| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Arvidsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Diverging Discourses: Animal Health Challenges and Veterinary Care in Northern Uganda
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Veterinary Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2297-1769. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- People in northern Uganda are currently rebuilding their lives after a lengthy period of conflict. To facilitate this, the Ugandan government and donors have promoted investment in pigs as an important strategy for generating income quickly and ensuring livelihood security. In this context, animal health issues are an acknowledged challenge, creating uncertainty for animal owners who risk losing both their animals and income. This paper draws on policy documents guiding the veterinary sector, interviews with faculty staff at Makerere University and with veterinarians and paraprofessionals in northern Uganda, and ethnographic fieldwork in smallholder communities. The aims of this study were to contribute to an understanding of the structure of veterinary support and its dominant development narratives in policy and veterinary education and of the way in which dominant discourses and practices affect smallholders' ability to treat sick animals. Particular attention was paid to the role of paraprofessionals, here referring to actors with varied levels of training who provide animal health services mainly in rural areas. The results suggest that veterinary researchers, field veterinarians and government officials in agricultural policy share a common discourse in which making smallholders more business-minded and commercializing smallholder production are important elements in reducing rural poverty in Uganda. This way of framing smallholder livestock production overlooks other important challenges faced by smallholders in their livestock production, as well as alternative views of agricultural development. The public veterinary sector is massively under-resourced; thus while inadequately trained paraprofessionals and insufficient veterinary support currently present a risks to animal health, paraprofessionals fulfill an important role for smallholders unable to access the public veterinary sector. The dominant discourse framing paraprofessionals as "quacks" tends to downplay how important they are to smallholders by mainly highlighting the negative outcomes for animal healthcare resulting from their lack of formalized training. The conclusions of this study are that both animal health and smallholders' livelihoods would benefit from closer collaboration between veterinarians and paraprofessionals and from a better understanding of smallholders' needs.
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| 3. |
- Arvidsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Pigs as a shortcut to money? Social traps in smallholder pig production in northern Uganda
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Rural Studies. - : Elsevier BV. - 0743-0167 .- 1873-1392. ; 94, s. 319-325
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent decades have seen a growing market for pork in Uganda. The government and donors have promoted pig rearing as a potential route out of poverty for poor smallholders. The idea is that upscaling and commercialisation of smallholder pig production can be a successful way out of poverty. Drawing on the concepts of trust and social traps, this article describes how pig production fails as a pathway out of poverty in post-conflict communities in northern Uganda due to tensions created by the focus on individual wealth creation. Results from ethnographic fieldwork reveal that there is a strong moral obligation in the studied communities for individuals who fare better to contribute to the community and share their wealth. Social tensions remaining from the period of conflict are stoked by the focus on individual wealth creation in pig production, resulting in acts of harming, stealing and killing other people's pigs. Locally these acts are said to be caused by “jealousy”, which for many smallholders is a more significant problem than disease in pig production. The findings suggest that poverty reduction measures would be more successful if they focused on distributed approaches aimed at raising the general level of welfare in communities and supporting the collective rather than the individual
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| 4. |
- Bartholdson, Örjan, et al.
(författare)
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Does paying pay off? : paying for ecosystem services and exploring alternative possibilities
- 2012
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ongoing degradation of ecosystems threaten future food production and the international community thus urgently has to plan for how to secure fundamental life-support services for the future, so called ecosystem services (ES). Examples of such ES are climate regulation, nutrient cycles, fresh water provision, etc.This report is focused on two distinct strategies to make land users in tropical rainforest areas continue to provide ecosystem services. The first approach, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), is an economic instrument designed at global and national levels. Several PES schemes are currently implemented in a global context where increasing human demands for food, fibre and fuel are accelerating competition for land. The overall aim of the PES projects covered by this report is to lower the emission of green house gas on national and global levels and they are especially directed towards forest areas. The PES projects specify that specific rural groups are paid if they agree to protect, manage or restore the ecosystem service provisioning system within their forest territories. This report highlights that many PES initiatives are being implemented with a ‘conservation perspective’, rather than seeing ecosystem services as integrated with production and livelihoods. There are also alternative strategies to manage ecosystem services. In this report we put an emphasis on an approach where production and conservation are planned for within the same landscape and production systems. Many smallholders already integrate and maintain ecosystem services in their agricultural/forest production systems in a long-term perspective, while producing food, fibre and fuel for the households’ own consumption as well as for sale. In such a system, the local communities are totally dependent on the ecosystem services to re-generate conditions for their agricultural production and/or forest extraction. The focus in such farming-forestry systems, using little or no inputs, which are totally dependent on renewable resources, is on how to increase agricultural/forest production by supporting local ecosystem services, such as soil fertility and structure, pollination, micro climate, biological control of crop pests, etc. The ecosystem services functions, such as carbon sequestration, then emerge as a ‘by-product’ out of these production systems. Increased soil humus in the soil and biomass accumulation are other examples of such ‘by-products’. We want to illustrate potentials and challenges with the aforementioned two approaches to secure ecosystem provisions, and how they are articulated within their specific contexts. This report explores these two approaches by examining case-studies in tropical forest areas in Peru, Brazil, Tanzania and Vietnam, as well as the experiences of EU-designed PES schemes for subsidies/support so as to achieve environmental protection in Sweden.
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| 5. |
- Chenais, Erika, et al.
(författare)
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Co-created community contracts support biosecurity changes in a region where African swine fever is endemic – Part I: The methodology
- 2023
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 212
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Northern Uganda more people live in poverty than elsewhere in the country. Small-scale pig-keeping is common and African swine fever (ASF) is endemic, spreading along the smallholder value chain. Biosecurity measures remain the only way to prevent and control the spread of ASF in this context. Previous research in the study area has shown that many stakeholders are aware of ASF, how it is spread and methods for prevention and control, but biosecurity implementation remains limited. Participatory approaches have been suggested in order to increase community engagement in relation to animal disease control, ensuring that disease prevention or control actions are guided by local people’s priorities and the promotion of local ownership of disease control. The objective of this study was to investigate the capacity of participatory action at community level with a broad inclusion of stakeholders to initiate change and greater stakeholder ownership to improve biosecurity in the smallholder pig value chain. Specific attention was paid to the feasibility of co-created community contracts for this purpose. The study was carried out in Northern Uganda in six purposively selected villages and included both farmers and traders. Centred on co-created community contracts on biosecurity, the study comprised repeated group discussions, semi-structured and structured group and individual interviews, as well as field observations. At the first meeting, participants were presented with suggested biosecurity measures adapted for farmers and traders respectively. Participants discussed each measure, agreed which ones to implement for one year, and co-created a community contract to this effect. During the study period, repeated interviews were undertaken and implementation support was provided. Interview data was coded and thematically analysed. Great diversity was observed between communities with regard to which and how many measures were selected, illustrating heterogeneity in the possibilities of biosecurity implementation and the complexity of livelihood challenges. The methodology appeared to be effective at instigating change, with all the communities changing some of their biosecurity behaviour during the study period. The intensified communication and cooperation around pigs in the communities reinforced the sense of group identity and the capacity-building offered at the first meeting supported implementation and appeared to be more important than the physical contract. Participants reported feeling empowered and described how they shared their knowledge, educated their peers and acted as catalysts for wider biosecurity change in their communities. These are promising results and indicate a positive attitude to both the agreed measures and the methodology.
