R&D Expenditure for New Technology in Livestock Farming: Impact on GHG Reduction in Developing Countries

Abstract

The achievement of the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has increasingly received attention and support from decision makers and research by scholars. The livestock sector has always been one of the major sources of GHG emissions, especially in developing countries that do not have green technologies to improve the management of livestock waste. In order to achieve an absolute reduction in emissions, developed countries have applied a wide range of mitigation options; however, there are few studies from the developing world, although greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries have registered a rapid growth. Therefore, this research aims to assess and understand whether public R&D investments can affect emissions deriving from the livestock sector in developing countries. We made use of the FAOSTAT data (FAO Statistical Databases United Nations) and ASTI data set (Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators), collecting data from 29 Africa countries, in 2014 (latest data available). The data were analyzed by means of a Generalized Propensity Scores (GPS) approach, an increasingly widespread technique that is more robust than regression models, especially in small datasets. Our analysis suggests that the livestock sector in these countries shows an improvement in its relationships with the environment and GHG emission levels when the level of public R&D (Research and Development) investment on agriculture is greater. Therefore, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by investing in research and development can lead to more efficient and sustainable resource management for developing countries.Future in-depth studies should broaden these results by assessing in developing countries the impact of public investment in R&D on GHG emissions also in relation to other key factors such as environmental regulation, market demand, environmental management systems and organizational innovations. Author Contributions: Conceptualization: M.F., U.M. and N.F.; Data curation: A.S. and N.F.; Formal analysis: A.S., M.F.; Investigation: M.F. and N.F.; Methodology: A.S.; Resources: N.F.; Software: A.S.; Supervision: A.S. and M.F. Funding: This research received no external funding. Conflicts of Interest:The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Hidden flows assessment in the agri-food sector: evidence from the Italian beef system

“…Indeed, as far as concerns resource consumption, Alexander et al (2017) have demonstrated significant correlations between livestock production, food waste and mass, energy and protein losses, highlighting the urgent need for agribusiness efficiency. In addition, Cesari et al (2018) have discussed possible suitable managing procedures to minimize agri-food ecological impacts, with livestock production being highly correlated to environmental issues such as deforestation, climate change, water pollution and biodiversity loss on global scale (Fiore et al , 2018; Spada et al , 2019). Then, Magalhães et al (2020) and Mosna et al (2021), focusing on the meat production, have estimated that the amount of wasted meat (3.5% of global food waste) corresponds to over 29% of the global food waste carbon footprint, suggesting the need for valorization either in the food and nonfood sectors.…”