Road to Sustainability

Environmental concerns and the distribution of benefits along the Cavendish banana value chain in the Philippines continue to be an issue even as the primary agricultural export of the country has grown to be a multi-billion-dollar industry. Fairtrade Philippines seeks to improve trading and socioeconomic conditions in the industry. The study aims to examine the present context of the smallholder banana growers to gauge the possible demand and challenges for Fairtrade certification. We focused on small Cavendish banana producers in Davao del Norte, where 57% of the volume is produced. Given the current industry standards and Fairtrade requirements, individual small banana growers are not competitive within the value chain. Using quantitative evidence and a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and survey data, we have identified significant challenges faced by small banana producers. Low production, price, profit, export requirements, and the current policy environment put small producers in Davao del Norte at a disadvantage. Certifying small growers under Fairtrade will have challenges such as reliability of supply, lack of human capital, weak organizations, farming technology, and the preference of regional markets for other certifications. The Fairtrade campaign can explore strategies that encourage collaboration with multiple stakeholders to build the capacities of growers first. Our study reveals challenges that first need to be addressed before the good intentions of the Fair Trade movement are realized

Factors Affecting the Choice of Credit Sources of Cavendish Banana Farmers in Davao del Norte, Philippines

In the Philippine Cavendish banana industry, farmers incur almost PhP 500,000 per hectare for production cost. On top of standard inputs necessary for production, the spread of diseases and occurrence of climate extremes such as drought and typhoons would mean more costs for the farmers. To sustain production, agricultural credit becomes the fastest solution. Credit sources can be classified as formal and informal. Formal credit sources may include banks and cooperatives while informal sources include moneylenders and traders. The choice of credit source would have implications to the farmers. Informal credit, for example, could be exploitative due to high interest rates while formal institutions may have strict requirements. Because of this, it becomes relevant to understand the factors affecting the choice of credit source by farmers. Using a multinomial regression model, data from 187 Cavendish banana farmers in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte, were analyzed to determine what influences farmers to choose a credit source over the other. The results show that factors such as education, contract arrangement, and infrastructure level significantly affect the choice of credit source. Key findings also show that majority of the farmers loan money for capital, with the majority sourcing this from formal institutions. Results also indicate relatively higher interest rate for informal credit than formal credit. The results of this study can potentially aid the government in crafting policies and interventions relating to agricultural credit. Consequently, this study may enable reliable credit sources to be more accessible to farmers

Credit Access and Technical Efficiency of Cavendish Banana Growers in Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte, Southern Philippines

Cavendish banana substantially boosts the economy of the Philippines, which is one of the leading suppliers worldwide. However, production problems and constraints, such as the spread of diseases and challenging cost of production due to expensive inputs, hinder farmers to generate higher incomes. As such, access to credit becomes an important tool to afford better inputs, invest in equipment, and eventually improve production. Therefore, credit access could potentially increase farm efficiency. Employing data envelopment analysis, along with Tobit regression, this study aims to investigate the effect of credit access on technical efficiency level. Using 187 production data from Cavendish banana farmers in Santo Tomas in Davao del Norte, findings showed that growers with access to credit attained higher technical efficiency. Furthermore, farmers who borrowed from formal financial institutions reaped higher technical efficiency compared to farmers who sourced from informal financiers. The study concludes that farmers in a developing country like the Philippines lack capital and need available and accessible credit sources to purchase adequate volume of inputs necessary to maximize technical efficiency. Additionally, borrowing from banks and/or cooperative could give better efficiency. These results could guide government and other industry actors in designing future agricultural credit programs to aid farmers

Factors Affecting the Logistical Costs of Cavendish Banana Farmers in the Philippines and Its Implications to Profitability

Currently back in the second spot of the world’s top exporters of Cavendish banana, the Philippines has been giving this industry much regard since its rapid growth has been a significant source of national income and employment for the agricultural sector. Vis-à-vis its potential to improve the welfare of farmers, the industry also received a lot of contention due to issues on equity of returns gained by actors along its value chain, which is presumably dominated by multinational companies. For the farmers to enhance competitiveness, there is a need to increase farmers’ welfare by increasing their take-home pay. This can be done by improving access to markets with better prices, lowering costs, and enabling farmers to achieve efficiency, among others. This research would posit to look at the logistics aspect of the value chain in order to explore how this affects the profitability. More importantly, understanding the factors that significantly affect the logistical costs would also help farmers to strategize by minimizing costs incurred and consequentially increasing the level of profitability. Employing linear regression, factors such as banana farming experience, membership to cooperatives, choosing an ex-patio marketing arrangement, and access to gravel-type roads were seen to significantly decrease the logistical costs. Therefore, it is critical for the farmers to do their marketing through a cooperative and/ or allow buyers to assume transportation cost to transfer risk of losses. The need to improve road and infrastructure conditions is also recognized as one way to potentially increase farmers’ welfare

Determination of Photon Shielding Parameters for Soils in Mangrove Forests

The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), effective atomic number (Zeff), and effective electron density (Neff) values of soils in mangrove forests across the Philippine islands were investigated. In addition, ENDF/B-VI.8 cross-section data library was used for interpolating Zeff and Neff values. Photon energies considered in this study ranged from 59.5–1332 keV. MAC values were obtained using MCNP5 and PHITS Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and were found to be in good agreement with XCOM and values in literature. Results for Zeff were in good agreement with values obtained using Phy-X/ZeXTRa program. Each shielding parameter was investigated as a function of SiO2 concentrations

