Download or read book Does a Blue Revolution help the poor written by Rashid, Shahidur and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-02 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impressive growth in aquaculture is now commonly dubbed a “blue revolution.” In some Asian countries, fish availability has increased at a faster rate in recent decades than did cereal availability during the Green Revolution. As an example, Bangladesh is one country where aquaculture has increased almost eightfold since the early 1990s. This growth has important implications for food and nutrition securities. Yet, there is little research on the determinants and impacts of this growth to document the lessons, identify evolving issues, and guide policy discussions. This paper attempts to fill that gap. Using several rounds of nationally representative household survey data, the authors conducted microsimulations to generate disaggregated estimates. The results show that, between 2000 and 2010, about 12 percent of Bangladesh’s overall poverty reduction can be attributed to aquaculture growth. In other words, of the 18 million Bangladeshis who escaped poverty during this period, more than 2 million of them managed to do so because of the growth in aquaculture. However, the results vary widely across income groups, with households in the third income quintile (which is not the poorest) benefiting the most. The implications of the results, methodological issues, and areas of future research are also discussed.

Download or read book A blue revolution in sub Saharan Africa Evidence from Ghana s tilapia value chain written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global growth in aquaculture is underway – a “blue revolution” featuring rapid increases in demand for fish and a corresponding surge in aquaculture production. This paper describes the fast-growing tilapia value chain in Ghana to demonstrate the features of a nascent blue revolution in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and to illustrate its potential for job creation and reducing poverty and food insecurity there. Tilapia production has been growing at 15 percent annually in SSA, but imports are also surging to satisfy the growing appetite for tilapia. This paper illustrates how aquaculture can grow sustainably in SSA within the context of growing demand and global competition. A value chain analysis is conducted using secondary data analysis, desk reviews of experiences and lessons from other countries, interviews with 95 actors in the tilapia value chain in Ghana, and detailed production and profitability data from Ghanaian tilapia farmers. A profitable farmed tilapia industry has been established in Ghana with the potential to expand supply to satisfy local demand and to export to neighboring countries. Productivity in the industry has grown mainly through reducing the mortality rates of fingerlings and improvements in the supply of locally-produced high-quality fish feed. Feed costs remain high. However, there is potential to reduce those costs by improving the productivity of crops that are used in fish feed, particularly maize and soybean. Reducing local feed costs will have positive spillover effects on both other pond-based aquaculture systems and on the livestock feed sector. Moreover, Ghana can expand it fish feed production to be an important source of feed within SSA. The industry can further increase aquaculture productivity through the adoption of faster-growing fish strains and better management practices. Ghana’s aquaculture sector could grow even faster by adopting lessons from other countries, including on infrastructure provision, fiscal incentives for the production of fish feed ingredients, and sustainable fish farming practices, particularly through paying close attention to water and feed quality and addressing food safety concerns within the sector.

Download or read book The Making of a Blue Revolution in Bangladesh written by Shahidur Rashid and published by International Food Policy Research Insitute. This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bangladesh's fish production has transformed over the past 20 years. Increased production has lowered prices and led to greater per capita protein consumption. The Making of a Blue Revolution in Bangladesh: The Enablers, Impacts, and the Path Ahead examines how this aquaculture transformation occurred; what the transformation's implications are for income distribution, poverty reduction, and food security; and what aquaculture's future potential is"--

Download or read book Energy use and rural poverty written by Li, Zihan and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-09 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising energy expenditures due to more intensive use of energy in modern agriculture and increasing energy prices may affect rural households’ agricultural incomes, particularly the incomes of the rural poor in developing countries. However, the exact link between energy costs and income among the rural poor needs further empirical investigation. This paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between energy use and family income, using household-level panel data collected from 500 potato farmers in a poor region of Northern China, where eliminating poverty by 2020 is now the top government priority. The findings indicate that potato plays an important role in the surveyed families’ incomes, and the energy costs of potato production have a significant negative relationship with family income. However, the significance of the negative relationship is robust only for farmers with low economic standing, such as those living below the poverty line or just above it. Energy costs also have a significant negative relationship with the family incomes of those cultivating a certain size of potato-sown area, but this relationship becomes insignificant when farmers have too small of a potato-sown area. These findings indicate that in general, reducing energy costs helps the poor increase their income but is not necessarily helpful to those with high economic standing or a relatively small potato-sown area. If rural development policies are to support poverty reduction and energy savings (at least in major potato production regions), interventions aimed at energy cost reduction may be effective only for the poor whose family income depends, to a relatively high degree, on potato production.

