Agricultural Water Management Technology Expansion and Impact on Crop Yields in Northern Burkina Faso (1980-2010): A Review

Agricultural water management (AWM) interventions, such as soil and water conservation or small-scale irrigation around small-scale water reservoirs, have repeatedly shown benefits to yields, soil fertility and water availability – at the field and experimental farm scale. It is assumed that these benefits will result in better and more sustainable livelihoods. However, there has been little published evidence of such wide-scale beneficial impacts. This study synthesizes evidence, at the sub-national scale of region, across northern Burkina Faso, of adoption rates of AWM interventions compared with indicators of impact on livelihoods in the form of yield changes, poverty indices and food security. Using several independent sources (national statistics and independent reports and peer papers), the study has found multiple pieces of evidence that since the 1990s provincial adoption rates have been a minimum of 10-20% in provinces with >700 mm of rainfall and up to 40% in several other provinces. Over the same time period, regional cereal yields have had similar rates of increase (ca 3%) as the adoption of soil water conservation and small reservoir expansion. The link to poverty and food security is less clear, highlighting that at the provincial and regional scale much more data is needed to establish the causality between AWM adoption, crop yields and poverty/food security impacts. Multiple methods exist for developing knowledge on provincial and regional level AWM technology adoption and livelihood impacts, but such information is not readily available in the public domain for decision making, research or policy. The methods for measuring indicators of development impact should be explored further. It is particularly critical to capture indicators linking field-scale improvements to the broader socioeconomic and institutional pro-poor development agenda of rural livelihood systems in semi-arid West Africa

South Carolina's fourth forest

Forests have always played a significant role in the life of South Carolinians. The many benefits that flow from the wooded acres that make up the predominant land cover of our beautiful state accrue to all our citizens, both rural and urban. Many who benefit take the enhanced quality and enjoyment of life for granted. However, those of us entrusted with the protection and development of the forest resources must not only redeem these responsibilities, but must also bring to the forefront and attention of each person the values of these benefits. The publication of South Carolina's FOURTH FOREST report is part of that effort. The report is the culmination of many people's work and careful thought. Much of the report concerns itself with projections based on the best estimates of what will occur. The reality of the future can be very different from the "word pictures" printed in these pages. The result could be more disappointing, but hopefully the Fourth Forest will be more beneficial for our succeeding generations

Review of medical fitness to drive in Europe

Understanding the impact of medical fitness to drive is important as the driving population ages. This desktop study set out to examine older driver safety from international best evidence on various aspects likely to affect an older person’s fitness to drive, including the role of education, driver retraining, self-awareness, and cognitive preconditions. The review also reviewed the influence of medication and the role of the medical practitioner, as well as the effectiveness of mandatory licensing retesting. Key recommendations included the need for a standardised screening process across all Member States in assessing fitness to drive, consistent guidelines to assist medical practitioners in their role of assessing a patient’s level of safety, and promotion of materials to help older people make their own decision when to cease driving. A wider use of Medical Assessment Boards across Europe to ensure a consistent process in assessment of fitness to drive would be helpful and the development of an effective and transparent screening protocol based on functional capability is warranted when assessing fitness to drive among older drivers

Handling misclassified stratification variables in the analysis of randomised trials with continuous outcomes

Many trials use stratified randomisation, where participants are randomised within strata defined by one or more baseline covariates. While it is important to adjust for stratification variables in the analysis, the appropriate method of adjustment is unclear when stratification variables are affected by misclassification and hence some participants are randomised in the incorrect stratum. We conducted a simulation study to compare methods of adjusting for stratification variables affected by misclassification in the analysis of continuous outcomes when all or only some stratification errors are discovered, and when the treatment effect or treatment-by-covariate interaction effect is of interest. The data were analysed using linear regression with no adjustment, adjustment for the strata used to perform the randomisation (randomisation strata), adjustment for the strata if all errors are corrected (true strata), and adjustment for the strata after some errors are discovered and corrected (updated strata). The unadjusted model performed poorly in all settings. Adjusting for the true strata was optimal, while the relative performance of adjusting for the randomisation strata or the updated strata varied depending on the setting. As the true strata are unlikely to be known with certainty in practice, we recommend using the updated strata for adjustment and performing subgroup analyses, provided the discovery of errors is unlikely to depend on treatment group, as expected in blinded trials. Greater transparency is needed in the reporting of stratification errors and how they were addressed in the analysis

Using the CLEANED approach to assess the environmental impacts of livestock production

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio