Purchase Of Food Items Research Articles

Diversification strategies have a stabilizing effect for income and food availability during livelihood shocks: Evidence from small-scale aquaculture-agriculture systems in Myanmar during the COVID-19 pandemic

CONTEXTDiversification is an important strategy used by millions of small-scale food producers globally to improve yields, farm profitability, and food security. Diversification can also enable small-scale producers to cope better with livelihood shocks. However, it is not always clear through which pathways diversification practices can stabilize livelihoods and food security in small-scale production systems, especially in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVEIn this study we examined whether and how diversification practices stabilized income and food availability in small-scale food production systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The diversification practices explored in this study included fish polyculture and integrated aquaculture-agriculture (IAA), and their combination. We compared small-scale systems employing different combinations of these diversification strategies, with systems that did not contain them. METHODSWe analyzed 300 surveys of small-scale aquaculture producers in Myanmar. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the multivariate relationships between the adoption of diversification practices among the small-scale producers, and whether and how the adoption stabilized their livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSWe find that the integration of diversification practices in different small-scale aquaculture-agriculture (SSAA) production systems had generally positive effects for the stabilization of income, food availability or both during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of the study is the unraveling of the differentiated pathways between production models that enabled these stabilization processes emerge. We find major divergences in the stabilization potential between polyculture and IAA, both in terms of the magnitudes of the stabilization effects and the pathways. Polyculture generally offered more significant stabilizing effects than IAA. Surprisingly the highest and more significant positive effects for the stabilization of food availability came through the purchase of food items from extra fish/crop income, rather than their increased self-consumption. SIGNIFICANCEOverall, the SSAA production systems combining different diversification practices could form proactive strategies to help small-scale food producers cope with livelihood shocks.

DROUGHT COPING STRATEGIES BY SMALLHOLDER CATTLE FARMERS IN ZIMBABWE

<p><strong>Background: </strong>The severity of drought in sub-Saharan Africa has led to crop failure and high mortalities of cattle. For decade’s drought-induced losses have been a persistent struggle for herded animals on rangelands. Persistent droughts have caused significant cattle losses, yet drought warning signs are not communicated in time to prepare farmers for adaptation and or mitigation. <strong>Objective: </strong>To analyse the adoption of drought coping strategies by smallholder beef farmers in Zaka District. <strong>Methodology:</strong> The sustainable livelihood framework guided the study in assessing the community adaptive strategies. Multi-stage cluster sampling method was employed and questionnaires were used to collect data. A chi-square test was used to evaluate the association between demographic characteristics and drought copping and mitigation strategies. A logit model and maximum likelihood estimation procedure was used to analyse the factors influencing adoption. <strong>Results: </strong>The results indicated that age and education status influenced (P < 0.05) drought copping strategies. Cattle disease and droughts were the major causes of cattle loses 38 and 35% respectively. Supplementary feeding, cattle disposal and lease grazing major were the adopted strategies. It was also found that farmer education level and access to agricultural training influenced adoption (P < 0.05). Cattle mortality, drought experience and crop losses are driving factors to adoption. Purchase of food items and its payment of medical bills are the major (P<0.05) reasons for selling beef cattle. <strong>Implications: </strong>Given the forecasts of future drought cycles, it is imperative that farmer’s establishment of drought feeding schemes, forage harvesting, investing in commercial protein supplements and communal breeding programs for drought-tolerant cattle be implemented. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>Cattle disposal, supplementary feeding and lease grazing are the adopted drought mitigatory strategies by beef communal farmers, yet these are only short term. Long term grazing strategies are recommended in order to reduce further cattle losses.</p>

Using Positive Nudge to Promote Healthy Eating at Worksite: A Food Labeling Intervention.

To assess the effect and transferability of a workplace food labeling intervention. Employees' purchase of food items in cafeterias of an international company was monitored in six intervention sites (one in France and five in the United States [US]) where green-labels were displayed in healthy food items. One cafeteria in France represented the control site. Descriptive statistics were performed inter- and intra-site. One year after the intervention, purchase of labeled items was higher in the French intervention site compared with the control (P < 0.001). This consumption was increasing 2 years after the intervention (P < 0.001). The percentage (+8.0% from T0 to T1) of sales of labeled items from the US sites confirmed the transferability of this intervention. Workplace food labeling using positive nudge can contribute to healthy eating habits among employees. This can be replicated in other worksite cafeterias.

A structured process to create datasets with nutritional information

There is a lack of datasets in Colombia that characterize the nutritional components and other similar information about food items. This study describes a structured process to develop datasets that captures the preferences and purchases of food items by a selected group of people. The datasets would classify products according to their sodium and sugar content. The outcome of this structured process would include three datasets, each with a different focus: the first contains data on food preferences, the second contains the purchase history according to the invoices obtained, and the third contains characteristics of the food items such as its brand, category, sodium and sugar content levels, among others.

Smallholder Maize Farmers’ Food Consumption Expenditures in Ghana: The Mediating Role of Commercialization

This paper examines the effect of smallholder maize farmers’ commercialization on their household food consumption expenditures in Ghana using data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey Round Five (GLSS5). The results indicate that the intensity of smallholder maize commercialization is generally low and that better output price, quantity of maize produced, farm size, type of market or point of sale, access to mobile phone network coverage, proportion of crops given to landlord, instant payment for maize sold, are inter alia key incentive variables that influence the intensity of maize commercialization. The study also revealed that intensity of maize commercialization positively influenced food consumption expenditures. Increases in the sale of maize results in increases in purchases of food items needed to address household food security needs. These findings demonstrate the urgent need to strengthen smallholder market integration initiatives, encourage market information delivery systems, and establish more retail outlets with improved market facilities in order to promote production and trade in high value cereals such as maize in Ghana

The Impact of Non-Traditional Export Agriculture on Income and Food Availability in Guatemala: An Intra-Household Perspective

This paper assesses the impact of non-traditional agriculture exports (NTAE) in highland Guatemala on the level and distribution of household income, and the financing and purchase of food items. Heckman's two-step procedure was used to control for self-selection of NTAE producers and potential correlation of preferences. Farmers with greater extension of land, as well as younger Catholic farmers with higher-quality land, are most likely to adopt the new crops (broccoli, snow peas (mange-tout!), and NTAE crops are highly profitable for those who adopt them. Despite the widespread use of female labour in the production of NTAE crops, the extent of adoption is not negatively associated with women's ability to generate independent income. Land devoted to the new crops also exhibits a strong positive relationship with subsistence production of corn and beans. Weak evidence supports the hypothesis that distinct intra-household income transfer patterns obtained in NTAE crop-adopting households compared with non-adopting households: in the former, the level of the weekly food allowance provided to women by their husbands is less responsive to changes in both household and female income, making women's earnings a more important overall determinant of food expenditure. A simulation exercise showed that households that have not adopted new crops would use increases in income to augment food expenditures to a much greater extent than adopting households. Within adopting households, the impact of increases in women's income on food expenditures is nearly double that of increases in men's income. Women's flexibility with regard to the allocation of their labour time and income plays an important role in the relative success of non-traditional agriculture as a means of improving household food availability. Improving the food consumption of poor households is often an important implicit or explicit goal of income-generating strategies such as the promotion of non-traditional agricultural export (NTAE) crops. However, a fair amount of controversy surrounds the strength of the relationship between increases in household income and greater access to and intake of nutritious foods. This is particularly the case when those increases in income are based on the displacement of subsistence crops and/or are biased in flavour of men, who may have less propensity than women to spend marginal income gains on food for the family. The nutritional impact of NTAE in highland Guatemala was assessed in a conceptual framework that accounts for the mediating influences of changes in household income, subsistence food production, and alterations in intra-household resource transfers. The data were drawn from a survey of over 300 rural households in five central highland communities between October 1990 and August 1991.