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| 6. |
- Chenais, Erika, et al.
(författare)
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Perceptions of pastoralist problems : A participatory study on animal management, disease spectrum and animal health priorities of small ruminant pastoralists in Georgia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 193
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Small ruminants support the livelihoods of millions of poor pastoralist and sedentary households around the world. While pastoralists are generally not amongst the poorest in terms of assets, they are frequently marginalised in terms of their access to political power, health and education. This study was undertaken among pastoralist households keeping small ruminants in four regions of the country of Georgia. Small ruminants are an important cultural, social and economic asset in Georgia and are mainly managed in a transhumant pastoralist system. Georgia suffered its first, and so far only outbreak of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in 2016. This qualitative interview study was designed to acquire contextual understanding of local small ruminant husbandry and the livelihood situations of the participating pastoralists, and to detect historical, unreported PPR outbreaks. Focus group discussions comprising participatory epidemiology tools and other forms of interviews were used to explore small ruminant management, disease spectrum and management, and animal health priorities. The participants had experienced a wide variety of animal health constraints, with intestinal worms, braxy, piroplasmosis, pasture-related problems, predators and lameness emerging as priorities. No historic, unreported PPR outbreak was detected in this study, and PPR was not a priority for participants. Instead, the day-to-day reality of animal health for the pastoralists was characterised by co-infections of mainly endemic pathogens, and problems related to other challenges such as access to land, feed and genetic resources. The rationale behind the participants' prioritisation of animal health problems was supported by the need to pay extra attention to animals in order to avoid risk factors, keep animals healthy and minimise the negative impact of diseases or management problems; the various epidemiological and clinical parameters of the prioritised diseases; the economic impact of the specific problems and the zoonotic potential of diseases and predation. Even within regions, and within seemingly socially and culturally homogenous groups, there were important local differences in the problems faced by pastoralists that affect their livestock management. This study underlines the importance of a contextualised understanding of the local disease panorama and complexities in the livelihood situations of rural people when designing actions to improve animal health in general or, more specifically, passive surveillance as well as prevention or control measures. Finally, it is concluded that to achieve such an understanding, there is a need for participatory, scoping-style studies that specifically acknowledge diversity and power relations.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Feigin, Valery L, et al.
(författare)
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Global, Regional, and Country-Specific Lifetime Risks of Stroke, 1990 and 2016.
- 2018
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Ingår i: The New England journal of medicine. - 1533-4406 .- 0028-4793. ; 379:25, s. 2429-2437
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The lifetime risk of stroke has been calculated in a limited number of selected populations. We sought to estimate the lifetime risk of stroke at the regional, country, and global level using data from a comprehensive study of the prevalence of major diseases.We used the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2016 estimates of stroke incidence and the competing risks of death from any cause other than stroke to calculate the cumulative lifetime risks of first stroke, ischemic stroke, or hemorrhagic stroke among adults 25 years of age or older. Estimates of the lifetime risks in the years 1990 and 2016 were compared. Countries were categorized into quintiles of the sociodemographic index (SDI) used in the GBD Study, and the risks were compared across quintiles. Comparisons were made with the use of point estimates and uncertainty intervals representing the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles around the estimate.The estimated global lifetime risk of stroke from the age of 25 years onward was 24.9% (95% uncertainty interval, 23.5 to 26.2); the risk among men was 24.7% (95% uncertainty interval, 23.3 to 26.0), and the risk among women was 25.1% (95% uncertainty interval, 23.7 to 26.5). The risk of ischemic stroke was 18.3%, and the risk of hemorrhagic stroke was 8.2%. In high-SDI, high-middle-SDI, and low-SDI countries, the estimated lifetime risk of stroke was 23.5%, 31.1% (highest risk), and 13.2% (lowest risk), respectively; the 95% uncertainty intervals did not overlap between these categories. The highest estimated lifetime risks of stroke according to GBD region were in East Asia (38.8%), Central Europe (31.7%), and Eastern Europe (31.6%), and the lowest risk was in eastern sub-Saharan Africa (11.8%). The mean global lifetime risk of stroke increased from 22.8% in 1990 to 24.9% in 2016, a relative increase of 8.9% (95% uncertainty interval, 6.2 to 11.5); the competing risk of death from any cause other than stroke was considered in this calculation.In 2016, the global lifetime risk of stroke from the age of 25 years onward was approximately 25% among both men and women. There was geographic variation in the lifetime risk of stroke, with the highest risks in East Asia, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. (Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.).
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| 9. |
- Feigin, Valery L., et al.
