Households In Asia Research Articles

Diversity among Coffea arabica populations in southwestern Saudi Arabia as revealed by their morphometric features

Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) is one of the most important agricultural commodities traded worldwide. The livelihoods of millions of households in Asia, Africa and America depend on it. The sustainability of the supply chain of this crop is increasingly under threat due to the impact of climate change in the main producing countries in the tropics and sub-tropics. The resilience of these agro-ecosystems will depend on the ability of breeders to develop new coffee varieties that can better adapt to changing environmental conditions. Therefore, studying the diversity of coffee populations in the Arabian Peninsula could reveal agronomically interesting genotypes that can be exploited in breeding programs. The objective of the study was to evaluate the diversity among coffee populations in southwestern Saudi Arabia using quantitative morphological, pomological and agronomic traits. The analysis of variance of the data showed differences among the accessions for most of the measured quantitative traits. The accessions varied in growth habit, canopy shape and cherry, bean and leaf dimensions. Cherry fresh mass ranged from 96.5 to 234.8 g in 100 cherries while 100-bean dry mass varied from 9.3 to 22.5 g. The hierarchical cluster analysis divided the accessions into four main groups. The study revealed considerable variability among the 61 accessions. Based on this investigation, accessions KSA-7R, KSA-8 and KSA-9R from Tallan valley, KSA20, KSA21 and KSA52 from Fayfa, KSA38 from Eddayar district, KSA10 and KSA60 from Assir region and KSA61 from Jebel Shada are recommended for further investigation for their promising agronomic traits.

Rural household pluriactivity and plurilocality: a source of resilience to climate breakdown

Rural small-farmer households in Asia are characterized by a high degree of mobility of household members between places (pluriactivity) and sectors (plurilocality). These features are not well captured in Census and other large-scale statistics, or in common conceptions of ‘occupation’, ‘farm’ and ‘household’. As climate change brings increasing risks and unpredictability to smallholder farming, pluriactive rural livelihoods can be important in the adaptation of poor and marginal rural groups to the vagaries and risks of climate change, while smallholder farming itself can be an important counter to climate change. Family farming, according to the Global Action Plan of the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028, can contribute to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. A revitalized smallholder farming depends not only on active support from governments, but also on the emergence of a new generation of young men and women interested in farming. Will there be a next generation of smallholder farmers? Or will smallholder farming be abandoned by the new generations, leaving big capital and the multinationals to take over? Recent research shows that while many young rural men and women indeed aspire to non-farming futures, they also have a clear idea of what is needed to make farming a more attractive option, especially: access to land, to markets, and government support, and combining farming with other income sources, reflecting the pluriactive and plurilocal character of sustainable rural livelihoods.

Improving Gender Participation in Agricultural Technology Adoption in Asia: From Rhetoric to Practical Action

AbstractNew and improved agricultural technologies can transform lives, particularly the lives of smallholder farm households in Asia who are highly dependent on agriculture. However, there are large gender disparities in the adoption of such technologies. Many barriers exist in achieving gender equity in access to and adoption of agricultural technologies, from sociocultural norms and deeply rooted beliefs about gender roles to lack of agency and lack of resources to implement policies. Notwithstanding these barriers, the case for promoting gender‐inclusive adoption of technology is strong. In this paper, we outline the rationale for improving women's adoption of agricultural technology and discuss the pitfalls of failing to include women in the technology‐adoption agenda. We then explore the policy implications and suggest various strategies that promote gender‐equitable outcomes and that can be used to mainstream gender in agricultural technology adoption efforts to convert policy statements to practical and effective actions.

Trend in household energy consumption pattern in India: A case study on the influence of socio-cultural factors for the choice of clean fuel use

Solid biomass fuel use is closely intertwined with the life of rural households in Asia. However, its consumption and demand vary significantly across different countries, states and in various agro-climatic zones. Uses of solid biomass fuel in the kitchen not only leads to household air pollution but also influences the air quality in the regions of Indo- Gangetic plains. Considering this, current study assesses the household fuel use pattern and trend in India. Further, the socio-cultural, economical and behavioral factors which can influence the household fuel choice were evaluated through a case study from Punjab, India using a standard questionnaire. The decadal trend in household energy consumption pattern shows that 77.5% of rural households in India rely on solid biomass fuel for cooking. Further, during the last 30 years (upto 2011), only 2% of rural households shifted from solid biomass fuel to cleaner fuels. However, after 2011 data shows significant uptake of the cleaner fuels for the household cooking purposes. Results of the case study show that rural households depend on numerous approaches rather than relying on a particular source of household energy. This contradicts the energy ladder hypothesis of improvement in energy source with an increase in income. Cooking fuel preferences were found to be significantly determined by socio-economic and cultural factors. Thus, providing improved cookstoves or cleaner fuels are not sufficient to attain their sustained use. Hence, the current study highlights the need for effective user-behavior focused interventions to enhance the transition towards cleaner fuel for household energy.

Actively cautious

This article uses the case of a northern Vietnamese village to explore how rural households in Asia have negotiated both the opportunities and challenges of marketization and capitalist industrial modernity. I focus on the Vietnamese state’s push to marketize village livelihoods by means of mass establishment of industrial parks comprising largely Foreign Direct Investment factories in the countryside. The state expects young villagers to abandon low-value agricultural livelihoods and treat factory work as their only livelihood strategy and the lifetime warranty of their well-being. Yet while young villagers have been responsive to new opportunities of industrial employment, they have all treated factory work in ways very different from what the state expects: merely as one of their household’s diverse portfolio of livelihood options. I argue that villagers have handled the encounter with industrial modernity in ways rarely documented in the literature on marketization in rural Asia: as ‘actively cautious’ decision-makers, who actively pursue industrial employment to improve their family’s living standards, and carefully maintain a portfolio of livelihood strategies to protect the family’s well-being from the many insecurities of the industrial workplace.

Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: The Global Political Economy of the Household in Asia

Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: The Global Political Economy of the Household in Asia

Afterword: Global householding and social reproduction in Asia

The idea of global householding was introduced as an attempt to contribute to four dimensions of migration research: (1) the household as a basic social institution in decisionmaking about migration; (2) the ways in which migration contributes, or does not contribute, to the reproduction of the household; (3) the phenomenal globalization of households in Asia over the past 2 decades; and (4) the relationship between the reproduction of the household and reproduction of society as a whole. This essay highlights the contributions of the authors joining this Special Issue to these dimensions of migration and the household.

Rural-urban transformation and village economy in emerging market economies during economic crisis: empirical evidence from Thailand

Livelihoods of rural households in Asia increasingly rely on off-farm income and remittances while dependence on land declines. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of villages in emerging market economies like Thailand using a typical Thai village as a case study. Results suggest that both agricultural- and migration-oriented livelihood strategies can be useful depending on the macroeconomic conditions. In periods of economic growth, migration contributes to income growth. In spite of long periods of absence, migrants maintain strong ties to their natal village to better cope with situations of economic slowdown.

Symposium on Understanding and Influencing Consumer Food Behaviours for Health: Executive Summary Report

Food consumption patterns in Asia are rapidly changing. Urbanization and changing lifestyles have diminished the consumption of traditional meals based on cereals, vegetables and root crops. These changes are accompa-nied by an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases among Asian populations. ILSI Southeast Asia and CSIRO, Australia jointly organized the Symposium on Understanding and Influencing Food Behaviours for Health, focusing on the use of consumer science to improve food behaviour. The goals of the Symposium were to present an understanding of Asian consumers and their food choices, examine the use of consumer research to modify food choices towards better health, illustrate how health programs and food regulations can be utilized effectively to promote healthier choices, and identify knowledge gaps regarding the promotion of healthy food behaviour in Asian populations. There is no difference in taste perception among Asians, and Asian preference for certain tastes is determined by exposure and familiarity largely dictated by culture and its underlying values and beliefs. Cross-cultural validity of consumer science theories and tools derived from western populations need to be tested in Asia. Information on consumption levels and substitution behaviours for foods and food products, obtained using consumer research methods, can guide the development of food regulations and programs that will enable individuals to make healthier choices. Existing knowledge gaps include consumer research techniques appropriate for use in Asian settings, diet-health relationships from consumption of traditional Asian diets, and methods to address the increasing prevalence of over- and undernutrition within the same households in Asia.

Mosquito coil emissions and health implications.

Burning mosquito coils indoors generates smoke that can control mosquitoes effectively. This practice is currently used in numerous households in Asia, Africa, and South America. However, the smoke may contain pollutants of health concern. We conducted the present study to characterize the emissions from four common brands of mosquito coils from China and two common brands from Malaysia. We used mass balance equations to determine emission rates of fine particles (particulate matter < 2.5 microm in diameter; PM(2.5)), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), aldehydes, and ketones. Having applied these measured emission rates to predict indoor concentrations under realistic room conditions, we found that pollutant concentrations resulting from burning mosquito coils could substantially exceed health-based air quality standards or guidelines. Under the same combustion conditions, the tested Malaysian mosquito coils generated more measured pollutants than did the tested Chinese mosquito coils. We also identified a large suite of volatile organic compounds, including carcinogens and suspected carcinogens, in the coil smoke. In a set of experiments conducted in a room, we examined the size distribution of particulate matter contained in the coil smoke and found that the particles were ultrafine and fine. The findings from the present study suggest that exposure to the smoke of mosquito coils similar to the tested ones can pose significant acute and chronic health risks. For example, burning one mosquito coil would release the same amount of PM(2.5) mass as burning 75-137 cigarettes. The emission of formaldehyde from burning one coil can be as high as that released from burning 51 cigarettes.

Women and the Household in Asia

Women and the Household in Asia

Structures of. Patriarchy: The State, the Community, and the Household in Modernising Asia. Edited by Bina Agarwal. Women and the Household in Asia 2. London: Zed Books, 1988. xii, 254 pp. $55.00 (cloth); $16.95 (paper).

Structures of. Patriarchy: The State, the Community, and the Household in Modernising Asia. Edited by Bina Agarwal. Women and the Household in Asia 2. London: Zed Books, 1988. xii, 254 pp. $55.00 (cloth); $16.95 (paper).

Hajnal and the Household in Asia: a Comparativist History of the Family in Preindustrial Japan, 1600-1870

When Hajnal (1982) argued that different types of household forma tion rules determine whether fertility is adjusted to economic conditions in traditional peasant societies, he deliberately ignored societies with stem family formation rules. This study examines the relationship between household formation, fertility, and family relations in such a society—eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Japan. It sum marizes previous work on the history of the family in Japan and discusses the role life-cycle service played in adjustingfertility to economic conditions.