Climate-smart agriculture, non-farm employment and welfare : exploring impacts and options for scaling up

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has been receiving increasing attention in recent policy dialogues for its potential to improve agricultural transformation, risk management, and welfare. This study seeks to provide evidence on the welfare impacts of CSA adoption and its complementarity with non-farm employment using household-level data from Ethiopia combined with novel historical weather data. The study uses a multinomial endogenous switching regression model to deal with selection bias and farmer heterogeneity. The results show that households adopting CSA enjoy higher welfare benefits than non-adopter households. Households experience a higher welfare impact (lower monetary and multidimensional poverty rate) when CSA and non-farm employment are adopted simultaneously. However, there is less evidence regarding the complementarity between CSA and non-farm employment when considering per capita consumption expenditure. The study findings will have important policy implications for climate change adaptation, resilience, and poverty reduction in low-income countries.African Economic Research Consortium.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainabilityam2023Economic

Farmers' willingness to accept payments for ecosystem services on agricultural land:The case of climate-smart agroforestry in Ethiopia

This study examines smallholder farmers' preferences for the uptake of contractual climate-smart agroforestry, which yields economic and ecosystem benefits. A discrete choice experiment was conducted with smallholder farmers in Ethiopia to elicit their willingness to participate in a payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme that incentivizes integrating faidherbia albida (a fertilizer tree) in their mono-cropping farming system. Attributes evaluated are "number of planted trees", "payment amount", "payment type", and "contract period". The presence of heterogeneity in the choice behavior of farmers warrants the use of the generalized multinomial logit and latent class conditional logit models to allow for farmer-and class-specific preferences, respectively. The results show that farmers derive higher utility from up-front payments. Farmers also strongly prefer food as the mode of payment than cash

Hemostatic Abnormality and Associated Factors in Diabetic Patients at Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a group of heterogeneous disorders of multiple etiologies characterized by chronic hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion and/or insulin action. Diabetes mellitus has been reported to disturb normal hemostasis by various mechanisms. However, data on hemostasis of diabetic patients in the study area are lacking. This study was aimed at determining hemostatic profile and associated factors of hemostatic abnormality in diabetic patients.METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted involving a total of 238 (119 diabetic and 119 apparently healthy) individuals who came to the chronic care clinic, Jimma University Specialized Hospital. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected through a structured questionnaire. A blood sample of 10ml was collected in EDTA (4ml), citrate (3ml) and chemistry (3ml) tubes to do platelet count, coagulation tests, and glucose and lipid profile analysis, respectively. Descriptive statistics as well as the median (25th,75th) percentile and Mann Whitney U test were used during data analysis.RESULTS: The overall hemostatic abnormality in diabetes individuals was 58.8%. The median (25th, 75th percentile) prothrombin time for diabetic and non-diabetic subjects was (12.8, 15.6) vs. (12.8, 14.2), respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The median (25th, 75th percentile) activated partial thromboplastin time was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.0001); (24, 36.8) vs. (36, 39.6). The median (25th, 75th percentile) fibrinogen level was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.0001); (277, 462) vs. (243, 328). The median (25th, 75th percentile) platelet count was also significantly different between the two groups (p<0.0001); (146,248) vs. (190,319). All variables were not significantly associated with hemostatic abnormality in multivariate regression analysis.CONCLUSION: An overall hemostatic abnormality in diabetic patients was found to be high. The APTT and platelet count were lower in diabetic patients whilst the fibrinogen level was higher. Routine coagulation tests should be part of tests among diabetic patients. Advanced coagulation tests should also be considered to identify specific markers so as to pinpoint the particular problem

Health care-associated infections and associated factors among adult patients admitted to intensive care units of selected public hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Healthcare-associated infections are illnesses acquired from an infectious agent or toxins after 48 h of admission. In low- and middle-income countries healthcare-associated infection is as high as 88.9%. Moreover, studies realized the intensive care unit is a prominent place for acquiring infections; whereas, there are scarce of studies, especially at an intensive care unit in Ethiopia. Method: An institutional-based retrospective cross-sectional study design was used to determine the prevalence and associated factors of healthcare-associated infections among 404 adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit from September 11, 2017, to September 11, 2019, GC at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College and Addis Ababa Burn Emergency and Trauma Hospital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2020. Variables that had a value of P ≤ 0.25 on bi-variable analysis were directly forwarded to be analyzed by multivariable analysis. P-values < 0.05 are considered statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval using SPSS version 20 software. Result: A total of 199(50.9%) study participants have had at least one healthcare-associated infection. Urinary tract infection 94(47.2%); and hospital-acquired pneumonia 89 (44.7%) were among the common infections. Of all healthcare-associated infections, 112(56.3%) were devise-associated infections. Among patients admitted to intensive care units for cases of respiratory failure, traumatic brain injury, and acute kidney injury, about 100(50.2%), 39 (19.6%), and 59(29.6%) of them have developed a healthcare-associated infection respectively. Length of hospital stay (AOR = 1.05), stroke (AOR = 4.34), central vascular catheterization (AOR = 3.41), endotracheal intubation (AOR = 3.6), antibiotic prophylaxis (AOR = 12), and blood transfusion (AOR = 0.49) determined to have a significant association with healthcare-associated infections. Conclusion: Healthcare-associated infection is a highly prevalent problem among intensive care unit-admitted patients in the study area

Farmers’ willingness to accept payments for ecosystem services on agricultural land: The case of climate-smart agroforestry in Ethiopia

Replication data for chapter 3: This chapter examines smallholder farmers’ preferences for the uptake of contractual climate-smart agroforestry, which yields economic and ecosystem benefits. A discrete choice experiment was conducted with smallholder farmers in Ethiopia to elicit their willingness to participate in a payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme that incentivizes integrating faidherbia albida (a fertilizer tree) in their mono-cropping farming system. Attributes evaluated are “number of planted trees”, “payment amount”, “payment type”, and “contract period”. The presence of heterogeneity in the choice behavior of farmers warrants the use of the generalized multinomial logit and latent class conditional logit models to allow for farmer- and class-specific preferences, respectively. The results show that farmers derive higher utility from up-front payments. Farmers also strongly prefer food as the mode of payment than cash. Moreover, low numbers of mandatory planted trees and short-term contracts are found to be essential attributes that positively affect farmers’ decisions to take-up a contractual arrangement to grow trees on their agricultural land

Within Growing Season Weather Variability and Land Allocation Decisions: Evidence from Maize Farmers in Ethiopia

We investigate if and how farmers adjust their land allocation decisions in response to within-growing season weather variability using novel crop-specific data collected over seven consecutive years. By focusing on maize-producing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, we show that farmers respond quickly to growing season weather variability by adjusting their land allocation decisions. In addition to quantifying a substantial adaptation margin that has not been documented before, our findings also reveal the presence of a weather variability-induced expansion of maize production into areas that are less suitable for maize cultivation