Exploring regional dynamics in Sub-Saharan African agriculture

"Identifying growth poles in the SSA region, strengthening linkages and generating mutual benefits across African countries is an important part of the strategy to promote agriculture-led growth at the Africa-wide scale. Using agricultural trade data, this study focuses on identifying major countries that play important roles in regional agricultural trade and commodities in which African countries have a comparative advantage and where there is potential for more trade within the region....Poor infrastructure and institutional barriers are among the major reasons constraining African countries to exploit their comparative advantage and strengthen their economic linkages. The model simulations show that opening the EU market is strongly in the common interest of African countries. Reducing African countries own trade barriers, both in agriculture and non-agriculture, can significantly increase intra-regional agricultural trade. However, the benefit of the globalization and agricultural trade liberalization to the African countries would be limited by poor market access conditions such as transportation and other infrastructure. Because of these, many African agricultural commodities can hardly reach domestic and regional markets, or be exported to the world. Without improving the efficiency of these nonagricultural sectors that provide critical inputs or services to agricultural production and trade, it is virtually impossible for the countries of SSA to increase their competitiveness in international markets." from Authors' Abstract

Heat shock-induced HIKESHI protects cell viability via nuclear translocation of heat shock protein 70

学位記番号：医博甲1686

Land reform in Zimbabwe

There is widespread agreement on the need for land reform in Zimbabwe as a means of reducing poverty. This paper assesses the potential consequences of a land-reform scheme that draws on proposals from Zimbabwe's government in 1998 and 1999. The authors analyze the impact of the reform on resettled farm households and as a development project for which they conduct cost-benefit analysis. The analysis, which considers costs and benefits during a 15-year period, relies on a set of models of family farms that are typical of those that would benefit from land redistribution. The cost-benefit analysis is more comprehensive, also considering the different costs and benefits that affect the government. The results of the analysis indicate that a government-supported land reform could be economically viable under what the authors consider as realistic assumptions regarding the performance of the beneficiaries and the costs that will be faced by the government and other stakeholders. Land reform can generate sustainable livelihoods for the beneficiaries. If viewed as a project, the NPV of the reform is positive for a discount rate that is as high as 20%. The project can also increase employment in the agricultural sector. The analysis takes a long-run perspective, covering a 15-year period. During the first resettlement years, some disruption of agricultural production should be expected. These results are preliminary and based on a partial equilibrium perspective. They are driven by the assumption that the land reform is carried out in a manner that allows farmers on the resettled lands to achieve their productive potential. Such an outcome depends critically on the assumption that the farmers are able to operate in an enabling environment, including critical government support, especially during years 1-5.TMD ,Land capability for agriculture. ,Land use Zimbabwe. ,Land use Economic aspects. ,Rate of return. ,Sustainable livelihoods. ,Poverty alleviation Zimbabwe. ,Agriculture and state. ,Farm income. ,Government spending policy. ,Agricultural productivity. ,

WTO, agriculture, and developing countries

The objective of this paper is to present a survey of trade issues in agriculture from the perspective of developing countries. Developing countries are a large percentage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, and agriculture is critical for their economic growth, poverty alleviation, food security, and environmental sustainability. First, this paper identifies trends in production, consumption, and trade of food and agriculture over the last decades. Some of the significant developments include the emergence of oilseeds and fruits and vegetables as the main exports from developing countries, replacing traditional exports such as sugar, coffee and cocoa. The trends also show a worsening of developing countries' net trade position due in part to income growth and population pressures, but also to economic policies in general, and trade policies in particular, both in developing and industrialized countries. Second, this paper focuses on some of the main development issues linked to the WTO agricultural negotiations. The objective is to align the different legal components and subcomponents of the negotiations under the Agreement on Agriculture, with developing countries' final objectives of sustainable economic growth, poverty alleviation, and food security. This paper concludes that the problems for developing countries are not legal constraints under the AoA, but the lack of financial and human resources and institutional capabilities. To link negotiations to their development goals, developing countries must consider the issue of funding. Finally, developing countries, most of which have embarked in unilateral liberalization over the last decade, should ask that the higher levels of protection in industrialized countries be reduced first.TMD ,