Bioethics as mental health? the core response on typhoon rai in southern leyte, philippines

Super Typhoon Rai recently devastated the Philippines in December of 2021 and consequently disrupted its public and mental health interventions. With glocality standing at the interface between the global and the local, the objective of the study is to gather the core mental health response of those affected by the Typhoon in the province of Southern Leyte. As a methodology, the paper utilized face-to-face and online qualitative investigation from selected key informants in the province’s towns and islands. The paper is significant since it aims to add to the existing discussion from a province not reported in recent literature from disasters. This study preliminarily enables the emergence of glocal emergency bioethics as a link to disaster mental health

Multivalent glycoconjugates as vaccines and potential drug candidates

Pathogens adhere to the host cells during the first steps of infection through multivalent interactions which involve protein–glycan recognition. Multivalent interactions are also involved at different stages of immune response. Insights into these multivalent interactions generate a way to use suitable carbohydrate ligands that are attached to a basic scaffold consisting of e.g., dendrimer, polymer, nanoparticle, etc., with a suitable linker. Thus a multivalent architecture can be obtained with controllable spatial and topology parameters which can interfere with pathogen adhesion. Multivalent glycoconjugates bearing natural or unnatural carbohydrate antigen epitopes have also been used as carbohydrate based vaccines to stimulate an innate and adaptive immune response. Designing and synthesizing an efficient multivalent architecture with optimal ligand density and a suitable linker is a challenging task. This review presents a concise report on the endeavors to potentially use multi- and polyvalent glycoconjugates as vaccines as well as anti-infectious and anti-inflammatory drug candidates

Microbiota Control of Malaria Transmission

This publication hasn't any creative commons license associated.This deposit is composed by the main article, and it hasn't any supplementary materials associated.The deposited article is a post-print version.Stable mutualistic interactions between multicellular organisms and microbes are an evolutionarily conserved process with a major impact on host physiology and fitness. Humans establish such interactions with a consortium of microorganisms known as the microbiota. Despite the mutualistic nature of these interactions, some bacterial components of the human microbiota express immunogenic glycans that elicit glycan-specific antibody (Ab) responses. The ensuing circulating Abs are protective against infections by pathogens that express those glycans, as demonstrated for Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria. Presumably, a similar protective Ab response acts against other vector-borne diseases.Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant: (OPP1024563); Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia grants: (RECI-IMI-IMU-0038-2012; SFRH/BD/51176/2010); European Research Council grant: (ERC-2011-AdG 294709-DAMAGECONTROL).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A glycoconjugate of Haemophilus influenzae Type b capsular polysaccharide with tetanus toxoid protein: hydrodynamic properties mainly influenced by the carbohydrate

Three important physical properties which may affect the performance of glycoconjugate vaccines against serious disease are molar mass (molecular weight), heterogeneity (polydispersity), and conformational flexibility in solution. The dilute solution behaviour of native and activated capsular polyribosylribitol (PRP) polysaccharides extracted from Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and the corresponding glycoconjugate made by conjugating this with the tetanus toxoid (TT) protein have been characterized and compared using a combination of sedimentation equilibrium and sedimentation velocity in the analytical ultracentrifuge with viscometry. The weight average molar mass of the activated material was considerably reduced (Mw ~ 0.24 × 106 g.mol−1) compared to the native (Mw ~ 1.2 × 106 g.mol−1). Conjugation with the TT protein yielded large polydisperse structures (of Mw ~ 7.4 × 106 g.mol−1), but which retained the high degree of flexibility of the native and activated polysaccharide, with frictional ratio, intrinsic viscosity, sedimentation conformation zoning behaviour and persistence length all commensurate with highly flexible coil behaviour and unlike the previously characterised tetanus toxoid protein (slightly extended and hydrodynamically compact structure with an aspect ratio of ~3). This non-protein like behaviour clearly indicates that it is the carbohydrate component which mainly influences the physical behaviour of the glycoconjugate in solution

Neoglycoproteins as carbohydrate antigens : synthesis, analysis, and polyclonal antibody response

The analysis and polyclonal antibody response for newly synthesized maltose-BSA conjugate neoglycoproteins is described. In this first proof of concept study, a simple carbohydrate antigen, maltose, was linked to BSA by reductive amination. An aglycone spacer was utilized to conserve the intact annular maltose structure and to promote the accessibility of the carbohydrate immunogen hapten during immunization. The neoglycoproteins were investigated by CGE and the number of conjugated maltose residues was determined by MALDI-TOF MS. The neoglycoproteins were then evaluated by immunization of BALB/c mice and the polyclonal antibody response was tested by ELISA as evidence for the presence of sugar-containing epitope-specific antibodies. Selective antibody binding was demonstrated to the synthesized neoglycoproteins with different (low and high) glycosylation degrees suggesting the possible use of this approach to generate antibodies. Moreover, the polyclonal antibody response was not inhibited by maltose or other simple carbohydrates to confirm presence of the neoglycoprotein-specific antibodies