Socio-Economic and Governance Conditions Corresponding to Change in Animal Agriculture: South Dakota Case Study

Understanding sustainable livestock production requires consideration of both qualitative and quantitative factors in a temporal and/or spatial frame. This study adapted Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to relate conditions of social, economic, and governance factors to changes in livestock inventory across several counties and over time. This paper presents an approach that (1) identified factors with the potential to relate to a change in livestock inventory and (2) analyzed commonalities within these factors related to changes spatially and temporally. This paper illustrates the approach and results when applied to five counties in eastern South Dakota. The specific response variables were periods of increasing, no change, or decreasing beef cattle, dairy cattle, and swine inventories in the specific counties for five-year census periods between 1992 and 2017. In the spatial analysis of counties, stable beef inventories and decreasing dairy inventories related to counties with increasing gross domestic products. The presence of specific social communities related to increases in county swine inventories. In the temporal analysis of census periods, local governance and economic factors, particularly market price influences, were more prevalent. Swine inventory showed a stronger link to cash crop markets than to livestock markets, whereas cattle market price increases associated with stable inventories for all animal types. Local governance tools had mixed effects for the different animal types across space and time. The factors and analysis results are context-specific. However, the process considers the various socio-economic processes in livestock production and community development applicable to agricultural sustainability questions in the Midwest and beyond

Surface-modified polyacrylonitrile nanofibers as supports

Polyacrylonitrile nanofibers (PAN-nfs) are one of the most studied nanofibres because of their excellent characteristics, such as good mechanical strength, chemical resistance, and good thermal stability. Due to the easy dissolution in polar organic solvents, PAN-nfs are mostly produced via electrospinning technique. The electrospun PAN-nfs surfaces are relatively in-active and hydrophobic, and, therefore, hinder some potential applications; however, chemical surface modification reactions, such as amination, reduction, hydrolysis, and amidoximation, have been carried out on them. These reactions bring about functional groups, such as amine, hydroxyl, carboxylic, imine etc, to the surface PAN-nfs and invariably make their surfaces active and hydrophilic. The surface-modified PAN-nfs have been used as supports for organic compounds, enzymes, and antibodies in biological studies. They have also been used for immobilization of various organic ligands for adsorption of metal ions in water. Furthermore, because of their ability to complex metal ions, several surface-modified PAN-nfs have also been used as supports for transition metal catalysts in Fenton’s chemistry.IS

Effectiveness of rapid diagnosti test for Malaria diagnosis in children under 15 years of age of Nchelenge District in the Luapula Province

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Tree-Based Ecosystem Approaches (TBEAs) as Multi-Functional Land Management Strategies—Evidence from Rwanda

Densely populated rural areas in the East African Highlands have faced significant intensification challenges under extreme population pressure on their land and ecosystems. Sustainable agricultural intensification, in the context of increasing cropping intensities, is a prerequisite for deliberate land management strategies that deliver multiple ecosystem goods (food, energy, income sources, etc.) and services (especially improving soil conditions) on the same land, as well as system resilience, if adopted at scale. Tree based ecosystem approaches (TBEAs) are among such multi-functional land management strategies. Knowledge on the multi-functionality of TBEAs and on their scaling up, however, remains severely limited due to several methodological challenges. This study aims at offering an analytical perspective to view multi-functional TBEAs as an integral part of sustainable agricultural intensification. The study proposes a conceptual framework to guide the analysis of socio-economic data and applies it to cross-site analysis of TBEAs in extremely densely populated Rwanda. Heterogeneous TBEAs were identified across Rwanda’s different agro-ecological zones to meet locally-specific smallholders’ needs for a set of ecosystem goods and services on the same land. The sustained adoption of TBEAs would be guaranteed if farmers subjectively recognize their compatibility and synergy with sustainable intensification of existing farming systems, supported by favorable institutional conditions

Quality of physical resources of health facilities in Indonesia: a panel study 1993-2007

The merits of mixed public and private health systems are debated. Although private providers have become increasingly important in the Indonesian health system, there is no comprehensive assessment of the quality of private facilities. This study examined the quality of physical resources of public and private facilities in Indonesia from 1993 to 2007

Addressing the paradox – the divergence between smallholders’ preference and actual adoption of agricultural innovations