(författare)
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Global, regional, and national burden of stroke and its risk factors, 1990-2019 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
- 2021
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Ingår i: Lancet Neurology. - : Elsevier. - 1474-4422 .- 1474-4465. ; 20:10, s. 795-820
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Regularly updated data on stroke and its pathological types, including data on their incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability, risk factors, and epidemiological trends, are important for evidence-based stroke care planning and resource allocation. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) aims to provide a standardised and comprehensive measurement of these metrics at global, regional, and national levels. Methods We applied GBD 2019 analytical tools to calculate stroke incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and the population attributable fraction (PAF) of DALYs (with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals [UIs]) associated with 19 risk factors, for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. These estimates were provided for ischaemic stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage, subarachnoid haemorrhage, and all strokes combined, and stratified by sex, age group, and World Bank country income level. Findings In 2019, there were 12.2 million (95% UI 11.0-13.6) incident cases of stroke, 101 million (93.2-111) prevalent cases of stroke, 143 million (133-153) DALYs due to stroke, and 6.55 million (6.00-7.02) deaths from stroke. Globally, stroke remained the second-leading cause of death (11.6% [10.8-12.2] of total deaths) and the third-leading cause of death and disability combined (5.7% [5.1-6.2] of total DALYs) in 2019. From 1990 to 2019, the absolute number of incident strokes increased by 70.0% (67.0-73.0), prevalent strokes increased by 85.0% (83.0-88.0), deaths from stroke increased by 43.0% (31.0-55.0), and DALYs due to stroke increased by 32.0% (22.0-42.0). During the same period, age-standardised rates of stroke incidence decreased by 17.0% (15.0-18.0), mortality decreased by 36.0% (31.0-42.0), prevalence decreased by 6.0% (5.0-7.0), and DALYs decreased by 36.0% (31.0-42.0). However, among people younger than 70 years, prevalence rates increased by 22.0% (21.0-24.0) and incidence rates increased by 15.0% (12.0-18.0). In 2019, the age-standardised stroke-related mortality rate was 3.6 (3.5-3.8) times higher in the World Bank low-income group than in the World Bank high-income group, and the age-standardised stroke-related DALY rate was 3.7 (3.5-3.9) times higher in the low-income group than the high-income group. Ischaemic stroke constituted 62.4% of all incident strokes in 2019 (7.63 million [6.57-8.96]), while intracerebral haemorrhage constituted 27.9% (3.41 million [2.97-3.91]) and subarachnoid haemorrhage constituted 9.7% (1.18 million [1.01-1.39]). In 2019, the five leading risk factors for stroke were high systolic blood pressure (contributing to 79.6 million [67.7-90.8] DALYs or 55.5% [48.2-62.0] of total stroke DALYs), high body-mass index (34.9 million [22.3-48.6] DALYs or 24.3% [15.7-33.2]), high fasting plasma glucose (28.9 million [19.8-41.5] DALYs or 20.2% [13.8-29.1]), ambient particulate matter pollution (28.7 million [23.4-33.4] DALYs or 20.1% [16.6-23.0]), and smoking (25.3 million [22.6-28.2] DALYs or 17.6% [16.4-19.0]). Interpretation The annual number of strokes and deaths due to stroke increased substantially from 1990 to 2019, despite substantial reductions in age-standardised rates, particularly among people older than 70 years. The highest age-standardised stroke-related mortality and DALY rates were in the World Bank low-income group. The fastest-growing risk factor for stroke between 1990 and 2019 was high body-mass index. Without urgent implementation of effective primary prevention strategies, the stroke burden will probably continue to grow across the world, particularly in low-income countries.
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| 10. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
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Beyond Cost Minimisation: Farmers' Perspectives on the Adoption of GM Fodder in Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: German journal of agricultural economics. - : Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH. - 2191-4028. ; 70, s. 84-100
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish farmers were surveyed about their perceptions of genetically modified (GM) feed. Livestock in the EU are frequently given feed containing imported genetically modified (GM) crops, with GM fodder often being cheaper for farmers. However, there is also a growing market for 'GM-free' animal-based products. While public concerns about GMOs have been studied extensively, less is known about farmers' views. The limited literature on farmers and GMOs tends to focus on the economic factors influencing their adoption. The present study contributes the perspective of farmers as members of the general public, thus including a broader set of factors known to be relevant for the public perception of GMOs. The results indicated that farmers were worried about: i) unforeseen consequences for the environment, ii) unforeseen consequences for human and animal health, and iii) the dominance of multinational companies. Farmers who could expect their farm businesses to benefit from existing GMOs were more positive, whereas those who were unlikely to experience any benefits or who could expect their farm business to be adversely affected were more negative. Nevertheless, adherence to a broader set of positive or negative values suggests that Swedish farmers' perspectives on GMOs go further than pure considerations of farm management.
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| 11. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
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Beyond the Genome: Genetically Modified Crops in Africa and the Implications for Genome Editing
- 2023
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Ingår i: Development and Change. - : Wiley. - 0012-155X .- 1467-7660. ; 54, s. 117-142
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genome editing - a plant-breeding technology that facilitates the manipulation of genetic traits within living organisms - has captured the imagination of scholars and professionals working on agricultural development in Africa. Echoing the arrival of genetically modified (GM) crops decades ago, genome editing is being heralded as a technology with the potential to revolutionize breeding based on enhanced precision, reduced cost and increased speed. This article makes two interventions. First, it identifies the discursive continuity linking genome editing and the earlier technology of genetic modification. Second, it offers a suite of recommendations regarding how lessons learned from GM crops might be integrated into future breeding programmes focused on genome editing. Ultimately, the authors argue that donors, policy makers and scientists should move beyond the genome towards systems-level thinking by prioritizing the co-development of technologies with farmers; using plant material that is unencumbered by intellectual property restrictions and therefore accessible to resource-poor farmers; and acknowledging that seeds are components of complex and dynamic agroecological production systems. If these lessons are not heeded, genome-editing projects are in danger of repeating mistakes of the past.
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| 12. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
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"Can we agree on that"? Plurality, power and language in participatory research
- 2020
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 180
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Participatory epidemiology (PE) is a method that gathers data from groups through focus group interviews and participatory visual and scoring exercises. The method is often used in poor communities in low-income countries where it is hard to obtain conventional epidemiological data. This paper draws on research on the public sphere and democratic deliberation, along with research on language and interpretation, to suggest how PE research could be better equipped to account for diversity in local knowledge, include minority views and acknowledge power dynamics. These aspects are discussed under the three themes of 'plurality', 'power' and 'language'. A review of highly-cited PE literature suggests that PE research engages with plurality and power to a very limited extent, and only marginally more so with language and translation. Examples are taken from the authors' own PE research on African swine fever in -Uganda, classical swine fever in Germany, peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in Eastern Europe, and Ugandan pastoralists' understanding of cattle disease to provide more detail as to why conventional PE studies might fail to record issues of plurality, power and language, and also to suggest how this can be addressed. With reference to the literature on the public sphere and democratic deliberation, and on language and interpretation, this paper concludes with some suggestions as to how to take plurality, power and language into greater consideration in PE studies in future, thus improving the validity and reliability of PE data.