Download or read book Gender research in the CGIAR research program on policies institutions and markets in 2018 and 2019 written by Vos, Andrea and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-02-11 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report analyses PIM’s 391 peer-reviewed 2018 and 20191 publications. We highlight key gender findings and discuss the challenges faced by researchers in doing gender analysis, with a view to documenting lessons learned and improving practices. It is hoped that the gaps and strengths identified in this report will be useful inputs for future research under PIM and One CGIAR.

Download or read book 2020 Global food policy report Building inclusive food systems written by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food systems are at a critical juncture—they are evolving quickly to meet growing and changing demand but are not serving everyone’s needs. Building more inclusive food systems can bring a wide range of economic and development benefits to all people, especially the poor and disadvantaged. IFPRI’s 2020 Global Food Policy Report examines the policies and investments and the growing range of tools and technologies that can promote inclusion. Chapters examine the imperative of inclusion, challenges faced by smallholders, youth, women, and conflict-affected people, and the opportunities offered by expanding agrifood value chains and national food system transformations. Critical questions addressed include: How can inclusive food systems help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and malnutrition? \What can be done to strengthen the midstream of food value chains to improve rural access to jobs, markets, and services? Will Africa’s food systems generate sufficient jobs for the growing youth population? How can women be empowered within food system processes, from household decisions to policymaking? Can refugees and other conflict-affected people be integrated into food systems to help them rebuild their lives? How can national food system transformations contribute to greater dietary diversity, food safety, and food quality for all? Regional sections look at how inclusion can be improved around the world in 2020 and beyond. The report also presents interesting trends revealed by IFPRI’s food policy indicators and datasets.

Download or read book The Odds Revisited written by K. A. S. Murshid and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-31 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at Bangladesh at and beyond its fifty years since its formation in 1971. A comprehensive, holistic narrative is constructed to track key development dynamics at the sectoral, sub-sectoral and macro levels. This much-needed exercise dispels the notion that the 'Bangladesh surprise' can be reduced to singular dimensions such as the trauma of the 1971 war or women's empowerment and micro-credit. The mixture of economic history, political economy and institutional and actor analysis provide fresh insights to the themes addressed. A well-argued case to view emerging Bangladesh as the newest member of the Flying Geese club, The Odds Revisited includes a detailed review of macro and sectoral developments over the last fifty years and provides new material and insights into the rise of Bangladesh's capitalist class; a socio-economic perspective of the role of Dhaka-based urbanization; and the rise of a new middle class.

Download or read book The making of a blue revolution in Bangladesh Enablers impacts and the path ahead for aquaculture written by Shahidur Rashid and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2019-08-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rapid increase in aquaculture production in Bangladesh has lowered fish prices, increased protein consumption, and reduced poverty. The Making of a Blue Revolution in Bangladesh offers a valuable case study of how this transformation in the fish value chain has occurred and how it has improved the lives of both fish producers and fish consumers and considers the future potential of aquaculture in Bangladesh.

