Food Security最新文献

Although switching to cleaner fuels can reduce home air pollution and hence improve health, nutritional advantages should not be disregarded. This study leverages data from the China Family Panel Studies conducted in 2010 and 2014, employing a fixed-effects model to estimate the impact of clean fuel adoption on residents’ dietary diversity and associated health improvements. By utilizing community-wide clean fuel usage as an instrumental variable, the analysis reveals that adopting clean fuels increases residents’ dietary diversity score by 0.2414 units compared to solid fuel use. The study highlights the multifaceted heterogeneity of these effects across various dimensions, including educational attainment, household income levels, age, proximity to commercial centers, family size, and urban–rural distinctions. Additionally, the research demonstrates that clean fuel utilization enhances women’s employment opportunities and income levels, thereby reinforcing their critical role in family nutrition decisions. Further analysis indicates that this dietary transition significantly boosts cognitive abilities, reduces underweight incidence, and improves self-assessed health, accounting for approximately 100%, 98.4%, and 5.99% of the overall impacts of transitioning to clean fuels, respectively. These findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the health advantages associated with adopting clean fuels and provide targeted policy recommendations.

One of the most promising pathways to enhance food security for smallholder farmers is the use of improved crop varieties to increase productivity and minimize climate risks. However, assessing the performance of improved crop varieties under climate change is difficult because of limited long-term empirical data from on-station- and farmer field trials and because future climate could be different from what has been experienced. In this study, the climate change adaptation potential of hybrid maize as an improved variety using the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) model applied on grid-scale across Uganda was analysed. The DSSAT model was calibrated with observed weather data and analysed the impact of climate change on maize yield under low (SSP1-RCP2.6) and high (SSP3-RCP7.0) emission scenarios. At the national level, it is projected that a yield reduction of 9.6% (low emission scenario) and 11.8% (high emission scenario) by 2030 will occur under climate change. A yield reduction of 11.2% (low emission scenario) and 19.6% (high emission scenario) is projected by 2050, and 13.3% (low emission scenario) and 29.4% (high emission scenario) by 2090. Comparing the effect of climate change between both varieties shows that it is always better to use the hybrid variety, especially under high emission climatic conditions (8.2% and 24.6% yield buffering by 2090 under low emission and high emission scenarios, respectively) at national level. This positive yield effect is realized across all grids, but substantially varies between sites. However, in order to increase adoption of hybrid maize varieties by smallholder farmers in Uganda, adoption barriers, like access to input markets and financial services, have to be overcome. We identify some of these barriers and discuss opportunities to attenuate them and implications on the modelling results. It is concluded that hybrid maize varieties can potentially be a suitable adaptation measure against climate change-related declines in maize production in Uganda.

While the inclusiveness and economic effects of certification for farmers in global food value chains have been extensively studied, similar evidence for local food value chains is scant. Yet, certification schemes are mushrooming in local food value chains that supply cities in low- to middle-income countries. These local food value chains embedded in urban food systems are increasingly recognised as key to ensuring food security and improving farmers’ welfare. We investigate the inclusiveness and effects of two local certification schemes for vegetable farmers supplying to Hanoi in Vietnam: VietGAP, a simplified version of GlobalGAP certified by a private third-party body, and a participatory guarantee system (PGS), also based on good agricultural practices but controlled internally by farmers and other local stakeholders. We use farm-household data from a two-round panel survey conducted in 2018 and 2022 among 301 vegetable farmers in peri-urban districts of Hanoi. We estimate a multinomial probit model to determine drivers of certification and correlated random effects models to evaluate effects on farmers’ welfare. We do not find that PGS is more inclusive than VietGAP, as all PGS-certified farmers are also VietGAP-certified, and PGS is not perceived to be more feasible or rewarding than VietGAP. Moreover, women are more likely to be excluded from both certification schemes. This points to important equity effects, which need to be considered when designing certification schemes in local food value chains. We do not find that certification, either through VietGAP or PGS, has improved farmers’ welfare so far.

Utilizing the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the error correction model, we examine the effects of weather anomalies on wheat prices in six wheat-producing regions in Russia. Our analysis reveals that weather-induced price effects are most pronounced in regions most distant from the world market, particularly those primarily producing spring wheat for domestic consumption. These findings are corroborated by a model that incorporates precipitation data and partially supported by a model that uses maximum temperature as an alternative measure for weather extremes. The absence of significant weather impacts on wheat prices in the exporting North Caucasus region likely reflects the region’s advanced production systems and modern management practices. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the profitability of wheat production for Russian farmers has declined substantially, leading to reduced use of agricultural inputs. If this trend of low input application continues, weather fluctuations could have a more pronounced impact on wheat prices.

Africa’s rising refugee numbers lead to integration increasingly being replaced by repatriation. Investigating the long-term effects of refugees on host areas is crucial for sustainable integration, as the population increase puts pressure on limited natural resources. While existing literature addresses the environmental impacts of refugees, behavioral models rarely focus on this issue. This study uses an Agent-Based Model to simulate interactions between refugees, hosts, and forest resources. The objective is to (1) quantify the impact of refugee settlements and host communities on forest resources, (2) assess the effects of varying refugee settlement sizes on sustainable forest utilization and food security, and (3) evaluate how labor cooperation influences deforestation. The model applies a 2018 dataset from a refugee hosting community in rural Zambia, including 277 households, and comprehensive supplemental secondary data. Results show that forest reduction is driven by the need for firewood and land for refugee settlements, significantly reducing the forest area. Revealed deforestation threatens sustainable forest ecosystems and impacts food security by diminishing access to wild fruits and edible insects, crucial to local diets. Cooperation between refugees and host communities in slash-and-burn farming temporarily boost food production, but accelerates forest reduction. This leads to long-term resource depletion and competition. Highlighted dynamics show that, if unmanaged, refugee influxes can exacerbate food insecurity in rural refugee settings. Agroforestry and policy interventions focusing on sustainable land use, property rights, and alternative energy sources are essential to balance refugee needs with forest preservation and food security in host communities.

