Climate-smart agriculture : greenhouse gas mitigation in climate-smart villages of Ghana

Published online: 06 October 2022Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach that helps guide actions to transform agri-food systems towards green and climate-resilient practices and it remains prominent in food systems transformation in the light of increasing climate change impacts. Unfortunately, the quantification of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of CSA approaches is currently limited. Using the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), this paper quantifies the GHG mitigation of CSA based on farm-level experimental data. Individual interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted to identify farmers’ choices and willingness to adopt CSA practices. The study compared the GHG emission mitigation of CSA practices for two scenarios (baseline and mitigation). The study found that organic fertilizer input, residue incorporation, no-inorganic fertilizer and no-pesticide input reduced GHG emission intensity of sorghum (to 93.2 ± 25 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 sorghum), rice (79.2 ± 22 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 rice) and groundnut (69.7 ± 20 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 groundnut) compared to the baseline. Lower GHG emission intensity was achieved with higher crop yield under CSA interventions. The study recommends that CSA promoters such as the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank focus on crop-specific CSA practices for higher GHG mitigation. CSA promoters such as the CGIAR, FAO and the World Bank should embrace participatory processes such as farmer schools to increase CSA uptake.This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - Springer Transformative Agreement (2020-2024

African Swine Fever Prevention In The United States: A Behavioral And Policy Perspective

Transboundary animal diseases (TADs) decimate millions of livestock annually, withestimated costs in the billions. These diseases threaten global food security, production, trade, supply chains, human health, biodiversity, and ecosystem health. Addressing and mitigating TADs, such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and African Swine Fever (ASF), requires implementing on-farm biosecurity measures. However, human behavior and decision-making on farms or at ports of entry may compromise these efforts. Moreover, current biosecurity policies seek to reduce the impact of disease outbreaks. However, because investments in biosecurity are not tied to indemnification, these policies may inadvertently create a perverse incentive for producers to reduce their biosecurity expenditure before or during an outbreak. Traditional economic approaches have addressed such issues through financial incentives. However, a more profound understanding of producers\u27 and public perceptions and motives about disease prevention and indemnification can inform public policy on animal health, improve market incentives, and reduce the associated cost of disease prevention. This dissertation fills this gap by using a mix of surveys, choice experiments, and simulation games to understand human behavior in epidemic prevention in the US. Grounded in the theory of planned behavior, the first paper aimed to understand the complex socio-psychological and demographic factors influencing farmers\u27 biosecurity decisions. I conducted a national survey of 422 swine producers to assess their attitudes and intentions toward biosecurity. Using a latent class analysis, I identified three distinct classes of producers: Biosecurity Sceptics, Biosecurity Compliant, and Biosecurity Ultra-Compliant. The results show that producer characteristics significantly influence biosecurity attitudes and class membership, with small-scale producers less likely to adopt ultra-compliant biosecurity practices. Attending at least one eradication program encouraged biosecurity compliance, and a larger share of income derived from production operations influenced biosecurity compliance. After identifying the risk profile and attitudes of the producers, the second paper analyzed these responses concerning their ex-ante motivation to self-invest in biosecurity to be eligible for indemnity, the likelihood of buying livestock insurance before an outbreak, and readiness to report suspected infections on their farms. Using a partial proportional odds model, findings from this paper revealed that the intent to call a veterinarian, trust in government agencies, and farmers\u27 risk perception were instrumental in the willingness to self-invest in biosecurity, buy livestock insurance, and promptly report infections on their farms. This provides evidence that biosecurity compliance would increase if indemnification were tied to a demonstration of biosecurity effort. In the third paper, I developed a choice experiment to elicit the preference between the current unconditional and alternative conditional indemnity policies. Findings from the study revealed a strong preference for the conditional indemnity policy. A decomposition of the factors revealed that females and older people preferred the conditional indemnity policy. Moreover, factors like anticipated regret and salience of biosecurity revealed a strong preference for the conditional indemnity policy. This finding supports implementing a conditional indemnity policy, which can potentially reduce the costs associated with disease outbreaks while incentivizing biosecurity adoption and addressing the moral hazard problem in the current indemnity policy. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on risk management and moral hazard by demonstrating that socio-psychological factors, such as anticipated regret and salience of biosecurity, play a critical role in shaping preferences for indemnity policies

Impact of social protection policies on inclusive growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from bias-corrected dynamic panel

This study examines the role of social protection policies as a driver of inclusive growth. While some research argues that social protection policies empower marginalized groups, promote human capital, reduce inequality, alleviate poverty and contribute to long-term sustainable development, other studies contend that these policies can create disincentives and potentially exacerbate poverty. This inconclusive evidence may stem from the complex nature of these welfare indicators. We deviate from existing literature by examining the potential role of social protection policies on inclusive growth. As such, we aim to elucidate the inconclusive debate on the impact on social protection policies on welfare at the macro level. We used a panel of 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the period 1990–2022. By using the least squares dummy variable corrected (LSDVC) estimator the results confirm that social protection policies significantly contribute to inclusive growth. This finding is consistent with the Rawlsian theory of justice. We also show that factors such as real effective exchange rate (REER), foreign direct investment (FDI), CO2 emissions and infrastructure positively influence inclusive growth whereas corruption and inflation exert a negative effect. The study underscores the urgency for policy interventions to reinvigorate social protection systems to facilitate inclusive growth in the SSA region

A latent class analysis of biosecurity attitudes and decision-making strategies of swine producers in the United States

Abstract The 2018 African swine fever (ASF) outbreak highlighted the importance of biosecurity in food production systems. Despite the significant economic impacts, the sociopsychological consequences on decision-making have been overlooked. Previous studies have focused on algebraic models and simulation-based models without considering the complex psychological and social factors that influence farmers' biosecurity behaviors and decision-making processes. This study aims to classify livestock producers into distinct subgroups based on their attitudes towards biosecurity. We conducted a survey presenting producers with three scenarios to assess their willingness to report suspected ASF cases, trust in government agencies, risk perception, biosecurity knowledge, willingness to purchase livestock insurance, motivation to invest in biosecurity, readiness to report suspected infections, and intention to contact a veterinarian. Using latent class analysis, we identified three distinct classes: Biosecurity Sceptics, Biosecurity Compliant, and Biosecurity Ultra-Compliant. Our results show that producer characteristics significantly influence biosecurity attitudes and class membership, with small-scale producers less likely to adopt ultra-compliant biosecurity practices. Attending at least one eradication program encouraged biosecurity compliance. This research informs the design of targeted food policy and risk communication strategies that account for attitudes of livestock producers to encourage biosecurity adoption and reduce the likelihood of Tier 1 disease incursion