Institutions, sustainable land use and consumer welfare: the case of forest and grazing lands in northern Ethiopia

Land is an essential factor of production. Institutions that govern its efficient use determine the sustainability of this essential resource. In Ethiopia all land is publicly owned. Such an institutional setting is said to have resulted in the major degradation of Ethiopia's land resources and dissipation of the resource rent. An alternative to this is assigning a private property institution. In this paper, we examine the consumer welfare effects of a change in the institutional setting on communal forest and grazing lands, using a cross-section data set of 200 households in Northern Ethiopia. Findings suggest that changing the current institutional setting could indeed be welfare reducin

Hygienic Milk Handling and Processing at Farmer Level in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

The study was conducted to assess milk handling and processing from January to May 2015 in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. To undertaken the study, multistage sampling method was used. In the first step, Humbo and bolesoserea woredas were selected randomly; in similar way, in the second step, three districts from each selected Woreda were selected randomly thereby a total of six districts were selected. From these each selected districts, a total of 137 households were interviewed for survey study. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources were obtained through a semi-structured questionnaire; it was pre-tested the questionnaire before the actual data collection was carried out. The result from the pre-test was used to implement for the final questions. The secondary data were collected from different sources such as books, research publications, journals etc. The collected data was analyzed statistically using SPSS (version 17) for windows by using descriptive statistics. The study showed that, hand milking was practiced by 100% of interviewed household. The respondents also indicated that milking of their cows was undertaken by women; most were milking their cows three times per day during the morning, day and evening time this was especially true in wet season. However, some also milk their cows only once a day in morning and sometimes twice a day in morning and evening. Majority of the respondents washed milkier hand (95.6%) and cow udder (86.1%) before milking however, only a few washed their cow udder after milking (14.6%). In the study area, about 16.8% of respondents used individual towel to dry the udder of milking cow and the rest did not use any towel. When clean 26.5, 72.8 and 1.7% of respondents used warm, cold and both warm and cold water respectively but no one used soap or other disinfectant to wash milkier hand or udder or towel. Majority of the respondents (83.0%) were using local plants for washing and fumigating for milk handling equipment. The plants used for the cleaning of milking and fermenting utensils were Hantecha, Gullo, Guntcha, Kosereatea, Azmate, zmano, nech shngurt, Korerima(local name).The  study area also showed that , milk was processed  due to multiple reasons such as to increase shelf life, to value- add, to have variety of products, to increase all (shelf life, to value- add and to have variety of products) and to increase shelf life and to value –add; almost all of interviewed households, milk were processed either once every day or every three day/every two day. All equipment and utensils used for milking, processing, storage and marketing should be disinfected and rinsed with water hot (detergent) immediately before and after use. In condition where no possible facilitating equipment and utensils; dairy cooperatives should be established so as to assist in selling fresh milk for small holder farmers

Efficacy of cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) varieties as a source of food and feed in Endamehoni district, Northern Ethiopia

Cactus Pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) serves as a source of food, feed, as well as a means of additional income to the people in northern Ethiopia. The species has different varieties with varied rate of productivity and palatability. This study was conducted to assess the food and feed value of the Cactus Pear varieties in Endamehoni District, northern Ethiopia. It was carried out in three “Tabias” (small administrative sub-districts) and nine sub-Tabias (also known as “Kushets”). These areas were purposively selected as they are well known for their good diversity of Cactus varieties. A total of one hundred and twenty households (n = 120) were randomly selected for interviews using a semi-structured interview. This was supplemented by information obtained through key informants’ interviews and field visits. The local farmers made the identification and characterization of cactus varieties traditionally based on the outstanding phenotypes like fruit characteristics, seed size and content, cladode descriptors and plant height. A total of 13 Cactus varieties were identified and recorded. To assess the food and feed value and to select the best used varieties in the area, preference rankings were made. It was found that not all varieties were equally edible and palatable. The most serious constraints in palatability were associated with fruit taste, fruit size, presence of spines, and hardness of seeds. The ethnobotanical study on palatability was supplemented by chemical analysis on Dry Matter (DM), Ash, Organic Matter (OM) and Crude Protein (CP) content from two-year-old young cladodes of four Cactus varieties (Kille, Wadwada, Magalla and Limo) that are more preferred for food and feed. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant differences in DM, OM and Ash content at p<0.05 (not at p<0.10). There was no variation in crude protein content amongst the varieties tested. From the results, it is concluded that propagation and use of varieties Kille, Limo, Magalla and Wadwada by farmers of the area is advisable.Keywords: Characterization, Cladode, Community, ethnobotany, fruit, palatability, preference, propagation, traditional knowledg

