Scaling up pro-environmental agricultural practice using agglomeration payments: Proof of concept from an agent-based model

Rates of adoption of pro-environmental practices in agriculture in many parts of the world are low. In some cases, this is attributable to the private costs borne by farmers to adopt these practices, often well in advance of any benefits - public or private - that they may bring. Monetary incentives, such as through payments-for-ecosystem services (PES) programs, may be of assistance, and in this study we examine the potential for a recent innovation (the agglomeration payment) to improve adoption of pro-environmental practice in a rural agricultural context. Agglomeration payments include bonus payments for adoption by neighboring farms, which may help to encourage both compliance with the program they promote as well as the overall diffusion of the program across rural contexts. We develop an abstract agent-based model (ABM) of an agglomeration payment program to encourage adoption of the pro-environment practice of conservation agriculture (CA). We find that agglomeration payments have the potential to improve levels of adoption of pro-environmental practice per program dollar, and may help to reduce required spending on project monitoring and enforcement

Early adoption of conservation agriculture practices: Understanding partial compliance in programs with multiple adoption decisions

Land degradation and soil erosion have emerged as serious challenges to smallholder farmers throughout Southern Africa. To combat these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) – a suite of agricultural practices consisting of zero tillage, mulching of crop residues, and intercropping with legumes – is widely promoted as a “sustainable” package of agricultural practices. Despite the many potential benefits of CA, however, adoption remains low. Yet relatively little is known about the decisionmaking process in choosing to adopt CA or any of its constituent practices. This article attempts to fill this important knowledge gap by studying CA adoption in southern Malawi. Unlike what is implicitly assumed when these packages of practices are introduced, farmers view adoption of CA as a series of separate decisions, rather than a single decision. But the adoption decisions need not be wholly independent. We find strong evidence of interrelated decisions, particularly among mulching crop residues and practicing zero tillage, suggesting that mulching residues and intercropping or rotating with legumes introduces a multiplier effect on the adoption of zero tillage

Transformative change through Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES): a conceptual framework and application to conservation agriculture in Malawi

Non-technical summary: A major challenge in addressing the loss of benefits and services provided by the natural environment is that it can be difficult to find ways for those who benefit from them to pay for their preservation. We examine one such context in Malawi, where erosion from soils disturbed by agriculture affects not only farmers’ incomes, but also damages aquatic habitat and inhibits the storage and hydropower potential of dams downstream. We demonstrate that payments from hydropower producers to farmers to maintain land cover and prevent erosion can have benefits for all parties involved. Technical summary: Payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes provide a mechanism to connect beneficiaries of ecosystem services with those whose actions could provide them. Recent work on PES has demonstrated a priority on matching costs and benefits at the margin, where, on the whole, payments are also low. We draw on dynamic systems theory to demonstrate that reinforcing feedbacks that benefit ecosystem services producers may warrant much higher initial investments in PES programs, and provide evidence of behavioural drivers from a PES trial in Malawi to support these claims. Specifically, in our study, peer effects and improvement to soil structure are processes that can encourage adoption of sustainable land management practices, alongside or in the absence of other incentives. Under this framing, PES programs can be vehicles to shift systems between basins of attraction over a time-limited period, rather than programs necessary for long-term maintenance of services

Increased Serum and Musculotendinous Fibrogenic Proteins following Persistent Low-Grade Inflammation in a Rat Model of Long-Term Upper Extremity Overuse.

We examined the relationship between grip strength declines and muscle-tendon responses induced by long-term performance of a high-repetition, low-force (HRLF) reaching task in rats. We hypothesized that grip strength declines would correlate with inflammation, fibrosis and degradation in flexor digitorum muscles and tendons. Grip strength declined after training, and further in weeks 18 and 24, in reach limbs of HRLF rats. Flexor digitorum tissues of reach limbs showed low-grade increases in inflammatory cytokines: IL-1β after training and in week 18, IL-1α in week 18, TNF-α and IL-6 after training and in week 24, and IL-10 in week 24, with greater increases in tendons than muscles. Similar cytokine increases were detected in serum with HRLF: IL-1α and IL-10 in week 18, and TNF-α and IL-6 in week 24. Grip strength correlated inversely with IL-6 in muscles, tendons and serum, and TNF-α in muscles and serum. Four fibrogenic proteins, TGFB1, CTGF, PDGFab and PDGFbb, and hydroxyproline, a marker of collagen synthesis, increased in serum in HRLF weeks 18 or 24, concomitant with epitendon thickening, increased muscle and tendon TGFB1 and CTGF. A collagenolytic gelatinase, MMP2, increased by week 18 in serum, tendons and muscles of HRLF rats. Grip strength correlated inversely with TGFB1 in muscles, tendons and serum; with CTGF-immunoreactive fibroblasts in tendons; and with MMP2 in tendons and serum. Thus, motor declines correlated with low-grade systemic and musculotendinous inflammation throughout task performance, and increased fibrogenic and degradative proteins with prolonged task performance. Serum TNF-α, IL-6, TGFB1, CTGF and MMP2 may serve as serum biomarkers of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, although further studies in humans are needed

All eggs in one basket: A reflection on Malawi's dependence on agricultural growth strategy

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in the study of structural transformation. However, Africa has received little attention despite the fact that its rural areas seem to be very poor and unproductive relative to urban areas. This case study provides a reflection on challenges faced and development strategies adopted by successive governments in Malawi. Malawi is a country with a complex history of rural-urban transformation