resulting in an on-going push for shared responsibility and greater industry self-reliance. This occurs in an increasing globalised, multi-level trade context. It raises the question of how the broader support system for local industries can be improved to help industries help themselves. This work relates to systems approaches as a phytosanitary measure in horticulture trade to address pest concerns. Specifically, it investigates how to create an enabling environment for local Australian horticulture industries to pursue systems approaches involving area-wide management (AWM) of Queensland Fruit Fly (QFly). A functional-structural analysis is applied to identify issues that prevent local industries pursuing systems approaches and to suggest ways forward. Primary data is derived from semi-structured interviews with representatives from three levels of government, industry bodies, consultancies and other key groups, complemented by a grower survey in three case study regions. Systems approaches involving AWM comprise a complex domain as it is situated across multiple levels from the local to the international; it involves various dimensions and many rationally-bounded actors. Key blocking mechanisms to local progress include a lack of clear change pathways for local industries; low connectivity between local industries and the innovation system; currently feasibility signals for systems approaches including AWM are weak; and systems approaches are problematic. Ways forward include supporting and initiating innovation platforms, offering domestic and international market access training; and minimising transaction costs to industry.

Over the past two decades, Thailand, as an emerging economy, has developed sustainable consumption and production (SCP) policies and strategies to a considerable extent. While the first phase of SCP policy development has primarily focused on upstream actors and production processes, the second phase has extended company SCP policies and strategies to downstream actors and consumption processes. Through a desk study and interviews, we examine how appliance and dairy companies in Thailand have been involved in the shift from sustainable production to (also) sustainable consumption, from upstream to (also) downstream orientations, and from green supply to (also) green demand. Our analysis shows that carefully framing the role of citizen-consumers as change agents is required for the successful enrollment of Thai consumers in emerging markets for sustainable products and services. In making the shift towards consumers, companies can be assisted by so-called intermediary organizations that claim to hold specific knowledge on and access to Thai consumers.

Coffees with specific taste and quality fetch higher prices. Although coffee plays a dominant role in the Ethiopian national economy, the country’s coffee industry is generally characterized by low productivity and low quality. To address this issue, this study analysed the interactive effect of shade and nitrogen supply, fruit thinning and genotype by environment interactions on different coffee quality attributes. Organoleptic bean quality attributes declined with increase in radiation when nitrogen supply was limiting. In the absence of nitrogen limitation, however, the quality attributes hardly responded to radiation levels. In full sun, nitrogen had no effect on size and weight of coffee beans. Nitrogen supply improved bean size and weight at lower radiation levels. Fruit thinning and higher altitude significantly improved beverage quality, size and weight of coffee beans. Thinning beyond 50%, however, did not further improve the quality attributes. Effects of shade, nitrogen, fruit load and altitude are consistent with the proposition that organoleptic quality and the size of coffee beans are promoted by factors and conditions that support non-limiting supply of resources for beans to grow and by a sufficiently long period of maturation. Quality attributes did not differ much between varieties suggesting that crop management and growing environments may be more important determinants of quality than the genetic factors.

Successful implementation climate change adaptation depends to a large extent on the capabilities of individuals, organizations, and communities to create and mobilize the adaptive capacity (AC) of their socio-ecological system. Creating and mobilizing AC is a continuous process that requires social learning (SL). Although rich with empirical cases, the literature theorizing and empirically investigating the relationship between AC and SL is highly fragmented. This paper aims to critically examine the peer-reviewed literature that focusses on SL and AC in the context of climate change adaptation (CCA). Special attention is paid to the interplay between the two. Understanding this interplay can help improve our understanding of how CCA takes place in practice and advances theoretical debates on CCA. Systematic review methods are used to analyse 43 papers (1997–2016). Our findings reveal three perspectives that each play an important role in different contexts: an AC-focused perspective, a SL-focused perspective, and a hybrid perspective. These differences in conceptualizations of the relationship between SL and AC may seem trivial at first, but they have consequences for the design of learning-based interventions aimed at helping communities respond to climate change. It appears that such interventions need to be preceded by an analysis of the climate change context in order to decide whether to emphasize AC, SL or both simultaneously.