The small-farm sector is home to many of the world’s food-insecure and undernourished people. Strategies to make smallholder farming more nutrition-sensitive often focus on agricultural diversification. In addition, women’s empowerment is widely considered useful to improve diets and nutrition. Many studies have analyzed the effects of farm production diversification and of women’s empowerment on dietary outcomes, but mostly in separate strands of literature. Here, we connect these strands to contribute to a better understanding of the multifaceted links between farm production diversity, women’s roles in decision-making, and household diets. Using primary data from Malawi, we show that women’s decision-making is positively associated with farm production diversity and with household dietary diversity. Furthermore, women’s decision-making increases the positive association between farm production diversity and dietary diversity. We also differentiate between different domains of decision-making, including agricultural production, market sales, cash income control, and food purchases. The results suggest that strengthening women’s agency can make smallholder farming more nutrition-sensitive through multiple channels.

African agriculture faces an unprecedented challenge to ensure food and nutrition security while adapting to climate change and coping with land fragmentation due to population growth. This study assessed the performance of sole cereal (maize, sorghum, millet) and cereal-legume intercropping systems in terms of grain, energy and protein yield, determining the land requirements for energy and protein self-sufficiency at the household level. On-farm trials were established in two districts of Malawi (Dedza and Mzimba) to test twelve cropping systems on 72 farms for three consecutive cropping seasons, resulting in 2,530 yield records. The results revealed that crop yields were much higher in Dedza than in Mzimba, reflecting the better agro-ecological potential in the former. Sole maize yielded 2.8 t ha⁻¹ in Dedza while sole sorghum yielded 1.6 t ha⁻¹ and sole millet yielded 1.7 t ha⁻¹, and in Mzimba, sole maize yielded 2.0 t ha⁻¹, with sorghum and millet yielding 0.9 t ha⁻¹and 0.7 t ha⁻¹, respectively. Across both districts, maize-legume intercrops yielded an average cereal component of 1.7–2.4 t ha⁻¹. In comparison, sorghum-legume intercrops produced lower cereal yields ranging from 0.7 to 1.2 t ha⁻¹, while millet-legume intercrops ranged from 0.6 to 1.4 t ha⁻¹. Yet, the cereal-legume intercrops provided higher nutritional yields than sole cereals. Thus in Dedza, maize-legume intercrops met energy and protein nutritional security needs (based on annual requirements for 5 adults) for 87–96% of the farms, thereby enabling land sparing of 0.83–0.94 ha farm⁻¹. Similarly, in Mzimba, maize-legume intercrops enabled farmers to meet energy and protein requirements for 70–88% of farms, thereby sparing 0.61–0.71 ha of land farm⁻¹. At both sites, sorghum- and millet-legume intercrops were less effective than maize-legume intercrops. Therefore, maize cropping systems, particularly when intercropped with legumes, are the most viable option for achieving food and nutrition security in land-constrained settings and in agro-ecological environments similar to Dedza and Mzimba. Meeting energy and protein requirements with small grains remains challenging in densely populated areas with small farm sizes, as these crops yield far less than maize, hence the commonly observed preference for maize by farmers. Caution is advised for research and development programs targeting small grains in Malawi’s smallholder settings, as this may compromise energy and protein outputs at the farm level.

The war in Ukraine has major implications for the world's agricultural and food markets, as the Black Sea region is a large supplier of crops and fertilizers. Impacts of the war are further exacerbated by the sanctions against Russia, spillover effects from disruptions of other commodity markets, adverse weather events and domestic policies that countries around the world have implemented in pursuit of food security. In this paper, using a comprehensive modeling framework, we decompose the impacts across various channels and show that the cumulative effect of the considered indirect spillovers is even more substantial than the direct agricultural supply disruptions in Ukraine. Our results also suggest that the benefits of proactive trade policies, such as the implementation of trade facilitation measures and the reduction of import tariffs on agricultural and food commodities, are much more substantial than the adverse impacts of the war and other disruptions. Such trade policies would boost agricultural trade, increase overall food availability and lead to the higher integration of agricultural and food commodities into the global value chains, making food systems more resilient to potential future shocks.

This study investigates the global maize trade network from 2000 to 2022, focusing on its structure, resilience, and supply chain dynamics to improve food security. The analysis reveals significant growth in global maize trade, with the network becoming increasingly complex and dense, leading to improved efficiency. However, overall network connectivity remains uncertain, exposing vulnerabilities within the system. The trade network has developed a hierarchical structure, with four major clusters—North America-Caribbean, South America, Europe, and East Asia—dominating global trade, signaling the emergence of a multipolar trade pattern. Over time, the network has expanded eastward, with trade flows becoming more geographically diversified. Key exporters such as the United States, Argentina, and Brazil form the network’s backbone, serving as critical hubs that facilitate the flow of maize across global markets. Additionally, gateway countries like Spain play a vital role in connecting regional clusters, enhancing the overall network’s connectivity. While the resilience of the maize trade network has improved, significant node polarization remains. Central exporters remain indispensable for the network’s stability, while peripheral regions remain more vulnerable. The study underscores the importance of strengthening connectivity between key players and regions to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance the resilience of the global maize trade network. Policy recommendations are provided to ensure the sustainability and stability of the global maize supply chain, ultimately supporting global food security in the face of growing demand and potential disruptions.