Food security without food transfers?: A CGE analysis for Ethiopia of the different food security impacts of fertilizer subsidies and locally sourced food transfers

Both availability and access issues underpin Ethiopia's food security challenges. The country is mostly dependent on drought-exposed, rain fed agriculture, and high transaction costs inhibit trade in staples. Most of the population lives in rural areas where poverty is widespread and livelihoods vulnerable to shocks and poverty traps. This paper looks at different approaches to improve food security in Ethiopia. Specifically, it compares the impacts on the access and availability dimensions of policy-based fertilizer subsidies, targeting yield growth against one of additional food transfers, sourced from local markets. It also explores the possibility of combining the subsidies with a switch to local procurement of current food transfers. It first runs a micro simulation model based on empirically estimated yield functions to quantify the likely effects of additional fertilizer application on national yields, suggesting a rather modest response. It then simulates the policies of interest using the static IFPRI standard CGE model, calibrated for Ethiopia using the 2005/06 social accounting matrix of the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). Simulation results point in two directions. First, the food transfer policy is more effective at raising consumption of staples by the targeted rural poor. Second, the moderate yield growth induced by the subsidy shows economic multipliers, stronger effects on domestic supply and welfare gains accruing to all poor through increased factor incomes and decreased staple prices. Yield growth seems a promising avenue to pursue food security and, more generally, poverty reduction goals. Nevertheless, policies focusing on one dimension of the yield function alone, such as fertilizer subsidies, are unlikely to deliver the necessary improvement in yields. Food transfers may still be the most effective short- to mid-term answer to food access insecurity when high return agricultural productivity policies are not available and when internal resources can be used to bear policy costs, avoiding the exchange rate distortions associated with foreign financial assistance.

Expectations, network centrality, and public good contributions : Experimental evidence from India

Do individuals in a position of social influence contribute more to public goods than their less connected partners? Can we motivate these influential individuals by disclosing how others expect them to act? To answer these questions, we play a public good game on a star network. The experimental design is such that efficiency and equality considerations should motivate central players to contribute more than others. Using a subject population familiar with contributions to public goods on social networks, we find that central players contribute just as much as the average of other players, leading to a large loss of efficiency. When we disclose the expectations of other players, we find that central players often adjust their contributions to meet the expectations of the group. Expectations disclosure leads to higher contributions in groups that have weak social ties outside of the experiment. In groups where ties are strong, it has no significant effect. This evidence casts doubt on the idea that individuals who, by their social position, can contribute more effectively to the public good rise to the challenge by contributing more than others. In some, but not all social groups, these individuals can be motivated to increase contributions by disclosing the expectations of others

Cargo transport through the nuclear pore complex at a glance

Bidirectional transport of macromolecules across the nuclear envelope is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells, in which the genetic material is compartmentalized inside the nucleus. The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is the major gateway to the nucleus and it regulates nucleocytoplasmic transport, which is key to processes including transcriptional regulation and cell cycle control. Accordingly, components of the nuclear transport machinery are often found to be dysregulated or hijacked in diseases. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and accompanying poster, we provide an overview of our current understanding of cargo transport through the NPC, from the basic transport signals and machinery to more emerging aspects, all from a 'cargo perspective'. Among these, we discuss the transport of large cargoes (>15 nm), as well as the roles of different cargo properties to nuclear transport, from size and number of bound nuclear transport receptors (NTRs), to surface and mechanical properties

Maxclique and unit disk characterizations of strongly chordal graphs

Maxcliques (maximal complete subgraphs) and unit disks (closed neighborhoods of vertices) sometime play almost interchangeable roles in graph theory. For instance, interchanging them makes two existing characterizations of chordal graphs into two new characterizations. More intriguingly, these characterizations of chordal graphs can be naturally strengthened to new characterizations of strongly chordal graphs.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Effects of low vacuum levels on vacuum dynamics during milking