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| 13. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
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Co-created community contracts support biosecurity changes in a region where African swine fever is endemic-Part II: Implementation of biosecurity measures
- 2023
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 214
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Smallholder subsistence pig production is common in Uganda and African swine fever (ASF) is endemic in the country, with its spread driven by human activities along the smallholder value chain. Previous research in the study area has revealed that many stakeholders are aware of how ASF is spread, its prevention and control, and have a generally positive attitude towards biosecurity. Despite this, even basic biosecurity is largely lacking. Costs, as well as a lack of adaptation to the local context, culture and traditions have been identified as factors hindering biosecurity implementation. Community engagement and local ownership of disease problems are increasingly recognised as important for improving disease prevention and control. The objective of this study was to investigate the capacity of participatory action at community level with broad inclusion of stakeholders to improve biosecurity in the smallholder pig value chain. Specific attention was paid to participants' perceptions and experiences of implementing the biosecurity measures included in their co-created community contracts. The study was conducted in Northern Uganda in villages purposively selected on the basis of previous occurrences of ASF. In each village, farmers and traders were also purposively selected. At a first meeting, basic information about ASF was shared and participants presented with a list of biosecurity measures adapted for farmers and traders respectively. Participants discussed each measure in farmer and trader subgroups, decided on the mea-sures to implement for one year, and signed a community contract to this effect. The following year, interviews were again undertaken and implementation support given. Interview data were coded and thematically analysed. Each subgroup chose a minimum of three and a maximum of nine measures, with wide variations between villages in their selection of measures. At the follow-ups, none of the subgroups had fully implemented what had been agreed in their contract, but all had changed some of their biosecurity routines. Some frequently recom-mended biosecurity measures, such as not borrowing breeding boars, were not considered feasible. Relatively simple and cheap biosecurity measures were rejected for reasons of cost, highlighting the participants' general level of poverty and the relevance of poverty as a specific factor governing disease control results. The partic-ipatory methodology allowing for discussions, co-creation and the option to refuse measures seemed to facilitate the implementation of measures that had initially been thought to be controversial. The broad community approach was deemed to be positive for strengthening community identity, cooperation and implementation.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
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Controlling Sustainability in Swedish Beef Production: Outcomes for Farmers and the Environment
- 2018
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Ingår i: Food Ethics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2364-6861 .- 2364-6853. ; 2, s. 39-55
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish beef and dairy farmers are currently facing a challenging financial situation. Simultaneously, beef farming contributes significant environmental impacts. To support farmers, actors from the whole value chain are now promoting Swedish beef as particularly ‘sustainable’. The paper draws on critical discourse analysis of interviews with and documents from the largest Swedish supermarket chain ICA, Swedish farmer organisations and farmers to study how ICA and farmers articulate sustainability and their responsibility for the same. Articulations are subsequently discussed in the light of actual environmental impacts of beef production and the distribution of power in the beef value chain. The findings suggest that negative environmental impacts and farmers’ struggles are largely hidden in the dominant articulation of sustainability. Furthermore, ICA does not use the power it has to steer consumers toward reduced beef consumption. We conclude with suggesting more open deliberation about current levels of beef sales and consumption and about what compromises to make when striving for ‘sustainable’ beef consumption.
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| 16. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
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Dairy farmers' perspectives on antibiotic use: A qualitative study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Dairy Science. - : American Dairy Science Association. - 0022-0302 .- 1525-3198. ; 102, s. 2724-2737
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An important step in limiting the development of antibiotic resistance is reducing use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. Much research in this area has focused on individual farmer behavior, aiming to better align actual use with medical recommendations. However, farmers' practices and reasoning around their antibiotic use do not reflect solely that farmer as an individual. Rather, practices and worldviews are guided by context (e.g., veterinary advice, peer pressure, regulation, and interactions with farm animals). Studies that jointly embrace farmer agency and the wider structures for this agency, however, remain scarce. This paper draws on theories of behavior as socially constructed, and in particular on the concept of the "good farmer," to interpret findings from a study of 7 Swedish dairy farms. The results show that all farmers have close daily contact with their animals, have strong emotional ties, and place emphasis on the importance of being able to judge animal health status by eye. Half of the farms use an automatic milking system, and for these farmers automation means better monitoring of animal health without losing contact with the cows. The local veterinarian is considered a positive and important authority whose advice is valued. Despite comparatively strict antibiotic use regulations in Sweden, the farmers do not report lack of access to antibiotics when needed. However, they report feeling disadvantaged in international trade and poorly treated by the Swedish government, which allows imports of cheaper meat and dairy products produced under less strict regulations. The farmers are well informed about how to prevent and treat common diseases. In cases where they do not follow recommendations, we found that economic and labor constraints are the reason rather than lack of knowledge. We concluded that structural limitations faced by farmers, rather than lack of information, impose constraints to further limiting antibiotic use in Sweden. Overall stricter arid more uniform global regulations on antibiotic use in animal farming could be an effective measure for reducing antibiotic use.
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| 17. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
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Detection of Transgenes in Local Maize Varieties of Small-Scale Farmers in Eastern Cape, South Africa
- 2014
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Small-scale subsistence farmers in South Africa have been introduced to genetically modified (GM) crops for more than a decade. Little is known about i) the extent of transgene introgression into locally recycled seed, ii) what short and long-term ecological and socioeconomic impacts such mixing of seeds might have, iii) how the farmers perceive GM crops, and iv) to what degree approval conditions are followed and controlled. This study conducted in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, aims primarily at addressing the first of these issues. We analysed for transgenes in 796 individual maize plants (leaves) and 20 seed batches collected in a village where GM insect resistant maize was previously promoted and grown as part of an governmental agricultural development program over a seven year period (2001-2008). Additionally, we surveyed the varieties of maize grown and the farmers' practices of recycling and sharing of seed in the same community (26 farmers were interviewed). Recycling and sharing of seeds were common in the community and may contribute to spread and persistence of transgenes in maize on a local or regional level. By analysing DNA we found that the commonly used transgene promoter p35s occurred in one of the 796 leaf samples (0.0013%) and in five of the 20 seed samples (25%). Three of the 20 seed samples (15%) included herbicide tolerant maize (NK603) intentionally grown by the farmers from seed bought from local seed retailers or acquired through a currently running agricultural development program. The two remaining positive seed samples (10%) included genes for insect resistance (from MON810). In both cases the farmers were unaware of the transgenes present. In conclusion, we demonstrate that transgenes are mixed into seed storages of small-scale farming communities where recycling and sharing of seeds are common, i.e. spread beyond the control of the formal seed system.
