Healthy Rice Consumption Behaviour in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar

Myanmar is still facing challenges related to nutrition, including prevalent health issues like anemia, stunting, and wasting. Anemia, specifically, is acknowledged as a public health concern in the country. Simultaneously, the incidence of non-communicable diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes is on the rise, contributing to increased morbidity and mortality. Myanmar exhibits a high per capita consumption of rice, making healthy rice a culturally adaptable solution to address its nutrition-related health challenges. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the factors influencing the choice of healthy rice among Myanmar rice consumers. Data for this study were collected from 481 rice consumers in Nay Pyi Taw, the capital of Myanmar, between September and October 2023. Descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test, and binomial logit model were employed to achieve the study objectives. Only 18% of rice consumers reported choosing healthy rice. Several factors drive rice consumers to choose healthy rice, including the education level of the respondent, the presence of children or elderly household members, household monthly income, knowledge score, and habitual health-related behaviour score. While knowledge significantly influences consumption, its impact is mediated by factors such as income. Therefore, targeted knowledge-sharing programs should prioritize medium-income group consumers with vulnerable households for optimal effectiveness. The habitual health-related behaviour score showed a highly significant association with healthy rice consumption, emphasizing the need to promote good health habits, such as exercise routines, by providing facilities and creating environments conducive to physical activities, given the currently limited access in Myanmar

Facilitating earthquake-affected rural women communities toward sustainable livelihoods and agriculture

Women open school participatory learning approach was used to build up the capacity of 1055 rural women of selected earthquake-affected areas of Balakot, district Mansehra, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in kitchen gardening and off-season vegetable cultivation, integrated pest management, pesticide risk reduction, poultry and livestock management, health and hygiene, and income-generating approaches. Community-based collective learning was found to be effective for changing rural women's perception about pesticides, role in agriculture, home, and contribution to household income as well as in decision making. It also improved knowledge, awareness, confidence, self-awareness, agricultural practices, social interactions, and enhanced motivation for revival of livelihood

Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting health and economies across the world, although the nature of direct and indirect effects on Asian agrifood systems and food security has not yet been well understood. Objectives: This paper assesses the initial responses of major farming and food systems to COVID-19 in 25 Asian countries, and considers the implications for resilience, food and nutrition security and recovery policies by the governments. Methods: A conceptual systems model was specified including key pathways linking the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 to the resilience and performance of the four principal Asian farming and food systems, viz, lowland rice based; irrigated wheat based; hill mixed; and dryland mixed systems. Based on this framework, a systematic survey of 2504 key informants (4% policy makers, 6% researchers or University staff, 6% extension workers, 65% farmers, and 19% others) in 20 Asian countries was conducted and the results assessed and analysed. Results and conclusion: The principal Asian farming and food systems were moderately resilient to COVID-19, reinforced by government policies in many countries that prioritized food availability and affordability. Rural livelihoods and food security were affected primarily because of disruptions to local labour markets (especially for off-farm work), farm produce markets (notably for perishable foods) and input supply chains (i.e., seeds and fertilisers). The overall effects on system performance were most severe in the irrigated wheat based system and least severe in the hill mixed system, associated in the latter case with greater resilience and diversification and less dependence on external inputs and long market chains. Farming and food systems' resilience and sustainability are critical considerations for recovery policies and programmes, especially in relation to economic performance that initially recovered more slowly than productivity, natural resources status and social capital. Overall, the resilience of Asian farming and food systems was strong because of inherent systems characteristics reinforced by public policies that prioritized staple food production and distribution as well as complementary welfare programmes. With the substantial risks to plant- and animal-sourced food supplies from future zoonoses and the institutional vulnerabilities revealed by COVID-19, efforts to improve resilience should be central to recovery programmes. Significance: This study was the first Asia-wide systems assessment of the effects of COVID-19 on agriculture and food systems, differentiating the effects of the pandemic across the four principal regional farming and food systems in the region

Agricultural sustainability in developing countries: an assessment of the relationships between drivers and indicators in Hoa Binh Province, Vietnam

Indicator-based methods have been extensively used to assess agricultural sustainability. Their main weakness has been a focus on the outcomes, revealing little about the causes of these outcomes because drivers of sustainability, and interactions among indicators and drivers, are not explicitly addressed. This makes it difficult to identify systemic policy levers and potential unintended consequences of policies. Our research took a systemic approach to sustainability assessment and explored relationships between indicators and drivers within the small scale farming systems of Hoa Binh Province, Vietnam. Our results highlight rather poor sustainability performance. Crop yield and net farm income were low. Food self-sufficiency was a problem. Households were dependent on high rates of chemical fertilizers and pesticides while pest and disease occurrence was reportedly increasing. Irrigation water shortages were also an issue. We also found many interrelationships among drivers and indicators of agricultural sustainability. Household location, education level, labor availability, and ethnic minority membership were highly connected drivers that influenced several other drivers and indicators directly or indirectly. Policies targeted at these are likely to have broad systemic effects on sustainability performance. However, due to the connected nature of the system, there is potential for unintended consequences from well-intended policies