Is personalized better: Digital advisory and productivity differentials in rice farming in Nigeria

Personalized extension advisory deliver information that are more compatible with farmer production conditions and has a better chance of adoption and impacts. We exploit a rich four-round experimental panel data on RiceAdvice, a decision support app that provides personalized information on soil fertility management and other agri cultural practices to rice farmers. We evaluate the impact of the app on technological, managerial, frontier yield, and fertilizer productivity differentials, while accounting for differences in production technologies possessed by the different treatment groups. Re sults based on the true random effects estimator suggest that exposure to RiceAdvice significantly increases the production possibilities and managerial performance of rice smallholders exposed to it (treated farmers), leading to an upward shift in the produc tion frontier for those same farmers. Exposed farmers also have higher mean fertilizer productivity compared to the unexposed, especially when bundled with fertilizer in puts. The impacts are stronger in the early years but wanes over time. Ensuring consistent access to the app as well as fertilizer input could help sustain the gain

Pre-harvest management is a critical practice for minimizing aflatoxin contamination of maize

Published online: 8 Sept 2018; Open Access ArticleMaize, the main dietary staple in Kenya, is one of the crops most susceptible to contamination by aflatoxin. To understand sources of aflatoxin contamination for home grown maize, we collected 789 maize samples from smallholder farmers’ fields in Eastern and South Western, two regions in Kenya representing high and low aflatoxin risk areas, respectively, and determined aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) using ELISA with specific polyclonal antibodies. AFB1 was detected in 274 of the 416 samples from Eastern Kenya at levels between 0.01 and 9091.8 μg kg−1 (mean 67.8 μg kg−1). In South Western, AFB1 was detected in 233 of the 373 samples at levels between 0.98 and 722.2 μg kg−1 (mean 22.3 μg kg−1). Of the samples containing AFB1, 153 (55.8%) from Eastern and 102 (43.8%) from South Western exceeded the maximum allowable limit of AFB1 (5 μg kg−1) in maize for human consumption in Kenya. The probable daily intake (PDI) of AFB1 in Eastern Kenya ranged from 0.07 to 60612 ng kg−1 bw day−1 (mean 451.8 ng kg−1 bw day−1), while for South Western, PDI ranged from 6.53 to 4814.7 ng kg−1 bw day−1 (mean 148.4 ng kg−1 bw day−1). The average PDI for both regions exceeded the estimated provisional maximum tolerable daily intake of AFB1, which is a health concern for the population in these regions. These results revealed significant levels of preharvest aflatoxin contamination of maize in both regions. Prevention of preharvest infection of maize by toxigenic A. flavus strains should be a critical focal point to prevent aflatoxin contamination and exposure

A One Health Framework for the Evaluation of Rabies Control Programmes: A Case Study from Colombo City, Sri Lanka

<div><p>Background</p><p>One Health addresses complex challenges to promote the health of all species and the environment by integrating relevant sciences at systems level. Its application to zoonotic diseases is recommended, but few coherent frameworks exist that combine approaches from multiple disciplines. Rabies requires an interdisciplinary approach for effective and efficient management.</p><p>Methodology/Principal Findings</p><p>A framework is proposed to assess the value of rabies interventions holistically. The economic assessment compares additional monetary and non-monetary costs and benefits of an intervention taking into account epidemiological, animal welfare, societal impact and cost data. It is complemented by an ethical assessment. The framework is applied to Colombo City, Sri Lanka, where modified dog rabies intervention measures were implemented in 2007. The two options included for analysis were the control measures in place until 2006 (“baseline scenario”) and the new comprehensive intervention measures (“intervention”) for a four-year duration. Differences in control cost; monetary human health costs after exposure; Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost due to human rabies deaths and the psychological burden following a bite; negative impact on animal welfare; epidemiological indicators; social acceptance of dogs; and ethical considerations were estimated using a mixed method approach including primary and secondary data. Over the four years analysed, the intervention cost US $1.03 million more than the baseline scenario in 2011 prices (adjusted for inflation) and caused a reduction in dog rabies cases; 738 DALYs averted; an increase in acceptability among non-dog owners; a perception of positive changes in society including a decrease in the number of roaming dogs; and a net reduction in the impact on animal welfare from intermediate-high to low-intermediate.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The findings illustrate the multiple outcomes relevant to stakeholders and allow greater understanding of the value of the implemented rabies control measures, thereby providing a solid foundation for informed decision-making and sustainable control.</p></div

Predicting the public health benefit of vaccinating cattle against Escherichia coli O157