Download or read book Consumer choices and demand for tilapia in urban Malawi What are the complementarities and trade offs written by Chikowi, Christopher T. M. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite concerted efforts to develop the fisheries sector in many developing countries, fish demand remains poorly understood due to weak and fragmented domestic markets, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara. An important area that affects the development of the fishery sector is limited understanding of how the choice between different fish products is affected by the socioeconomic characteristics of consumers, marketing factors and fish-specific attributes. Previous studies in Malawi have assessed consumer choice and demand for fish in general, without considering species-specific consumer choices. This paper analyzes consumer choices and demand for two species of tilapia, Lake Malawi Oreochromis (Nyasalapia) spp. (Ny) and Oreochromis shiranus (Os), in unprocessed and processed form, in urban Malawi. We use data collected from a sample of 584 urban households in Malawi’s two major cities, Blantyre and Lilongwe. Multivariate probit and seemingly unrelated regression models are employed to analyze the correlates of consumer choice and demand for tilapia products. Even though most consumers chose farmed tilapia (Os) over the wild tilapia (Ny), our results indicate trade-offs in choice but complementarities in demand for unprocessed and processed tilapia products. We find that the correlates of choice are not the same as correlates of demand for tilapia products. This is explained by heterogenous consumer profiles, market conditions, and tilapia trait descriptors. Developing robust tilapia value chains requires exploiting these complementarities and trade-offs, policy support to boost tilapia production, and reducing its relative caloric price to consumers. These measures will contribute to increased consumer demand. More generally fish breeding programs should also link breeding objectives to consumer choices and demand for fisheries’ products, particularly considering rarely examined fish at-tributes such as its nutritive value and body texture.

Download or read book Farm size and effects of chemical fertilizer price on farm households written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-09 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research explores how inputs such as chemical fertilizer that are often complementary to labor can benefit smallholders in countries like Nepal. These and other inputs complement labor when a country experiences periods of increased labor scarcity due to rising wages in rural areas. The future of smallholders in Asian countries is vigorously debated in the policy and research arena. An increasing number of studies indicate that in the face of rising rural farm wages, growing mechanization is gradually shifting the advantages enjoyed by smallholders to slightly larger farms in many Asian countries, including Nepal. While the evidence is limited, earlier studies suggest that this trend may also be associated with a greater return to the use of chemical fertilizers by larger farms than by their smaller counterparts. In this paper, we further assess the relationship between the role of chemical fertilizer and farm size in lowland Nepal. In particular, we assess the different effects of chemical fertilizer price on large versus small farm households, depending on farm size. We use the 2003 and 2010 panel data from the Nepal Living Standard Survey. Results generally suggest that in Nepal Terai, lower chemical fertilizer price seems to increase the per capita incomes of farm households with larger landholdings more than it does those with smaller landholdings. The mechanism is somewhat complicated; typically, larger farms benefit through an increased supply of crops from sharecropped/rented farms, which leads to a potential increase in forage supply and increased revenues from livestock production. However, greater benefits for larger farms through this mechanism remains consistent with the greater return to chemical fertilizer among larger farms. This is contrary to the notion that chemical fertilizer is a land-saving input that benefits smaller farms relatively more than it does larger farms. We conclude that fertilizer policy in Nepal should be designed within the broader framework of longer-term agricultural-sector strategies that will impact the future of smallholder farmers.

Download or read book Identity household work and subjective well being among rural women in Bangladesh written by Seymour, Gregory and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-09 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite increases in women’s employment, significant gender disparity exists in the time men and women spend on household and care work. Understanding how social expectations govern gender roles and contribute to this disparity is essential for designing policies that effectively promote a more equitable household division of labor. In this study, we examine how a woman’s identity may affect the trade-offs between the time she spends on household and care work and her well-being, using an analytical framework we develop based on the work of Akerlof and Kranton. Analyzing data from rural Bangladesh, we find that longer hours spent on household work are associated with lower levels of subjective well-being among women who disagree with patriarchal notions of gender roles, while the opposite is true for women who agree with patriarchal notions of gender roles. Importantly, this pattern holds only when a woman strongly identifies with patriarchal or egalitarian notions of gender role.

