Out of Site out of Mind: Quantifying the Long-term Off-site economic Impacts of Land Degradation in Kenya

This study investigated the private and social returns to Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices with an objective of finding practices that reduce the on-farm and off-farm negative effects of land degradation. The results show that SLM practices have robust profits for farmers raising dairy cows. Farmers without dairy cows realize profits that are sensitive to input and output prices. Adoption of SLM also provides global environmental services whose value is about 10% of the net present value. The results suggest the need to promote SLM practices with multiple uses and consider ways to compensate farmers who offer significant environmental services.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease

Background: Experimental and clinical data suggest that reducing inflammation without affecting lipid levels may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet, the inflammatory hypothesis of atherothrombosis has remained unproved. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of canakinumab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-1β, involving 10,061 patients with previous myocardial infarction and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of 2 mg or more per liter. The trial compared three doses of canakinumab (50 mg, 150 mg, and 300 mg, administered subcutaneously every 3 months) with placebo. The primary efficacy end point was nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or cardiovascular death. RESULTS: At 48 months, the median reduction from baseline in the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level was 26 percentage points greater in the group that received the 50-mg dose of canakinumab, 37 percentage points greater in the 150-mg group, and 41 percentage points greater in the 300-mg group than in the placebo group. Canakinumab did not reduce lipid levels from baseline. At a median follow-up of 3.7 years, the incidence rate for the primary end point was 4.50 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group, 4.11 events per 100 person-years in the 50-mg group, 3.86 events per 100 person-years in the 150-mg group, and 3.90 events per 100 person-years in the 300-mg group. The hazard ratios as compared with placebo were as follows: in the 50-mg group, 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.07; P = 0.30); in the 150-mg group, 0.85 (95% CI, 0.74 to 0.98; P = 0.021); and in the 300-mg group, 0.86 (95% CI, 0.75 to 0.99; P = 0.031). The 150-mg dose, but not the other doses, met the prespecified multiplicity-adjusted threshold for statistical significance for the primary end point and the secondary end point that additionally included hospitalization for unstable angina that led to urgent revascularization (hazard ratio vs. placebo, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.95; P = 0.005). Canakinumab was associated with a higher incidence of fatal infection than was placebo. There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio for all canakinumab doses vs. placebo, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.06; P = 0.31). Conclusions: Antiinflammatory therapy targeting the interleukin-1β innate immunity pathway with canakinumab at a dose of 150 mg every 3 months led to a significantly lower rate of recurrent cardiovascular events than placebo, independent of lipid-level lowering. (Funded by Novartis; CANTOS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01327846.

institutional framework of in action against land degradation

While econometric and spatial data are increasingly helpful to quantify and locate the extent and costs of land degradation, there is still little understanding of the contextual factors that determine or influence the land users' practices that aggravate or counteract land degradation. In this chapter, we take an institutional economic approach to analyse the persistence of degrading practices, the low adoption of sustainable land management (SLM), or the eventual organisational reaction to land degradation. The chapter reviews four examples of land degradation in different contexts to reveal the multiple driving forces and contextual factors. We then propose a conceptual framework to better understand the incentive structure and factors determining the land users' decision making. A layered analysis of the social phenomena is applied, following Williamson (2000). The chapter shows how actions at different layers can help improve land management. The chapter concludes with practical recommendations for the institutional economic analysis of land degradation

Out of Site out of Mind: Quantifying the Long-term Off-site economic Impacts of Land Degradation in Kenya

This study investigated the private and social returns to Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices with an objective of finding practices that reduce the on-farm and off-farm negative effects of land degradation. The results show that SLM practices have robust profits for farmers raising dairy cows. Farmers without dairy cows realize profits that are sensitive to input and output prices. Adoption of SLM also provides global environmental services whose value is about 10% of the net present value. The results suggest the need to promote SLM practices with multiple uses and consider ways to compensate farmers who offer significant environmental services

A Game Theoretic Approach to Analyse Cooperation Between Rural Households in Northern Nigeria

Much research focuses on development of new agricultural technologies to reduce poverty levels of the large population of smallholder farms in Sub Saharan Africa. In this paper we argue that smallholders can also increase their production in a different way, namely by using their resources more efficiently through cooperation. This is obtained by grouping their (heterogeneous) resources and making joint decisions based on the aggregate resources. Afterwards, the gains of the joint production are divided, such that each farmer remains independent. This type of cooperation is modeled using linear programming and cooperative game theory. While linear programming establishes insight in optimal farm plans for farmers that cooperate, game theory is used to generate fair divisions of the extra gain that is established by cooperation. The model is applied to a village in Northern Nigeria. Households are clustered based on socio-economic parameters, and we explore cooperation. The optimal farm plan of the cooperative (i.e., farmers cooperate) contains more crops with high market and nutritional value, such as cowpea and sugarcane. We show that the gross margin of the cooperative is 12% higher than the sum of the individual gross margins. To divide these gains, we consider four established solution concepts from game theory that divide these extra gains: the Owen value, Shapley value, compromise value and nucleolus. An interesting result is that all farmers gain from cooperation and that the four solution concepts give similar results. Finally, we show how the provision of micro-credit can be used to stimulate cooperation in practice, benefiting the least-endowed farmers as well.

Resource degradation, low agricultural productivity, and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: pathways out of the spiral

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the lowest agricultural productivity in the world, while almost half of the population lives below US$1 per day. The biggest development policy challenge is to find appropriate solutions to end hunger and poverty in the region. Building on several years of empirical research conducted in East Africa, this paper identifies potential strategies for sustainable development in this region. In general, the empirical evidence reviewed confirms that different strategies are needed in different development domains of SSA. Nevertheless, some elements will be common to all successful strategies, including assurance of peace and security, a stable macroeconomic environment, provision of incentives through markets where markets function, development of market institutions where they do not, and public and private investment in an appropriate mix of physical, human, natural, and social capital. The differences in strategies across these domains mainly reflect differences in the mix of those investments as influenced by different comparative advantages. Copyright 2005 International Association of Agricultural Economics.