Nitric Oxide Produced During Ischemia Is Toxic but Crucial to Preconditioning-Induced Ischemic Tolerance of Neurons in Culture

The present study investigated the roles of nitric oxide (NO) in preconditioning (PC)-induced neuronal ischemic tolerance in cortical cultures. Ischemia in vitro was simulated by subjecting cultures to both oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD). A sublethal OGD (PC) significantly increased the survival rate of neurons when cultures were exposed to a lethal OGD 24 h later. Both the inhibition of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and scavenging of NO during PC significantly attenuated the PC-induced neuronal tolerance. In addition, exposure to an NO donor emulated the PC. In contrast, the inhibition of NOS and the scavenging of NO during lethal OGD tended to increase the survival rate of neurons. This study suggested that NO produced during ischemia was fundamentally toxic, but critical to the development of PC-induced neuronal tolerance

EXPLORING REGIONAL DYNAMICS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

Identifying growth poles in the SSA region, strengthening linkages and generating mutual benefits across African countries is an important part of the strategy to promote agriculture-led growth at the Africa-wide scale. Using agricultural trade data, this study focuses on identifying major countries that play important roles in regional agricultural trade and commodities in which African countries have a comparative advantage and where there is potential for more trade within the region. There are 10 largest traders in the regions either as large agricultural exporters or importers and they seemingly have potential to become growth poles in Africa-wide growth led by promoting agricultural trade. However, at the present, intra-SSA trade only plays a marginal role and that official trade data often significantly underestimate the actual trade flows between countries. In order to avoid historical bias, we focus on the potential trade opportunities by investigating whether a group of commodities in which some countries have a comparative advantage matched with the group of commodities imported by other African countries. We find that foodstuffs are among the most dynamic products in regional agricultural trade, as value of the correlation between the staple good exports and imports is high and doubles over the two observation periods, up from 0.34 in the first period (1990-1995). Poor infrastructure and institutional barriers are among the major reasons constraining African countries to exploit their comparative advantage and strengthen their economic linkages. The model simulations show that opening the EU market is strongly in the common interest of African countries. Reducing African countries own trade barriers, both in agriculture and non-agriculture, can significantly increase intra-regional agricultural trade. However, the benefit of the globalization and agricultural trade liberalization to the African countries would be limited by poor market access conditions such as transportation and other infrastructure. Because of these, many African agricultural commodities can hardly reach domestic and regional markets, or be exported to the world. Without improving the efficiency of these nonagricultural sectors that provide critical inputs or services to agricultural production and trade, it is virtually impossible for the countries of SSA to increase their competitiveness in international markets

LAND REFORM IN ZIMBABWE: FARM-LEVEL COSTS AND COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS

There is widespread agreement on the need for land reform in Zimbabwe as a means of reducing poverty. This paper assesses the potential consequences of a land-reform scheme that draws on proposals from Zimbabwe’s government in 1998 and 1999. We analyze the impact of the reform on resettled farm households and as a development project for which we conduct cost-benefit analysis. The analysis, which considers costs and benefits during a 15-year period, relies on a set of models of family farms that are typical of those that would benefit from land redistribution. The cost-benefit analysis is more comprehensive, also considering the different costs and benefits that affect the government. The results of our analysis indicate that a government-supported land reform could be economically viable under what we consider as realistic assumptions regarding the performance of the beneficiaries and the costs that will be faced by the government and other stakeholders. Land reform can generate sustainable livelihoods for the beneficiaries. If viewed as a project, the NPV of the reform is positive for a discount rate that is as high as 20%. The project can also increase employment in the agricultural sector. The analysis takes a long-run perspective, covering a 15-year period. During the first resettlement years, some disruption of agricultural production should be expected. These results are preliminary and based on a partial equilibrium perspective. They are driven by the assumption that the land reform is carried out in a manner that allows farmers on the resettled lands to achieve their productive potential. Such an outcome depends critically on the assumption that the farmers are able to operate in an enabling environment, including critical government support, especially during years 1-5