One of critical points of the milking unit is the short milk tube. Here milk plugs can cause abrupt variations in vacuum which are stressful for the animals. Our trials allowed us to define the effects of the operational vacuum and pulsation on vacuum stability in the short milk tube. Reducing the vacuum from 42 to 28 kPa did not produce appreciable variations in vacuum fluctuation. It was 9.2 kPa for the low vacuum and 9.8 kPa for the standard vacuum. Changing the pulsation rate from 150 to 120 cycles/min did not modify the vacuum stability in the short milk tube. By contrast, raising the pulsation ratio from 50% to 60% significantly increased the amplitude of vacuum fluctuation in the short milk tube

Integrating livestock in CAADP framework: Policy analysis using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model for Ethiopia

Researchers and policymakers increasingly recognize that the livestock sector supports the livelihoods of a large proportion of rural households in most African countries and may play an important role in rural poverty reduction strategies. To develop this insight, economy-wide models should capture both the biological, dynamic relationships between the stocks and flows of livestock and economic linkages between this sector and the rest of the economy. This study extends an existing dynamic recursive general equilibrium model for the Ethiopian economy so as to better model the livestock sector. A separate herd dynamics module enables researchers to specify stock-flow relationship, distinguishing between the capital role of livestock and the flow of livestock products. The authors also improved the underlying system of economic accounts to better capture draft power and breeding stocks. They used this model to simulate separate, realistic Total Factor Productivity (TFP) shocks to three agricultural subsectors—cereals, cash crops, and livestock—and compared them to a baseline scenario replicating the 1998–2007 productivity trends, following Dorosh and Thurlow (2009), who examined CAADP productivity scenarios. The results revealed the important role of the livestock sector in increasing various measures of GDP and combating food insecurity. Agricultural GDP and overall GDP growth levels achieved in the livestock TFP shock scenario are very similar to those achieved in the cereal TFP shock scenario, contrary to previous assumptions. Importantly, as factors are dynamically re-allocated between agricultural activities, our analysis highlighted the inefficiency of strategies focusing on cereal sector development alone. Moreover, livestock sector productivity growth led to greater factor income growth, particularly labor income, than in the other simulations. Labor is the predominant asset of poor household; hence, a livestock-led scenario realizes large gains in income and food consumption growth

Far UV responsivity of commercial silicon photodetectors

Abstract Responsivity measurements have been performed on commercial silicon photodetectors in the UV range 200–400 nm. The microstrip and pixel detectors have been reverse biased in fully depleted condition (more than 25 V reverse bias) and in partially depleted condition (5 V reverse bias). We have also performed measurements in back illumination geometry, of particular interest in most industrial applications. Promising results obtained with commercial photodetectors in the UV range in terms of photocurrent stability and sensitivity open a variety of applications

Tuberculous Meningitis: an Endemic Cause of Intracranial Hypertension

Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) presents a complex clinical scenario, often marked by delayed recognition and high mortality. Our case involves a 27-year-old woman from Nepal with no significant medical history, presented with a two-week history of fatigue, altered consciousness, dizziness, vomiting, fever, holocranial headache, and photophobia. Initial examination revealed signs consistent with meningitis, including fever, hypertensive state, prostration, bilateral exophthalmos, sixth cranial nerve paresis, and positive Kernig/Brudzinski signs. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) exhibited characteristics typical of TBM: turbidity, lymphocytic-predominant pleocytosis, low glucose, and elevated protein. The patient was promptly started on meningeal doses of vancomycin, ceftriaxone, and acyclovir. However, persistent fever, neurological deterioration, and signs of increased intracranial pressure led to the decision to initiate conventional empiric treatment of tuberculosis (TB) with isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol (HRZE) and dexamethasone 1 week before cultural positivity for Mycobacterium tuberculosis of CSF. The case underscores the importance of considering TBM in patients from endemic regions, interpreting CSF findings, and initiating empirical treatment in critical scenarios, contributing to a positive patient outcome despite the diagnostic challenges.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

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