Experiences in smallholder contexts indicate frequent mismatches between technologies introduced and needs of farmers who must make complex decisions in reallocating their limited resources under highly risky ecological and market contexts. This study proposes a cost- and time-effective, easy-to-implement approach to identify farmers’ priorities and critical intervention areas, and presents its application in guiding an agroforestry strategy in Rwanda. It was found that different tree species have distinctive enabling vs. constraining conditions under different agroecological contexts in the perspective of smallholder farmers. Tree species preferred by farmers were not necessarily widely adopted if multitudes of conditions were not enabling. The essential conditions for sustainable adoption include: quality materials/inputs are available; technologies are compatible with existing local farming systems; they are resilient to climate risks/resistant to pests-diseases; management is not complicated; and, there is guaranteed access to markets. The results show that there will not be a silver bullet national strategy to scale up agroforestry. Instead a matrix kind of strategies -to promote enabling conditions and address constraining conditions for priority species in specific agroecologies- will be required. The proposed concept should be further refined for wider agricultural technology transfer debates to break the myths of low uptakes by smallholders

On-farm trees are a safety net for the poorest households rather than a major contributor to food security in Rwanda

The world is challenged to meet the food demand of a growing population, especially in developing countries. Given the ambitious plans to scale up agroforestry in Africa, an improved understanding of the effect of agroforestry practices on the already challenged food security of rural households is crucial. The present study was undertaken to assess how on-farm trees impacted food security in addition to other household income sources in Rwanda. In each of the six agroecologies of Rwanda, a stratified sampling procedure was used where two administrative cells (4th formal administrative level) were selected in which households were randomly selected for interviews. A survey including 399 farmers was conducted and farmers were grouped in three types of agroforestry practice (i) low practitioners (LAP) represented by the first tertile, (ii) medium practitioners (MAP) represented by the second tertile and (iii) high practitioners (HAP) represented by the third tertile of households in terms of tree number. Asset values, household income sources, crop production, farm size, crop yield, and food security (food energy needs) were quantified among the types of agroforestry practice. A larger proportion of HAP households had access to adequate quantity and diversity of food when compared with MAP and LAP households. Food security probability was higher for households with more resources, including land, trees and livestock, coinciding with an increased crop and livestock income. We found no difference in asset endowment among types of agroforestry practices, while farmers in agroecologies with smaller farms (0.42 ha to 0.66 ha) had more on-farm trees (212 to 358 trees per household) than farms in agroecologies with larger farms (0.96 ha to 1.23 ha) which had 49 to 129 trees per household, probably due to differences in biophysical conditions. A positive association between tree density and food security was found in two out of six agroecologies. The proportion of income that came from tree products was high (> 20%) for a small fraction of farmers (12%), with the more food insecure households relying more on income from tree products than households with better food security status. Thus, tree income can be percieved as a “safety net” for the poorest households.</p

Socio-Economic and Governance Conditions Corresponding to Change in Animal Agriculture: South Dakota Case Study

Understanding sustainable livestock production requires consideration of both qualitative and quantitative factors in a temporal and/or spatial frame. This study adapted Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to relate conditions of social, economic, and governance factors to changes in livestock inventory across several counties and over time. This paper presents an approach that (1) identified factors with the potential to relate to a change in livestock inventory and (2) analyzed commonalities within these factors related to changes spatially and temporally. This paper illustrates the approach and results when applied to five counties in eastern South Dakota. The specific response variables were periods of increasing, no change, or decreasing beef cattle, dairy cattle, and swine inventories in the specific counties for five-year census periods between 1992 and 2017. In the spatial analysis of counties, stable beef inventories and decreasing dairy inventories related to counties with increasing gross domestic products. The presence of specific social communities related to increases in county swine inventories. In the temporal analysis of census periods, local governance and economic factors, particularly market price influences, were more prevalent. Swine inventory showed a stronger link to cash crop markets than to livestock markets, whereas cattle market price increases associated with stable inventories for all animal types. Local governance tools had mixed effects for the different animal types across space and time. The factors and analysis results are context-specific. However, the process considers the various socio-economic processes in livestock production and community development applicable to agricultural sustainability questions in the Midwest and beyond.This article is published as Welles, Jacqueline S., Noelle Cielito T. Soriano, Freda Elikem Dorbu, G. M. Pereira, Laura M. Rubeck, Erica L. Timmermans, Benjamin Ndayambaje et al. "Socio-Economic and Governance Conditions Corresponding to Change in Animal Agriculture: South Dakota Case Study." Sustainability 13, no. 19 (2021): 10682. DOI: 10.3390/su131910682. Copyright 2021 by the authors. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Posted with permission