Essays on sustainable agriculture: Studies on water, deforestation and family farming

This cumulative dissertation comprises three independent studies concerning fundamental topics of sustainable agriculture. Chapter 2 draws from the absence of water data, which limits the development of economic models gauging water scarcity impacts. The paper makes a central contribution by developing an in-depth description of national statistics, international and global water databases. Chapter 3 concerns the relationship between deforestation data and widely used institutional indices. The paper offers empirical-based evidence about the relationship between governmental performance, public corruption perception and forest resources. Moreover, computer-intensive data management was employed to convert georeferenced raster data into a format compatible with economic statistical software and enable sample replications of large original data. Chapter 4 investigates the presence of spatial spillovers as providing beneficial opportunities to family farming credit in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit rationing is argued to target wealthier farmers engaged in livestock production while neglecting those producing crops. The paper employs a spatial Durbin error model of credit acquisition for husbandry and agricultural systems in 103 microregions. To enhance the paper’s discussion, 35 semi-structured interviews with key informants were conducted

Multi-stakeholder initiatives and decarbonization in the European food supply chain

The European Green Deal is a political milestone aiming to promote a carbonneutral economy in the European Union. Decarbonizing the complex food sector requires the unified interaction among effective climate policies, economic instruments, and initiatives involving multiple stakeholders. Despite increasing efforts to highlight the importance of innovations and finance to achieve sustainable food supply chains (FSC), comprehensive information about related opportunities and barriers to mitigating emissions in the food sector is still under-explored. To cover this gap, this paper applies an existing industrial policy framework under the lens of the EU FSC to identify potential strategies that should help achieve the needed financial means and innovation actions, as well as to gauge political alignment across FSC stages. Methodologically, the pillars proposed in the framework are linked to multi-stakeholders’ initiatives engaged in achieving net-zero emissions. The paper highlights three main implications of the identified interlinkages. First, political directionality related to the food sector should be more comprehensively tailored to account for the specificities of all stages of the FSC. Second, research and development projects shall likewise cover all stages, instead of emphasizing only food production and agricultural systems. Finally, multiple stakeholders are crucial as promoters of technology and innovation towards a green economy. Nevertheless, initiatives should be integrated into political discussions in order to promote civil awareness, sustainable food and services demand, aligned to political guidelines

PERFIL ANTROPOMÉTRICO Y NIVEL DE ACONDICIONAMIENTO CARDIOPULMONAR DE JUGADORES DE VOLEIBOL

O voleibol é o segundo esporte mais praticado no mundo, destacado entre os esportes coletivos e premiado como o esporte de alto rendimento que promove um crescente número de adeptos em diferentes faixas etárias e níveis de rendimento. Uma das capacidades físicas que merece destaque no rendimento do voleibol é a capacidade cardiopulmonar, tendo em vista que o volume e a intensidade do esforço físico durante uma partida são muito grandes. A pesquisa tem por objetivo identificar o perfil antropométrico e a capacidade cardiopulmonar de praticantes de voleibol recreacional com idades entre 18 e 30 anos na cidade de São José do Sabugí – PB. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, com amostragem composta por 17 praticantes de voleibol (Idade = 24 + 5,66 anos; Massa Corporal = 66,24 + 8,13 kg; Altura = 162,35 + 8,99 cm; Gordura corporal = 24,63 + 5,69 %, IMC = 24,96 + 2,39 Kg/m2). O voleibol é o segundo esporte mais praticado no mundo, destacado entre os esportes coletivos e premiado como o esporte de alto rendimento que promove um crescente número de adeptos em diferentes faixas etárias e níveis de rendimento. Uma das capacidades físicas que merece destaque no rendimento do voleibol é a capacidade cardiopulmonar, tendo em vista que o volume e a intensidade do esforço físico durante uma partida são muito grandes. A pesquisa tem por objetivo identificar o perfil antropométrico e a capacidade cardiopulmonar de praticantes de voleibol recreacional com idades entre 18 e 30 anos na cidade de São José do Sabugí – PB. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, com amostragem composta por 17 praticantes de voleibol (Idade = 24 + 5,66 anos; Massa Corporal = 66,24 + 8,13 kg; Altura = 162,35 + 8,99 cm; Gordura corporal = 24,63 + 5,69 %, IMC = 24,96 + 2,39 Kg/m2). Volleyball is the second most practiced sport in the world, highlighted among team sports and awarded as a high-performance sport that promotes a growing number of fans in different age groups and income levels. One of the physical capacities that deserves attention in volleyball performance is the cardiopulmonary capacity, bearing in mind that the volume and intensity of physical effort during a match are very large. The research aims to identify the anthropometric profile and cardiopulmonary capacity of recreational volleyball players aged between 18 and 30 years in the city of São José do Sabugí - PB. This is a descriptive study, with a sample of 17 volleyball players (Age = 24 + 5.66 years; Body Mass = 66.24 + 8.13 kg; Height = 162.35 + 8.99 cm; Fat body = 24.63 + 5.69%, BMI = 24.96 + 2.39 kg/m2). El voleibol es el segundo deporte más practicado en el mundo, destacado entre los deportes de equipo y premiado como un deporte de alto rendimiento que promueve un número creciente de aficionados en diferentes grupos de edad y niveles de ingresos. Una de las capacidades físicas que merece atención en el rendimiento del voleibol es la capacidad cardiopulmonar, teniendo en cuenta que el volumen y la intensidad del esfuerzo físico durante un partido son muy grandes. La investigación tiene como objetivo identificar el perfil antropométrico y la capacidad cardiopulmonar de jugadores de voleibol recreativo con edades entre 18 y 30 años en la ciudad de São José do Sabugí - PB. Se trata de un estudio descriptivo, con una muestra de 17 jugadoras de voleibol (Edad = 24 + 5,66 años; Masa Corporal = 66,24 + 8,13 kg; Altura = 162,35 + 8,99 cm; Grasa corporal = 24,63 + 5,69%, IMC = 24,96 + 2,39 kg /m2).&nbsp