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| 18. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
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Does raising maize yields lead to poverty reduction? A case study of the Massive Food Production Programme in South Africa
- 2015
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Ingår i: Land Use Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 46, s. 304-313
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite much policy attention to agricultural development in South Africa, efforts since democratisation have failed to raise smallholder engagement in agriculture and to break the trend of persistent rural poverty. This paper presents results from a study of the Massive Food Production Programme (MFPP) in three villages in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The MFPP aimed to reduce poverty by raising maize yields. Following a trend of introducing maize varieties developed for large scale farming, the MFPP introduced hybrid and genetically modified maize varieties suited to high-input farming environments. These varieties did not perform well under smallholder conditions. In particular, they were highly sensitive to local storage conditions. Furthermore the restrictions on saving and sharing seed associated with new genetically modified varieties were resented locally. The results show how farming was most important for the poorest households who depended on it for their food security. While these households were in most need of agricultural support, they were also the least supported by the programme. Support with fencing, cattle traction, and locally attuned agricultural advice, which was not prioritised in the MFPP, would have been beneficial across wealth groups. Such support could, in contrast to the MFPP, lead to sustained and positive impact on smallholder livelihoods. In contrast, the strong emphasis on raising yields in the programme did not prove to have the desired effects on poverty. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 19. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
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Exploring the hurdles that remain for control of African swine fever in smallholder farming settings
- 2022
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Ingår i: Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. - : Hindawi Limited. - 1865-1674 .- 1865-1682. ; 69, s. e3370-e3378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To honour the 100 years anniversary of the first publication about African swine fever (ASF) a webinar with a particular focus on disease control in the smallholder sector was organized. This article is based on the webinar, summarizing the early history of ASF research, reflecting on the current global disease situation and bringing forward some suggestions that could contribute towards achieving control of ASF. The first description of ASF by R. Eustace Montgomery in 1921 laid the foundations for what we know about the disease today. Subsequent research confirmed its association with warthogs and soft ticks of the Ornithodoros moubata complex. During the latter half of the 21st century, exponential growth of pig production in Africa has led to a change in the ASF-epidemiology pattern. It is now dominated by a cycle involving domestic pigs and pork with virus spread driven by people. In 2007, a global ASF epidemic started, reaching large parts of Europe, Asia and the Americas. In Europe, this epidemic has primarily affected wild boar. In Asia, wild boar, smallholders and industrialized pig farms have been affected with impact on local, national and international pig value chains. Globally and historically, domestic pigs in smallholder settings are most frequently affected and the main driver of ASF virus transmission. Awaiting a safe and efficacious vaccine, we need to continue focus on other measures, such as biosecurity, for controlling the disease. However, smallholders face specific challenges linked to poverty and other structural factors in implementing biosecurity measures that can prevent spread. Improving biosecurity in the smallholder sector thus remains an important tool for preventing and controlling ASF. In this regard, interdisciplinary research can help to find new ways to promote safe practices, facilitate understanding and embrace smallholders' perspectives, engage stakeholders and adjust prevention and control policies to improve implementation.
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| 20. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
From Betterment to Bt maize : agricultural development and the introduction of genetically modified maize to South African smallholders
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Agriculture has received renewed attention in poverty reduction efforts in Africa in recent years, and there are hopes that GM crops could have an important role in helping increase smallholder yields and reduce poverty. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and livelihoods perspectives, this thesis examines the ideas governing the Massive Food Production Programme (MFPP), an agricultural development programme aiming to reduce poverty by raising agricultural production in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and its local effects when implemented in smallholder communities. In particular, the effects of introduction of Bt maize, genetically modified to be resistant to some potentially damaging insects in the region, were studied. The results reveal that the programme was not equipped to support the improvement of smallholders' livelihoods through agriculture. A core reason was the failure to break with a historically dominant unidirectional view of agricultural development, which was reinforced by a contemporary dominant neoliberal view of development as progress through growth. The programme thereby disregarded the effects of long-term marginalisation on smallholders' ability to engage in farming, and the associated need for substantial advisory, infrastructure and credit support to increase agricultural productivity. Local strategies for dealing with the effects of poverty were also unacknowledged; and practices and inputs originally developed for large-scale, capital-intensive farming were introduced without adaptation to smallholder conditions. The programme also failed to recognise the local heterogeneity of poverty, resulting in a bias towards comparatively better-off smallholders. The Bt maize variety introduced, like hybrid maize varieties introduced during pre-democracy interventions, was not adapted to smallholders' farming environments. It was input-demanding and sensitive to environmental dynamics, and it was promoted for planting in monoculture. Bans on saving and recycling seed resulting from patents, plant breeders' rights and new regulations to ensure the biosafety of GM crops were largely incompatible with smallholders' practices and further undermined strategies for dealing with resource shortage. It is suggested that cheaper, open-pollinated maize varieties, which can be recycled and are more tolerant to low-input conditions, could be better suited to smallholders' needs and practices.
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| 21. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
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GM Crops and Smallholders: Biosafety and Local Practice
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Journal of Environment and Development. - : SAGE Publications. - 1070-4965. ; 22, s. 104-124
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is currently limited knowledge about the effects of introducing genetically modified (GM) crops into smallholder farming or about how biosafety requirements are interpreted and adopted by smallholders. A case study was conducted on introduction of GM (Bt) maize to South African smallholders. The results reveal low general awareness about agricultural technology among smallholders and an incompatibility between smallholder practices and biosafety requirements. The implications are low understanding of biosafety measures and low compliance. Therefore, essential prerequisites for the safe introduction of GM crops to smallholders are increased smallholder knowledge on modern plant varieties and improved agricultural advisory services that better match the smallholder context. In addition, information about GM crops and biosafety implementation must be modified to better suit smallholders.
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| 22. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Governing Agricultural Biotechnologies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany: A Trans-decadal Study of Regulatory Cultures
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Science, Technology, and Human Values. - : SAGE Publications. - 0162-2439 .- 1552-8251. ; 48, s. 1292 - 1328
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comparative studies of agricultural biotechnology regulation have highlighted differences in the roles that science and politics play in decision-making. Drawing on documentary and interview evidence in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, we consider how the "regulatory cultures" that guided national responses to earlier generations of agricultural biotechnology have developed, alongside the emergence of genome editing in food crops. We find that aspects of the "product-based" regulatory approach have largely been maintained in US biosafety frameworks and that the British and German approaches have at different stages combined "process-based" and "programmatic" elements that address the scientific and sociopolitical novelty of genome editing to varying degrees. We seek to explain these patterns of stability and change by exploring how changing opportunity structures in each jurisdiction have enabled or constrained public reasoning around emerging agricultural biotechnologies. By showing how opportunity structures and regulatory cultures interact over the long-term, we provide insights that help us to interpret current and evolving dynamics in the governance of genome editing and the longer-term development of agricultural biotechnology.