Download or read book What drives diversification of national food supplies written by Choudhury, Samira and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-09 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the diversification of national food supplies (DFS) is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the diversification of diets and for reductions in undernutrition in poor countries, little previous research has analyzed how DFS varies across countries and regions, how rapidly it has changed over time, and what economic, social, and agroecological factors may be driving these observed patterns and trends in DFS. The study addresses those questions through a cross-country analysis. We first review economic theory and evidence on the diversification of production and diets in developing countries, particularly the importance of economic growth and other structural transformation processes, as well as the scope for agroecological factors to shape consumption outcomes in the presence of market imperfections, such as high transport costs. We then construct and analyze a rich cross-country dataset linking a simple DFS indicator—the share of calories supplied by nonstaple foods—with a wide range of economic, social, infrastructural, and agroecological indicators. Descriptive evidence and regression analyses show that several indicators of structural transformation (economic growth, urbanization, and demographic change) are strong predictors of DFS within countries. However, the results also suggest that time-invariant agroecological factors are significantly associated with DFS, such that some countries have exceptionally low or high DFS relative to their level of economic development. We discuss the implications of these findings for food and nutrition strategies, particularly the challenge of accelerating dietary diversification in the absence of sustained and very rapid economic growth and structural transformation, especially in countries where agroecological conditions additionally hinder access to a more diverse food basket.

Download or read book The agricultural sector as an alternative to illegal mining in Peru written by Piñeiro, Valeria and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-09 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gold mining is the main economic activity in Madre de Dios, Peru. Despite efforts, the state has not yet managed to identify a formalization process achievable for small operators. In addition, many small-scale miners are driven by poverty and need income to provide for their basic needs. Because participation in small-scale mining is largely driven by poverty, it is likely that, in the longer term, much artisanal mining activity will disappear naturally if, through economic development, more attractive work options become available. This paper reviews the importance of illegal mining in Madre de Dios and the potential for development of the agriculture sector. It also analyzes three different policy scenarios: (1) government spending to rectify the environmental damage in the region caused by illegal mining, (2) development of the agricultural sector in the region, and (3) a final scenario with both environmental restoration and agricultural development. Results show that additional government spending in Madre de Dios does not significantly affect the rest of the country and that investment in agriculture can achieve structural change in the gross domestic product of Madre de Dios. Development of the agricultural sector also slightly increases household incomes in Madre de Dios.

Download or read book Effects of agricultural mechanization on smallholders and their self selection into farming written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-16 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research was undertaken to better assess the role of mechanization in the future of smallholder farmers in Nepal. It addresses the knowledge gap about whether promoting mechanization that is often complementary to land can effectively support smallholders, particularly in the face of a growing nonfarm sector. Rising rural wages in Nepal have increasingly put pressures on smallholder farmers, who tend to operate labor-intensive farming. Agricultural mechanization through custom hiring of tractor services has recently been considered as an option to mitigate the impact of rising labor costs for smallholders. However, the benefit of agricultural mechanization may still be better captured by exploiting the economies of scale of medium to large farmers rather than smallholders. In the meantime, the Nepal agricultural sector still employs a disproportionate share of workers given its share in the economy, potentially depressing agricultural labor productivity. It is therefore an important policy question whether to (1) continue supporting smallholders through custom-hired tractor services or (2) encourage smallholders to rent their farms out to medium-size or larger farmers, while helping smallholders specialize in the nonfarm sector, where their labor productivity may be higher. Using samples from the Terai zone—one of the agroecological belts in Nepal, largely consisting of lowland plains— from the Nepal Living Standards Survey, we assess whether the benefits of hiring in tractor services are greater among medium to large farmers than among smallholders, and how these benefits may depend on smallholders’ decision to remain in or leave farming. This study also contributes to the impact evaluation literature by showing that jointly assessing the effects of two treatments (whether to adopt custom-hired tractor services and continue farming, or to search for better options and specialize in off-farm activities) can lead to different implications than assessing them separately. Our analyses suggest that the government should continue to promote custom-hired tractor services not only for medium to large farmers but also for smallholders. If, over time, barriers to specializing in nonfarm activities are lowered and more smallholders start leaving farming, mechanization may no longer benefit the remaining smallholders. Support for mechanization can then be focused more on medium to large farmers, while types of support other than mechanization can be devised for the remaining smallholders.

