Food Security Policy Analysis Using System Dynamics

Guma, Isdore Paterson; Rwashana, Agnes Semwanga; Oyo, Benedict

doi:10.4018/ijitsa.2018010104

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“… 48 Such subsistence farming can decrease overall household spending while at the same time increasing income by selling surplus. 49 Second , differences in farm size and distance to water were linked with farming practices. In Uganda, market-oriented farmers (usually practicing pesticide intensive horticulture) tend to have larger plots 50 and farms near streams to be able to grow crops all year round.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Pesticide Use Determinants Among Smallholder Farmers From Costa Rica and Uganda

Staudacher

Fuhrimann

Farnham

et al. 2020

Environ�Health�Insights

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Pesticides are used globally in agriculture and pose a threat to the health of farmers, communities, and the environment. Smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries have generally a low socio-economic status and educational level. Consequently, they are particularly vulnerable to negative impacts of pesticides on their health, yields, or land. In a Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices study, we compared the pest management practices between a market-oriented farming system in Zarcero County, Costa Rica, and a subsistence-based farming system in Wakiso District, Uganda. We conducted a cross-sectional survey among smallholder farmers from Costa Rica (n = 300) in 2016 and from Uganda (n = 302) in 2017. We enrolled conventional and organic farmers, but also farmers with mixed practices and non-applicators of any pest management strategy. We found that the majority of pesticides used in both case studies are classified as highly hazardous by the World Health Organization. While more than 90% of smallholder farmers from both countries were aware of the negative health effects of pesticide exposure, <11% in Costa Rica and <2% in Uganda reported using personal protective equipment every time they handled or applied pesticides. Hygiene and other safe use practices were not adopted by all farmers (<61%), especially among farmers applying more hazardous pesticides. Conventional farmers from Costa Rica (14%) and Uganda (19%) reported disposing pesticide residuals into rivers. Using a logistic regression we found that organic farmers were more likely to having been trained on safe pesticide use practices. Using a robust regression, we observed that smallholder household income was primarily driven by education and not directly by the use of synthetic pesticides. Our results suggest that negative effects of pesticides can be managed over the whole life cycle, from purchase, via storage and application to residual and waste management by fostering professionalization of farmers. We advise future safe use and handling interventions to consider the pesticide use-related socioeconomic and demographic findings highlighted in this paper.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Pesticide Use Determinants Among Smallholder Farmers From Costa Rica and Uganda

Staudacher

Fuhrimann

Farnham

et al. 2020

Environ�Health�Insights

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“…Most farmers are in the low-income category, which is the primary factor causing the inability to uptake value addition practice. Guma et al [32] noted that worldwide, most farmers are practicing subsistence farming, which does not earn them sufficient earnings that can support value addition. Insufficient income results in low levels of value addition, which has caused a great stagnation of rural earnings.…”

Section: Socio-economic Information About Banana Farmersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic Factors Affecting Uptake of Banana Value Addition among Smallholders in Chuka Sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Muigai

Gathungu

Thogori

2021

AJAEES

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Banana farmers in most parts of Kenya have not embraced value addition despite its accrued economic benefits and emphasis by stakeholders. A study was done in Chuka Sub-County, Tharaka Nithi County to identify the socio-economic factors affecting uptake of banana value addition by farmers. The study was based on the diffusion of innovations theory to establish the relationship between farming experience, group membership, access to credit and uptake of banana value addition. The study adopted a descriptive research design whereby frequency tables were generated whilst both qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The target population was 20,180 banana farming households in Chuka Sub-County and 3 key informants. Purposive sampling, Random sampling and snowballing techniques were used to select the 156 banana farmers. A pilot study of 24 (15% of sample size) households was done in Imenti South and the questionnaire was found to be reliable (Cronbach alpha value, α˂0.785). With a 90% questionnaire return rate, the data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 25 and presented using frequency tables. Binary logistic regression was used to test the levels of significance of variables and the model through the Hosmer & Lemeshow test of the goodness of fit suggested that the it was good for fit to the data as p=0.480 (>0.05) while ANOVA analyses were used to check the presence of multicollinearity. It was observed that only 31.9% of farmers uptake banana value addition and there were no banana value addition technologies identified with 35.6% and 64.4% of those who uptake doing banana ripening for sale and bulk packaging respectively. The results [P=0.05] showed that group membership [p=0.019] and access to credit [p=0.004] had a positive and significant effect on the uptake of banana value addition by farmers at varying levels. It was observed that farming experience had a positive effect on the uptake, but was statistically insignificant. The study recommended that; farmers should be encouraged to form cooperatives on value addition and the government and other stakeholders in conjunction with financial institutions need to streamline policies to enhance farmer’s access credit for effective farming among others.

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“…There are concepts, heuristics and typologies being shared between fields. Moreover, there are few examples specifically focusing on the impacts or implications of climate change using systems methodologies, which include, impacts on energy constraints and policy (Ansell and Cayzer, 2018), water resources and water demand (Gastelum et al, 2018;Givens et al, 2018;Winz et al, 2009), food security (Guma et al, 2018), heat-related health impacts and early thinking on resilient architectural design (Weisz, 2018). Challinor et al (2018) use systems dynamics to advance a typology of systemic climate risks.…”

Section: Cascading Climate Change Impacts and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cascading climate change impacts and implications

Lawrence¹,

Blackett²,

Cradock-Henry³

2021

Preprint

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Climate change is expected to have adverse impacts and implications for a range of human-environment systems. However, our understanding of the extent to which these impacts may propagate as cascades, compounding to form multiple impacts across sectors, is limited. Cascades result from interdependencies between systems and sub-systems of coupled natural and socio-economic systems in response to changes and feedback loops. The combined effects of interacting stressors may affect the ability of individuals, governments, and the private sector to adapt in time, before widespread damage occurs. We discuss the origins of cascading impacts thinking and present the results of an investigation of cascading impacts and implications in New Zealand. A participatory and collaborative approach was used through workshops and semi-structured interviews with sector informants, including engineers, local government staff, and financial risk managers and analysts from the financial services sectors. Qualitative data collection was combined with network and systems analysis to examine increased frequency of high-intensity rainfall events, sea-level rise and drought, across urban water infrastructure and the financial services, and the implications of cascading climate change impacts for governance. Results demonstrate that closer consideration of the combined effects of linked stressors can facilitate a better understanding of the scope and scale of climate change impacts. By using critical systems thinking in characterising and assessing how climate change impacts cascade across domains, we show the implications of cascades for their governance and reveal where climate change adaptation interventions might be focused. The research methods and insights into cascades provide a conceptual and practical basis for further development, which can inform the design of additional studies in other domains and jurisdictions.

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Food Security Policy Analysis Using System Dynamics

Cited by 5 publications

References 30 publications

Comparative Analysis of Pesticide Use Determinants Among Smallholder Farmers From Costa Rica and Uganda

Comparative Analysis of Pesticide Use Determinants Among Smallholder Farmers From Costa Rica and Uganda

Socio-economic Factors Affecting Uptake of Banana Value Addition among Smallholders in Chuka Sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Cascading climate change impacts and implications

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