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| 23. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Increasing the Local Relevance of Epidemiological Research: Situated Knowledge of Cattle Disease Among Basongora Pastoralists in Uganda
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Veterinary Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2297-1769. ; 5
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cattle disease can have severe negative impacts on the livelihoods of the poor, but still, animal disease management and outreach often remain suboptimal in low-income settings. In a study on Basongora pastoralists in Uganda, we examined local priorities, perceptions and practices regarding cattle disease, in order to improve outreach and disease control advisory work in such contexts. We also investigated how participatory epidemiology can be better equipped for gathering situated knowledge. Empirical material obtained in focus group discussions, interviews, participatory mapping, and wealth-ranking was used to perform a thematic, bottom-up analysis. The concepts of situated knowledge and embodied objectivity and insights from participatory research and interdisciplinary dialogue were applied to better embrace local perspectives. Cowdriosis, trypanosomosis, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, East Coast fever and anthrax were high-priority diseases for participants. Lack of control over the animal health situation and money invested in treatments that did not guarantee recovery were of general importance for disease prioritization. Participants' descriptions of diseases sometimes diverged from textbook definitions. Co-infections, chronic and recurring infections and lack of access to formal knowledge were identified as important factors for differences between formal and situated knowledge. Paying attention to situated knowledge and particular context-specific issues such as proximity to a national park proved to be of special relevance for local understanding and experiences with disease. Another factor was the local importance ascribed to number of cattle, rather than production levels. These factors need to be taken into consideration when formulating disease control advice, as does the complex disease landscape. The results reveal the importance of moving research and advice beyond curing "knowledge-gaps" and creating different ways of understanding disease so that situated knowledge can be considered, and disease control improved.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
No legitimacy: A study of private sector sanitation development in the Global South
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-4224. ; 38, s. 68-78
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What is needed for the private sector to successfully establish itself as a key player in delivering sustainable sanitation in the Global South? The present paper aims to offer some answers to this through the case of Peepoople AB, a company delivering a single-use biodegradable toilet bag in informal settlements. The company aimed to but failed in combining sustainable development of sanitation and financial gain for investors. We suggest that explanations for the failure can be found in the interaction between the company and the development– and aid organisations already involved in sanitation development. Through Strategic Niche Management, we look at whether the company managed to create relevant social networks, expectation dynamics and learning processes. The company gained legitimacy with end users, but failed to gain legitimacy in the development sector as it did not prioritise the kind of learning and competence considered relevant in the sector.
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| 26. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Pollen-mediated gene flow and seed exchange in small-scale Zambian maize farming, implications for biosafety assessment
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gene flow in agricultural crops is important for risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops, particularly in countries with a large informal agricultural sector of subsistence cultivation. We present a pollen flow model for maize (Zea mays), a major staple crop in Africa. We use spatial properties of fields (size, position) in three small-scale maize farming communities in Zambia and estimate rates of cross-fertilisation between fields sown with different maize varieties (e.g. conventional and transgene). As an additional factor contributing to gene flow, we present data on seed saving and sharing among farmers that live in the same communities. Our results show that: i) maize fields were small and located in immediate vicinity of neighboring fields; ii) a majority of farmers saved and shared seed; iii) modeled rates of pollen-mediated gene flow showed extensive mixing of germplasm between fields and farms and iv) as a result, segregation of GM and non-GM varieties is not likely to be an option in these systems. We conclude that the overall genetic composition of maize, in this and similar agricultural contexts, will be strongly influenced both by self-organised ecological factors (pollen flow), and by socially mediated intervention (seed recycling and sharing).
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Siloed discourses: a year-long study of twitter engagement on the use of CRISPR in food and agriculture
- 2023
-
Ingår i: New Genetics and Society. - 1463-6778 .- 1469-9915. ; 42
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gene editing technologies are emerging as powerful tools for agricultural development, spurring both hopes and concerns in society. To understand emerging discourses and coalitions around the role of CRISPR gene editing in food and agriculture we map the main actors and themes emerging from English-speaking Twitter networks over the course of one year (2021). Scientific actors are the most active and best networked in the debate. They promote a positive image of CRISPR gene editing and actively work to strengthen their network. A smaller but equally distinct group comprises civil society actors, who voice skepticism towards the technology and sometimes questions scientists' claims, but without eliciting responses from the scientists. We conclude that emerging discourse coalitions forming around the topic of CRISPR in food and agriculture on Twitter are siloed, with limited interaction between contrasting perspectives.
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| 29. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
Social drivers and differentiated effects of deagrarianisation: A longitudinal study of smallholder farming in South Africa's Eastern Cape province
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Journal of Rural Studies. - 0743-0167 .- 1873-1392. ; 106
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- South Africa’s smallholders have progressively become disengaged from farming despite their lack of alternative livelihood options, resulting in the deepening of rural poverty. Farming’s reduced role in rural livelihoods represents a wider trend of deagrarianisation seen across contexts and geographies. While most literature on deagrarianisation focuses on its economic dimensions, this paper places the social and cultural dimensions of farming at the centre of its analysis to understand why smallholders are becoming less engaged in agriculture. Drawing on Habermas’s concept of the colonisation of the lifeworld and on ethnographic fieldwork in four villages in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, we show how local social cohesion in farming has been undermined by a series of oppressive state policies. Recent agricultural development interventions have not managed to break with this trend, but instead continue to undermine social cohesion and reciprocity. The impacts of this loss of social cohesion in farming have been most severe for the poorest households who seldom plant their fields today. Based on our findings, we suggest that agricultural development programmes should aim to build on smallholders’ appreciation of agriculture, their remaining connections to the land and their sense of solidarity, rather than focusing exclusively on stimulating the development of individual entrepreneurs.
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| 30. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
Social Impacts of GM Crops in Agriculture : A Systematic Literature Review
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 7:7, s. 8598-8620
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- It has recently been argued that the fragmented knowledge on the social impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops is contributing to the polarised debate on the matter. This paper addresses this issue by systematically reviewing 99 peer-reviewed journal articles published since 2004 on the social impacts of GM crops in agriculture; summarising current knowledge, and identifying research gaps. Economic impact studies currently dominate the literature and mainly report that GM crops provide economic benefits for farmers. Other social impacts are less well studied, but present a more complex picture. Studies on access to and benefits of GM crops show that these vary significantly depending on the political and regulatory setting. Substantial evidence indicates that intellectual property rights (IPR) and the private industry's dominance limit the access and utility of available GM crops to many farmers. Wellbeing is frequently discussed in the literature, but rarely investigated empirically. Existing evidence is contradictory and inconclusive. Impact studies from the Global North are virtually non-existent. Moreover, two-thirds of publications are based on previously published empirical evidence, indicating a need for new empirical investigations into the social impacts of GM crops in agriculture.
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| 31. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
Social Science Studies on European and African Agriculture Compared: Bringing Together Different Strands of Academic Debate on GM Crops
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 8
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explored the social science-orientated literature on genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe and compared it with the corresponding literature on GM crops in African contexts, in order to determine the nature and extent of north-south cross-fertilisation in the literature. A total of 1625 papers on GM crops and agriculture falling within the social science and humanities' subject area in the Scopus abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature were analysed for major trends relating to geographical areas. More detailed analysis was performed on papers discussing African (56 papers) and European (127 papers) contexts. The analysis revealed that studies on policy and politics were common in both strands of the literature, frequently focusing on effects of the relatively restrictive European Union regulations on GM crops. There were also clear differences, however. For example, papers focusing on Africa frequently examined farm-level impacts and production, while this theme was almost non-existent in the Europe literature. It focused instead on policy impacts on trade and consumer attitudes to GM products. The lack of farm-level studies and of empirical studies in general in the European literature indicates a need for empirical research on GM crops in European farming. Social science research on GM crop production in Europe could draw lessons from the African literature.
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| 32. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Socio-economic assessment and genetically engineered crops in Africa: Building knowledge for development?
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Global Food Security. - 2211-9124. ; 42
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How could we know if agricultural development interventions make contributions to sustainable development goals (SDGs)? Genetically engineered (GE) crops are celebrated as a class of technological interventions that can realize multiple SDGs. But recent studies have revealed the gap between GE crop program goals and the approaches used to assess their impacts. Using four comprehensive reviews of GE crop socio-economic impacts, we identify common shortcomings across three themes: (a) scope, (b) approaches and (c) heterogeneity. We find that the evaluation sciences literature offers alternative assessment approaches that can enable evaluators to better assess impacts, and inform learning and decision-making. We recommend the use of methods that enable evaluations to look beyond the agronomic and productive effects of individual traits to understand wider socioeconomic effects.
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| 33. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
Swedish Forests in the Bioeconomy: Stories from the National Forest Program
- 2020
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Ingår i: Society and Natural Resources. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0894-1920 .- 1521-0723. ; 33, s. 896-913
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The concept of a bioeconomy has been placed central in formation of a Swedish National Forest Program (NFP). Drawing on Hajer's conceptual framework of storylines, we present a discourse analysis of the working group reports underlying the establishment of the NFP strategy. We ask what stories about Swedish forests come to dominate the NFP process, how well they reflect the commitment of balancing economic, social and environmental interests, and what role the concept of a bioeconomy, has on the formation of these stories. Storylines of Swedish forests in the bioeconomy unite wider European discourses on the bioeconomy and climate change with historical Swedish forest policy discourses, revitalizing a discourse coalition comprising the state and the industry. Particular to the Swedish discourse is the strong emphasis on creating consensus around a single story of the forest-based bioeconomy.
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| 34. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
The Covid pandemic, cultivation and livelihoods in South Africa's Eastern Cape
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Agrekon. - 0303-1853 .- 2078-0400. ; 62, s. 279-291
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- South African smallholders have disengaged from cultivation in recent decades despite the lack of alternative incomes. The Covid-19 pandemic led to further rises in poverty and food insecurity. Between March and May 2022, we asked respondents from all 104 households in one village in the Eastern Cape province about how the pandemic had impacted their lives, and their perspectives on and engagement in agriculture. The majority reported that school closures and loss of incomes had led to increased food insecurity. Overall the respondents did not report that the pandemic had had any significant positive or negative impact on cultivation. Material limitations (purchased seed, fertiliser, fencing and traction) were widely mentioned as hampering the possibility of cultivating land already before the pandemic. At the same time, many respondents expressed a love for farming. Future agricultural development support could be directed at promoting farming systems that are less dependent on external inputs and that can support rural livelihoods in the face of external shocks and crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
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| 35. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
The importance of the will to improve: how "sustainability' sidelined local livelihoods in a carbon-forestry investment in Uganda
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. - 1523-908X .- 1522-7200. ; 20, s. 328-341
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper describes a win-win' discourse on local sustainable development and global climate change mitigation regarding Kachung, a Swedish-Norwegian climate forestry investment in Uganda certified under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In many ways, this investment is a typical example of how private interests and capital accumulation are prioritised over local concerns in natural resource management under neoliberalism. This study, however, indicated that investors had genuine intentions of creating mutual benefits for the global environment and local people. Drawing on Li (2007), we show that this will to improve' was nevertheless constructed in ways that resulted in prioritisation of global climate change mitigation over local context-specific concerns.We identify three core factors making the win-win discourse around Kachung plantation especially resilient: (i) the perceived urgency of climate change mitigation, (ii) the apolitical framing of sustainability' as an environmental issue that can be fixed through external technical interventions and (iii) the devaluation of local and context-specific knowledge. We end by suggesting that research on the neoliberalisation of nature focus more on analysing the rationales behind specific interventions. This would leave us better equipped to suggest how such interventions should be modified to produce true wins for local contexts.
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| 36. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
The knowledge politics of genome editing in Africa
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. - 2325-1026. ; 11
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How is the promise of crop genome editing viewed by scientists working with or aspiring to work with the technology, by development experts seeking to mold public perceptions and policy attitudes toward genome editing, and by donors that provide funds for genome-editing research for agricultural applications in sub-Saharan Africa? In this article, we present data from interviews with these stakeholders to shed light on their aspirations, concerns, and expectations. Previous scholarship on genome editing in relation to African agriculture has focused on the technical capabilities of genome editing techniques and surveys of current research and development activities in this field. This article contextualizes and reflects critically on expectations that genome editing can or will deliver benefits for African scientists and farmers. The interviews reveal excitement around genome editing and anticipation for what it could achieve, but also a sober realism and frustration regarding the political-economic hurdles that constrain African scientists and research institutions and the generation of public goods forAfrican farmers and societies. These insights, we show, challenge extant narratives related to genome editing and accessibility. As such, we center and interrogate the politics of knowledge surrounding the emergence of genome editing in Africa.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
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| 39. |
|
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| 40. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
The Swedish Media Debate on GMO Between 1994 and 2018: What Attention was Given to Farmers' Perspectives?
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Environmental Communication. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1752-4032 .- 1752-4040. ; 16, s. 43-62
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents a longitudinal study of the debate on GMO in the Swedish media, comparing coverage of the topic in the general press and agricultural press. We studied 1399 articles about GMO in food and agriculture published between 1994 and 2018 in Sweden's daily and evening newspapers and agricultural publications. A combination of content analysis and statistical simulation techniques was used to identify structural breaks in the dataset and contribute understanding about how the debate shifted over time. Particular attention was paid to issues of importance to farmers in the Swedish media discourse. Our findings indicate that the debate was most intense in the mid-1990s, after which the frequency of reporting on GMOs declined overall and the debate steadily became less negative. Farmers' perspectives were given more attention than expected in the general media but, surprisingly, smallholder farming and food security in the Global South, which has been central to global and elite debates on GMO, did not appear to substantially affect media discourses in Sweden.