Download or read book How headquarters relocation is affected by rising wages and ownership Evidence from China s annual survey of industrial enterprises 1999 2008 written by Wang, Qingtao and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-23 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Industrial wages have increased significantly in China in recent years. At the same time, there have been widening gaps in wages across provinces. These trends are likely to prompt company headquarters to relocate. The relocation choices of headquarters are likely to change under different ownership, as a result of variations in their internal capabilities as well as the distinctive nature of their businesses. This paper is the first attempt to examine the effects of rising wages on headquarters’ relocation by ownership. Data were obtained from the China Statistical Yearbook and the Annual Survey of Industrial Enterprises for the period 1998 through 2008. These data allow for differentiation among companies with regard to five types of enterprises: foreign owned, Sino-foreign owned, state owned, domestically joint owned, and privately owned. We use a conditional logit model to identify factors to determine which province headquarters chose to relocate. In addition, we consider the impact of these choices on the “minimum wage standard” introduced in 2004. Results indicate that wages insignificantly affected the relocation choice of all types of headquarters before 2004. After 2004, on average, headquarters were more likely to relocate to low-wage provinces, as predicted by “overall cost leadership.” However, we also find that relocation choices are significantly affected by ownership type. While privately owned and state-owned enterprises are likely to relocate to areas with lower wages, foreign-owned headquarters tend to relocate to high-wage areas, as predicted by the “efficiency wage theory.” Wages did not affect the relocation choices of Sino-foreign-owned companies, but had a negative effect on those of domestically joint-owned headquarters.

Download or read book Climate change agriculture and adaptation in the Republic of Korea to 2050 written by Cenacchi, Nicola and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-16 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the effects of climate change set in, and population and income growth exert increasing pressure on natural resources, food security is becoming a pressing challenge for countries worldwide. Awareness of these threats is critical to transforming concern into long-term planning, and modeling tools like the one used in the present study are beneficial for strategic support of decision making in the agricultural policy arena. The focus of this investigation is the Republic of Korea, where economic growth has resulted in large shifts in diet in recent decades, in parallel with a decline in both arable land and agricultural production, and a tripling of agricultural imports, compared to the early 2000s. Although these are recognized as traits of a rapidly growing economy, officials and experts in the country recognize that the trends expose the Republic of Korea to climate change shocks and fluctuations in the global food market. This study uses the IMPACT (International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade) economic model to investigate possible future trends of both domestic food production and dependence on food imports, as well as the effects from adoption of agricultural practices consistent with a climate change adaptation strategy. The goal is to help assess the prospects for sustaining improvements in food security and possibly inform the national debate on agricultural policy. Results show that historical trends of harvested area and imports may continue into the future under climate change. Although crop models suggest negative long-term impacts of climate change on rice yield in the Republic of Korea, the economic model simulations show that intrinsic productivity growth and market effects have the potential to limit the magnitude of losses; rice production and yield are projected to keep growing between 2010 and 2050, with a larger boost when adoption of improved technologies is taken into consideration. At the same time, food production and net exports from the country’s major trading partners are also projected to increase, although diminished by climate change effects. In sum, these results show that kilocalorie availability will keep growing in the Republic of Korea, and although climate change may have some impact by reducing the overall availability, the effect does not appear strong enough to have significant consequences on projected trends of increasing food security.

Download or read book Changing preferences through experimental games written by Stopnitzky, Yaniv and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-12-16 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much policy interest in sanitation and hygiene promotion focuses on changing behavior and increasing demand for these goods. Yet the effectiveness of large-scale interventions has been mixed, in large part because of the difficulty of changing attitudes on deeply rooted behaviors. This study tests whether an experiential learning exercise structured around an experimental game can be used to shift preferences around sanitation and hygiene. A minimum coordination game is adapted to the sanitation and hygiene setting by linking game choices to real-world investment decisions and payoffs in terms of health and status. Individuals from 20 villages in rural Tamil Nadu were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one that played a game in which communication between rounds was allowed, another that played a game in which communication was prohibited, and a control group that only completed a survey. Based on a comparison of survey responses across treatment arms, the game improved stated preferences in relation to sanitation and hygiene. This effect was larger when communication was allowed, and men responded on average more strongly than women across both versions of the game. These results suggest that experimental games can be a valuable tool not only for the study of decision making but for improving participants’ knowledge and pro-sanitation preferences.