Households Willingness to Pay for Improved Urban Solid Waste Management: The Case of Mekelle City, Ethiopia

Cities in developing countries experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth too often lack the financial resources and institutional capacity to provide needed municipal infrastructure for adequate solid waste management, despite citizens’ demand for it. This paper uses a cross-sectional survey of 226 randomly selected households in Mekelle city, Ethiopia, to assess the current municipal sanitary fees and the willingness to pay (WTP) of residents for improved urban waste management, and suggest mechanisms for cost recovery. We used Tobit and probit models in the empirical analysis to determine the factors that influence households’ WTP for improved solid waste management. Results reveal that residents’ WTP for improved solid waste management is significantly related to income and awareness of environmental quality, among other factors. The results suggest that the current city fee for sanitation is far below the WTP of the residents. The mean WTP we found can be a guide for municipal officials in setting a more appropriate fee that can finance improvements in city solid waste management, where all households receive collection services, waste is disposed of properly, and recycling features are added.Keywords: Urban waste management, willingness to pay, cost recovery, Ethiopia, citiesJEL Classification: D13, Q51, Q5

Technical efficiency of peasant farmers in northern Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier approach

Empirical works on efficiency of small farmers has been triggered by Schultz's (1964) popular 'poor-but-efficient hypothesis'. Peasant farmers in traditional agricultural settings are reasonably efficient in allocating their resources and they respond positively to price incentives. If farmers are reasonably efficient, as hypothesized by Schultz, then increases in productivity require new inputs and technology to shift the production frontier upward. If, on the other hand, there are significant opportunities to increase productivity through more efficient use of farmers' resources and inputs with current technology, then a better allocation might be essential. But how to measure and compare their efficiency? The concept of efficiency measurement by means of a frontier method has its origin with Farrell (1957). Several different approaches could be applied (see e.g. Fried et al. .... for an overview). We have chosen for the output-oriented or primal approach, where the central issue is by how much output could be expanded from a given level of inputs. The empirical analysis uses a stratified sample of farm dataset refers for the 1996 and 1997 production years. Farmers in the sample are located particularly in Enderta and Hintalo-Wajerat districts of the Tigrai region. A preliminary analysis showed that productivity differences among farmers are rather small (compared to other studies). There appears to be increasing emphasis by policy-makers on investments in new technologies and inputs rather than efforts aimed at improving the efficiency of less efficient farmers. Obviously, the level of efficiency of peasant (small) farmers has important implications for choice of development strategy. As the choice of development strategy, at least partly rests on the policy makers' conceptions of farm/ farmer-level performances. This analysis is intended to contribute to such strategic choices

Iron deficiency was not the major cause of anemia in rural women of reproductive age in Sidama zone, southern Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Background Anemia, which has many etiologies, is a moderate/severe public health problem in young children and women of reproductive age in many developing countries. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence of iron deficiency, anemia, and iron deficiency anemia using multiple biomarkers and to evaluate their association with food insecurity and food consumption patterns in non-pregnant women from a rural area of southern Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 202 rural women of reproductive age in southern Ethiopia. Anthropometrics and socio-demographic data were collected. A venipuncture blood sample was analyzed for hemoglobin (Hb) and for biomarkers of iron status. Biomarkers were skewed and were log transformed before analysis. Mean, median, Pearson\u27s correlations and ordinary least-squares regressions were calculated. Results Median (IQR) Hb was 138 (127, 151) g/L. Based on an altitude-adjusted (1708 m) cutoff of 125 g/L for Hb, 21.3% were anemic. Plasma ferritin was \u3c15 μg/L in 18.6% of the women. Only one woman had α-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) \u3e1.0 g/L; four women (2%) had \u3e 5 mg/L of C-reactive protein (CRP). Of the 43 women who were anemic, 23.3% (10 women) had depleted iron stores based on plasma ferritin. Three of these had elevated soluble transferring receptors (sTfR). Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration was negatively correlated with sTfR (r = -0.24, p = 0.001), and positively correlated with ferritin (r = 0.17, p = 0.018), plasma iron (r = 0.15, p = 0.046), transferrin saturation (TfS) (r = 0.15, p = 0.04) and body iron (r = 0.14, p = 0.05). Overall prevalence of iron deficiency anemia was only 5%. Conclusion Iron deficiency anemia was not prevalent in the study population, despite the fact that anemia would be classified as a moderate public health problem

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic