U.S. Food Aid and Agricultural Cargo Preference Policy

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/20/10.Food Aid Policy, Cargo Preference, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty,

Are There Gender Differences in Demand for Index-Based Livestock Insurance?

<p>Risk management plays a role in avoiding and escaping chronic poverty throughout the world, particularly for women, who are disproportionately negatively affected by shocks. Using three years of household survey data, administrative records and qualitative interviews, this paper examines the relationship between gender and demand for index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) among pastoralists in southern Ethiopia. IBLI appears to be equitably accessed by men and women alike and we find limited evidence of gender-differentiated demand for IBLI. We also find only modest differences associated with age and share of income from livestock.</p

U.S. Food Aid and Agricultural Cargo Preference Policy

This paper uses an unprecedentedly rich data set to estimate the cost of agricultural cargo preference (ACP) restrictions on United States food aid programs and to document some of the competitiveness and national security impacts. ACP cost US taxpayers $140 million in 2006, 46 percent above competitive freight costs. The unreimbursed cost of ACP to food aid agencies roughly equals USAID’s non‐emergency food aid to Africa. Furthermore, 70 percent of ACP vessels did not satisfy criteria to be deemed militarily useful and vessels ultimately owned by foreign corporations carried a large share of ACP food aid shipments

Effects of climate variability on freshwater fisheries in Cambodia's rice field fisheries: a longitudinal cohort study

Background: Projections suggest that by 2050, climate change will reduce global fish catch by 3–13%, with fish catch falling by as much as 30% in some tropical marine systems. Freshwater fisheries are particularly susceptible to the warming effects of climate change because shallower, hydrologically distinct water bodies are easily affected by atmospheric temperatures and less easily accommodate fish migrations. Damage to freshwater fisheries is a problem particularly for poor and undernourished human populations, which are especially dependent on them. Despite the severity of projected climate change effects on fish catch and the risk to human health, few empirical studies have examined how fish catch is already responding to climate variability, the ways fishers are adapting to these changes, and how it affects people's consumption of fish, which are rich in micronutrients and fatty acids. We aim here to account for behavioural responses among fishers to identify the ecological effect of flood and weather on fish catch in Cambodian rice field fisheries, and patterns of fish consumption and nutrition in the local communities. Methods: In this longitudinal cohort study, we use a panel dataset collected by WorldFish of 400 households dependent on rice field fisheries over 3 years (19 distinct timepoints) to examine how changing flood patterns and temperature alter households' fish catch and whether fishing families respond by either adapting the effort put into fishing (ie, hours, time of day, or number of family members involved) or fish consumption. We analyse the net effect of biophysical changes on household fish catch, the effect of biophysical changes (flood, temperature, and rainfall) on household fish catch and fish consumption with the addition of controls for fishing effort, a key way that fishers might adapt to ecological changes, and the direct effect of biophysical changes on fishing effort and fish consumption. Findings: Preliminary results suggest that from November, 2012, to November, 2015, fishing families changed their fishing effort and practices to adapt to the effects of flood and temperature changes on fish catch. Updated data and analyses will allow us to disentangle these effects by using an identification strategy to separate the ecological effects of flood and temperature changes on fish catch from the ways households respond to changes in fish availability. Interpretation: Our results have broad implications for understanding the ways that climate change might affect the 10% of the global population that rely on small-scale fisheries in low-income countries. Analyses of fish catch will show the effects of flood and temperature changes on fish catch and how households respond to these changes. Further, analyses of the effects on consumption of fish will show how temperature potentially alters access to micronutrient-rich food. Our findings suggest the ways that the changing global climate might affect the health and wellbeing of natural resource-dependent communities. Funding: Financial support for this project was provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Rice Field Fisheries Enhancement project and Cornell University's David R Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future Postdoctoral Fellows Program. The contents and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US Government

Analyzing drivers of fish biomass and biodiversity within community fish refuges in Cambodia

Freshwater social-ecological systems are shaped by site-specific characteristics, environmental change and annual fluctuations, and the actions of resource users and managers. Our primary aim is to analyze the relative effects of these multifacted forces on fishery productivity and biodiversity using the case of community-managed protected areas within Cambodia's rice field fisheries, known as community fish refuges. Our secondary aim is to take advantage of fixed-effects regression models, a rigorous approach that is common in other disciplines, yet novel to analysis of social-ecological system productivity, and allows comparison of each site to itself across time using observational data. We analyze the relative associations of site characteristics, annual fluctuations, biophysical modifications (e.g., deepening, creation of inlet/outlets, etc.), and governance capacity (i.e., community committee meeting intensity, fundraising to support illegal fishing patrols, etc.) with fish biomass and biodiversity within 40 refuges over three years. We find that seasonal and site-specific effects within this system relate strongly to biomass and species richness patterns. We also find an association between biomass and biodiversity and some elements of governance capacity building. Our findings suggest that in this setting solutions tailored and responsive to the local context may be most appropriate given the strong interannual and site-specific drivers. Methodologically, the dynamism and site specificity of such systems befits within-site comparisons over long time horizons to appreciate the factors that drive biomass and biodiversity