Identifying the major sources of risk in disease transmission is key to designing effective controls. However, understanding of transmission dynamics across species boundaries is typically poor, making the design and evaluation of controls particularly challenging for zoonotic pathogens. One such global pathogen is Escherichia coli O157, which causes a serious and sometimes fatal gastrointestinal illness. Cattle are the main reservoir for E. coli O157, and vaccines for cattle now exist. However, adoption of vaccines is being delayed by conflicting responsibilities of veterinary and public health agencies, economic drivers, and because clinical trials cannot easily test interventions across species boundaries, lack of information on the public health benefits. Here, we examine transmission risk across the cattle–human species boundary and show three key results. First, supershedding of the pathogen by cattle is associated with the genetic marker stx2. Second, by quantifying the link between shedding density in cattle and human risk, we show that only the relatively rare supershedding events contribute significantly to human risk. Third, we show that this finding has profound consequences for the public health benefits of the cattle vaccine. A naïve evaluation based on efficacy in cattle would suggest a 50% reduction in risk; however, because the vaccine targets the major source of human risk, we predict a reduction in human cases of nearly 85%. By accounting for nonlinearities in transmission across the human–animal interface, we show that adoption of these vaccines by the livestock industry could prevent substantial numbers of human E. coli O157 cases

A one health framework for estimating the economic costs of zoonotic diseases on society

This article presents an integrated epidemiological and economic framework for assessing zoonoses using a 'one health' concept. The framework allows for an understanding of the cross-sector economic impact of zoonoses using modified risk analysis and detailing a range of analytical tools. The goal of the framework is to link the analysis outputs of animal and human disease transmission models, economic impact models and evaluation of risk management options to gain improved understanding of factors affecting the adoption of risk management strategies so that investment planning includes the most promising interventions (or sets of interventions) in an integrated fashion. A more complete understanding of the costs of the disease and the costs and benefits of control measures would promote broader implementation of the most efficient and effective control measures, contributing to improved animal and human health, better livelihood outcomes for the poor and macroeconomic growt

Agriculture, food safety, and foodborne diseases: understanding the links between agriculture and health

"To improve the ability of farmers in developing countries to reduce the burden of foodborne illness, government agencies need to take the following steps: (1) Implement a farm-to-table approach to agricultural health by focusing efforts on the prevention of potential food safety and agricultural health threats at all stages of the supply chain including production, processing, marketing, and retailing. (2) Raise awareness among decisionmakers, public servants, producers, traders, and consumers about the potential sources of food safety problems and ways to protect against such problems. (3) Encourage a multi-stakeholder approach to improving public health. (4) Strengthen surveillance and diagnostic capacity in all countries to improve measurement of prevalence and detection of outbreaks. (5) Strengthen risk analysis capacity to help decisionmakers in all countries to set strategies and priorities, to consider the many needs of the supply chain, and to increase their focus on the preharvest stage. (6) Switch from command-control policies to performance-based standards to meet national and international food safety goals. Command-control policies are often less flexible and have higher fixed costs, which may result in the displacement of poor producers from the market. (7) Improve infrastructure and access to cold storage facilities to ensure the delivery of highly perishable foods to distant markets. (8) Support efforts to improve supply chain management to improve food safety along the whole supply chain." From textAgriculture-health linkages, Agriculture, Health and nutrition, Agricultural technology, Food safety, Diseases, Education, Supply chain management, Risk analysis,

The role of public-private partnerships and collective action in ensuring smallholder participation in high value fruit and vegetable supply chains

Many developing countries have moved into the production of non-traditional agricultural products to diversify their exports and increase foreign currency earnings. Accessing developed country markets and urban domestic markets requires meeting the food safety requirements due to several demand and supply side factors. Food retailers have developed protocols relating to pesticide residues, field and packinghouse operations, and traceability. In this changing scenario where food safety requirements are getting increasingly stringent, there are worries regarding the livelihood of the poor since companies that establish production centers in LDCs might exclude them. Poor producers face problems of how to produce safe food, be recognized as producing safe food, identify cost-effective technologies for reducing risk, and be competitive with larger producers with advantage of economies of scale in compliance with food safety requirements. In enabling the smallholders to remain competitive in such a system, new institutional arrangements are required. In particular, public-private partnerships can play a key role in creating farm to fork linkages that can satisfy the market demands for food safety while retaining smallholders in the supply chain. Furthermore, organized producer groups monitoring their own food safety requirements through collective action often become attractive to buyers who are looking for ways to ensure traceability and reduce transaction costs. This paper compares how small producers of different fruit and vegetable products in different countries have coped with increased demands for food safety from their main export markets. These commodities are Kenyan green beans, Mexican cantaloupes, and Indian grape