Economic Research on the Global Allocation of Scarce Water Resources Needs Better Data

Water sustainability is central to modern political and academic debates. Despite increasing efforts to promote regional and global integrated water management, climate change, population, and economic growth, and increasing consumption of water-intensive goods project higher water deficiency. Robust economic analyses rely on information about water supply and consumption across different production sectors, type of procurement source (public or private water supply), and water prices. Nevertheless, developing current and future economic water assessments and indicators is impeded by the absence of data. Despite the lack of official national statistics on water withdrawal and consumption, a small number of international and global databases have been constructed and attempt to combine available national water information into databases. Water databases do not commonly define and/or distinguish terms such as water use, water consumption, water supply, or water abstraction, and the associated aspects of water scarcity and sustainability. They comprise variable data quality, provided by numerous sources, and estimated values. This paper evaluates the current state of knowledge of national statistics, international and global water databases. We describe the data collection methods, identify basic concepts and definitions of water terms, followed by the criteria of consistent water databases. We inform about data availability across regions, and present the data content and definitions of national, international, and global water databases. The results show inconsistencies of data content and definitions, suggesting no evidence of data harmonization among databases. Therefore, our study cautions researchers to be careful when manipulating and comparing the available water data, especially when deriving policy recommendations or economic conclusions. In the long run, the headway of water research and political assessments depend on political enforcements to refine the meaningfulness of water data and support water collection, reporting, and monitoring. Alternatively, in the short- and medium-run, water data challenges can be addressed by joint research efforts for water data harmonization

Rural credit acquisition for family farming in Brazil: Evidence from the Legal Amazon

Family farmers are important actors to sustain food security and job generation in Brazilian rural areas. The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF) is the main public program offering microcredits to family farmers to foster sustainable production and reduce the poverty gap. While poverty and income inequality prevail in the Amazon, credits seem to target wealthier livestock farmers, and neglect smallholders engaged in crop production. This paper assesses the factors influencing the monetary amount of credit received at the regional level and argues that stable production systems and strong credit mechanisms could facilitate market access, knowledge transfer, and technology adoption. A spatial Durbin error model is utilized to analyze the factors determining the credit received while controlling for spatial correlations in livestock and agricultural systems in 103 microregions, composing the Brazilian Legal Amazon. To complement the quantitative estimations, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with key informants from technical assistance, scholars, and banks managers. Results suggest a geographical interdependence of PRONAF microcredit allocation, where wealthier farmers steadily access markets and credits. Microregions where commercial banks are present and with higher production values receive higher microcredits, strengthening the economic advantages of wealthier farmers located in those regions. Therefore, in order to improve credit allocation, political actions should focus on targeting poor and vulnerable farmers lacking social networks, stable markets and financial investments

Advancing the water footprint into an instrument to support achieving the SDGs – Recommendations from the “Water as a Global Resources” Research Initiative (GRoW)

The water footprint has developed into a widely-used concept to examine water use and resulting local impacts caused during agricultural and industrial production. Building on recent advancements in the water footprint concept, it can be an effective steering instrument to support, inter alia, achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) - SDG 6 in particular. Within the research program “Water as a Global Resource” (GRoW), an initiative of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, a number of research projects currently apply and enhance the water footprint concept in order to identify areas where water is being used inefficiently and implement practical optimization measures (see imprint for more information). With this paper, we aim to raise awareness on the potential of the water footprint concept to inform decision-making in the public and private sectors towards improved water management and achieving the SDGs.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel – 202