Conclusion: Hanging by a Thread: The Future of Cotton in Africa

Several broad themes emerge from the chapters in this volume. While declining world prices are a serious issue, the ability of farmers to weather declines in prices is often determined by national and local issues. These include government policy, institutions that provide marketing and supply services, access to resources such as land, labor, and agricultural inputs, and individual decision making. Despite declining world prices, some cotton growing economies have had success with cotton production while others have not fared well. In particular, the failure of cotton institutions in many countries is striking.Whether it comes to managing input distribution, new technologies, or marketing, cotton institutions are failing African farmers. Prices offered to farmers in West Africa declined from 2003 to 2007 at the same time that input prices increased in many countries, making cotton production precarious for local producers. Problems with corruption, particularly in the marketing and transportation of cotton, have made cotton difficult for poorer farmers, who are cash constrained. Late payments, a theme of many chapters in this book, have put farmers in a bind, constraining them to sell food crops (which must often be repurchased later in the season for a higher price) in order to settle debts. One of the results of this squeeze has been high levels of indebtedness. Cotton farmers must borrow large amounts of money for inputs, sometimes equaling almost half of what they expect to gain at the end of the season. The risks of crop failure are high, for many reasons, from household labor shortages to late pickup, to unforeseen natural disaster. These risks become less and less justifiable as cotton prices decline

Introduction: Cotton, Globalization, and Poverty in Africa

This volume employs a modified commodity chain approach, focusing on the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of cotton production in Africa, and the links between this production and the global market. Individual chapters may examine one or multiple levels in the commodity chain and employ different theoretical approaches, from ethnography, to agroecology, to political ecology, to classic economic analysis. We want to acknowledge, however, that while the commodity chain is an important part of cotton dynamics, it is not the only force at work in African cotton. There are new and interesting developments outside the commodity chain that work for change. Networks of African farmers are linking up with international activists and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to change how cotton is grown, working to reduce pesticide use, limit genetically modified organisms, and affect international pricing policies, particularly the subsidies that the developed world gives to their farmers. This is a new and dynamic form of globalization that has direct implications for the livelihoods and well-being of Africa’s cotton farmers. We finally note that this book also seeks to update the story of cotton in Africa. While previous texts have provided a historical overview of the development of cotton production Africa—most notably Isaacman and Roberts’s Cotton, Colonialism, and Social History in Sub-Saharan Africa (1995)—this volume offers an analysis of the situation in the postcolonial period

Are you translating research into clinical practice? What to think about when it does not seem to be working

Introduction : The value of clinical research can be lost in translation and implementation. One often overlooked issue is whether clinicians can determine if their patient is similar to research participants and, ipso facto, whether the clinician treating that patient will have the same effects as what was reported in a research study. We present five questions and clinical tips for clinicians

Neoliberal Policy, Rural Livelihoods and Urban Food Security in West Africa: A Comparative Study of The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali

This study examines the impact of two decades of neoliberal policy reform on food production and household livelihood security in three West African countries. The rice sectors in The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali are scrutinized as well as cotton and its relationship to sorghum production in Mali. Although market reforms were intended to improve food production, the net result was an increasing reliance on imported rice. The vulnerability of the urban populations in The Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire became especially clear during the 2007–2008 global food crisis when world prices for rice spiked. Urban Mali was spared the worst of this crisis because the country produces more of its own rice and the poorest consumers shifted from rice to sorghum, a grain whose production increased steeply as cotton production collapsed. The findings are based on household and market surveys as well as on an analysis of national level production data.Keywords: rice, Green Revolution, livelihood security, food crisis, agricultural polic

Performance of Farm Egg Coolers

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A two-decade anthropogenic and biogenic isoprene emissions study in a London urban background and a London urban traffic site

A relationship between isoprene and 1,3-butadiene mixing ratios was established to separate the anthropogenic and biogenic fractions of the measured isoprene in London air in both urban background (Eltham) and urban traffic (Marylebone Road) areas over two decades (1997–2017). The average daytime biogenic isoprene mixing ratios over this period reached 0.09 ± 0.04 ppb (Marylebone Road) and 0.11 ± 0.06 ppb (Eltham) between the period of 6:00 to 20:00 local standard time, contributing 40 and 75% of the total daytime isoprene mixing ratios. The average summertime biogenic isoprene mixing ratios for 1997–2017 are found to be 0.13 ± 0.02 and 0.15 ± 0.04 ppb which contribute 50 and 90% of the total summertime isoprene mixing ratios for Marylebone Road and Eltham, respectively. Significant anthropogenic isoprene mixing ratios are found during night-time (0.11 ± 0.04 ppb) and winter months (0.14 ± 0.01 ppb) at Marylebone Road. During high-temperature and high-pollution events (high ozone) there is a suggestion that ozone itself may be directly responsible for some of the isoprene emission. By observing the positive correlation between biogenic isoprene levels with temperature, photosynthetically active radiation and ozone mixing ratios during heatwave periods, the Cobb-Douglas production function was used to obtain a better understanding of the abiotic factors that stimulate isoprene emission from plants. Other reasons for a correlation between ozone and isoprene are discussed. The long-term effects of urban stressors on vegetation were also observed, with biogenic isoprene mixing ratios on Marylebone Road dropping over a 20-year period regardless of the sustained biomass levels