Obesity remains to be a global health problem. Chile has been affected by the high prevalence of obesity in the infant population. Obesity is shown interchangeably at early ages, being necessary to investigate this behavior in age groups of 4 to 7 years. To this end, a general objective has been set: to evaluate the nutritional status, from the anthropometric point of view, of children from 4 to 7 years of age in the district of Arica, carrying out a non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive-comparative study. As a result, it was found that there weren't statistically significant differences in the prevalence of obesity and overweight among girls and boys, although girls showed values of body mass index and percentage of fat mass discretely higher than boys and, the obesity increase was directly proportional to age.

African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) have long been known in South African rural communities as essential food that is being consumed with starchy staples, and their consumption has increased over the past few decades. There is now a growing interest and awareness of AIVs due to their nutritional benefits and outstanding potential to generate farm incomes. However, several factors are militating against their production along the supply chains of value addition. This study analysed the technical efficiency of AIVs production in Vhembe district of Limpopo province. The data were collected from 114 AIVs farmers through a multi-stage sampling technique. Data analysis was carried out using Stochastic Frontier model via the Cobb-Douglas production function. The results revealed that the average age and years of farming experiences of the farmers were 59.6 and 30.9 years respectively. About 84% of the farmers lacked access to formal credit, while 92% had access to extension services. Elasticity values of land area cultivated, fertiliser, seeds, labour and tractor days in relation to AIV production were 0.4441, 0.1749, 0.1311, 0.2663 and 0.2360 respectively. Furthermore, the results revealed that average technical efficiency in the production of indigenous vegetables was 0.79%. The variables that significantly influenced technical inefficiency were years of schooling, extension services, gender and access to the irrigation system. In conclusion, production of AIV exhibits decreasing returns to scale. However, promotion of AIV production and efficiency requires consideration of gender issues in accessing resources, educational attainments of farmers, access to irrigation services and proper reorientation of the components of agricultural extension services delivery in order to benefit AIV farmers.

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This study evaluated the export market share of the South African citrus industry amidst the everchanging forces in the business environment such as food safety standards, economic, technological and political factors. The Constant Market Share (CMS) model used time series export quantities from Citrus Growers Association (CGA), the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and Food and Agriculture Organisation database (FAOSTAT). The Constant Market Share showed a positive performance for oranges and lemons, which was linked to the industry's inherent competitiveness in the selected markets. Soft citrus quantities were almost stable to decreasing for most markets save for the Middle East, Americas and South East Asia. Limes and lemons as well as grapefruit and pomelos showed an upward trend in the Middle East and Central European markets respectively. Market availability, market size and strong support from the CGA-earn the industry advantage to compete in the export market. However, challenges from both the market and production side such as, high transport costs to markets, stringent food safety standards and high foreign market support regimes were on the increase. While South Africa is a key player in the export market, its competitiveness depends on diverse forces in the global business environment. These negatively affect the price competitiveness of the industry in the oversupplied export markets. It is often more difficult to penetrate the more lucrative markets to which standards are generally more stringent. The implications for market share of the South African citrus exports and hence the industry's competitiveness needs to be examined. In spite of all this, striving to meet the food safety and private standards, maintaining the market share in high value markets as well as government support are inevitable.

The shift towards the use of private quality standards in global agrifood chains has raised concerns worldwide that small-scale farmers become excluded from lucrative export markets. In South Africa, given the historical exclusion of small-scale farmers from export-oriented agriculture, the government has therefore introduced different new institutional arrangements (IAs) between small-scale farmers and established agribusinesses to promote access to such markets. This chapter aims to analyse these IAs to understand whether and how these IAs contribute to enhanced market access for small-scale farmers. Based on a conceptual framework on quality specifications and upgrading grounded in Global Value Chain analysis, the chapter first discusses the quality demands and standards in the South African citrus sector which manifest in a 'Ladder of Market Access'. The following analysis reveals that IAs are able to promote the required product and process upgrading to include small-scale farmers into global export markets. Further upgrading opportunities, however, remain elusive as agribusinesses manage to position themselves as 'gatekeepers' which places barriers to farmers' involvement beyond the farm gate. These insights provide the basis for a set of practice-oriented recommendations specifically addressing policy-makers and other actors in the South African citrus industry to improve the design of smallholder support programmes.