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| 41. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Using Participatory Rural Appraisal to Research Livelihoods
- 2023
-
Ingår i: The Routledge Handbook on Livelihoods in the Global South. - London : Routledge. - 9780367856359 ; , s. 124-133
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter provides an introduction to participatory methods, focusing in particular on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) initially developed by Robert Chambers. PRA evolved in the 1980s and 1990s, in response to top-down development and natural resource management. It has been used in a diversity of livelihood studies and is largely known for its valuable set of tools aimed at understanding local peoples’ challenges and perspectives. The development of PRA stems from two key insights: that people targeted by development need to be consulted if development projects are to achieve sustainable change, and that poverty is best understood by listening to the people who are affected by it. This chapter provides a brief genealogy of PRA and key critiques, and describes some key PRA methods useful in livelihoods research. It goes on to explore two aspects of PRA in more detail: how to embrace heterogeneous livelihood possibilities, and the role of language in accessing people’s perspectives through PRA. The chapter ends with a summary of the key points.
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| 42. |
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| 43. |
- Fischer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
-
Where is the Participation in Participatory Epidemiology? How Engagement with Social Science could lead to Improved Understanding and Control of Peste des Petits Ruminants.
- 2016
-
Ingår i: British Journal of Virology. - : ResearchersLinks Ltd. - 2055-6128. ; 3, s. 105-114
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Peste des Petits ruminants (PPR) is a potentially lethal, highly contagious viral disease of sheep and goats. Domestic sheep and goats are important species for the livelihoods of poor people in many developing countries. Within societies where PPR is now spreading, poverty is widespread and the disease is expected to have significant negative impacts on livelihoods. In resource-constrained marginalised societies, it is often difficult to collect disease data in conventional ways. Participatory epidemiology (PE) has been suggested as a particularly suitable research method to study epidemiology and social impacts of diseases in these contexts. However, for PE to achieve its full potential, stronger efforts to achieve true participation and to incorporate lessons about participation and power from the social sciences may be required. This review shows that social science engagement in PE to date is virtually non-existent, but that increased efforts to draw lessons from the social sciences and to increase the degree of participation in PE could increase its potential as an important tool in disease impact assessment and control. Particular attention is paid here to the potential role of PE in future research on the epidemiology and control of PPR.
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| 44. |
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| 45. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Why Africa’s New Green Revolution is failing – Maize as a commodity and anti-commodity in South Africa
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185. ; 130, s. 96-104
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The South African Government has for the past two decades spent significant resources on introducing smallholders to Genetically Modified (GM) maize with the aim to make agriculture a way out of poverty. However smallholder farming continues to decline and poverty is on the rise in the country. The present paper aims to explain this failure of the government to support its smallholders by describing the intra-actions between maize, politics and technological development in South African history. Importantly maize is understood here as an agent in that its materialities are not only being impacted by, but are also having impact on the outcome of farming practices and wider political economies. The paper describes how maize, as a result of intra-action between maize biology and choices made by farmers, politicians and breeders during the colonial era and apartheid, developed in parallel as a commodity serving the settler farmers, and an anti-commodity, or escape crop, providing subsistence to marginalised smallholders. While South Africa today is a democracy that spends significant resources on improving smallholder livelihoods, recent technological development and market concentration have increased rather than decreased the gap between commodity- and anti-commodity maize. As a result new GM and hybrid maize varieties introduced to smallholders today are badly equipped to facilitate a crop led New Green Revolution.
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| 46. |
- Fischer, Klara
(författare)
-
Why new crop technology is not scale-neutral - A critique of the expectations for a crop-based African Green Revolution
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Research Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-7333. ; 45, s. 1185-1194
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Poverty reduction during the Asian Green Revolution has been attributed to the inherent scale neutrality of new crop varieties making them equally beneficial to small-scale and large-scale farmers. The term 'scale-neutral' is now reappearing in debates on agricultural development in Africa with claims that crop technology is inherently scale-neutral and that African smallholders will significantly benefit from new crop varieties not specifically developed for their contexts. Using a social shaping of technology (SST) perspective and the concept of biological embeddedness, this paper critically examines whether it is helpful to describe crop technology as scale neutral when drawing lessons from the Asian Green Revolution about how new crop technology can be of benefit to African smallholders. The paper describes how political commitment, rather than inherently scale-neutral crops, was central for the outcome of the Asian Green Revolution. It also highlights that while the effects of crop biology are often disregarded in adoption studies, biology significantly affected the ability of Green Revolution crop technology to benefit smallholders, and continues to do so today. Using maize and GM crops as examples, this paper suggests that GM crops in their current form have reinforced a technological trajectory established with hybrid technology and directed it away from smallholder practices and agroecologies. Consequently, describing crop technology as inherently scale-neutral is not helpful for understanding how crop technology works in Africa today and prevents important lessons being learned from the Asian Green Revolution. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 47. |
- Gonda, Noemi, et al.
(författare)
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Critical Reflexivity in Political Ecology Research: How can the Covid-19 Pandemic Transform us Into Better Researchers?
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Human Dynamics. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2673-2726. ; 3
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is not just the world but our ways of producing knowledge that are in crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed our interconnected vulnerabilities in ways never seen before while underscoring the need for emancipation in particular from the hegemonic knowledge politics that underpin “business-as-usual” academic research that have both contributed to and failed to address the systemic challenges laid bare by the pandemic. Political ecologists tasked with knowledge generation on vulnerabilities and their underlying power processes are particularly well placed to envision such emancipatory processes. While pausing physically due to travel restrictions, as researchers in political ecology and rural development at the same university department, we want to make a stop to radically rethink our intellectual engagements. In this article, we aim to uncover “sanitized” aspects of research encounters, and theorize on the basis of anecdotes, feelings and informal discussions—“data” that is often left behind in fieldwork notes and personal diaries of researchers—, the ways in which our own research practices hamper or can be conducive to emancipation in times of multiple interconnected health, political, social, and environmental crises. We do so through affective autoethnography and resonances on our research encounters during the pandemic: with people living in Swedish Sapmi, with African students in our own “Global North” university department and with research partners in Nepal. We use a threefold focus on interconnectedness, uncertainty and challenging hegemonic knowledge politics as our analytical framework. We argue that acknowledging the roles of emotions and affect can 1) help embrace interconnectedness in research encounters; 2) enable us to work with uncertainty rather than “hard facts” in knowledge production processes; and 3) contribute to challenging hegemonic knowledge production. Opening up for emotions in research helps us to embrace the relational character of vulnerability as a pathway to democratizing power relations and to move away from its oppressive and colonial modes still present in universities and research centers. Our aim is to contribute to envisioning post-Covid-19 political ecology and rural development research that is critically reflexive and that contributes to the emergence of a new ethics of producing knowledge.Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it. (Roy, 2020)
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| 48. |
- Gorasso, Vanessa, et al.
(författare)
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Burden of disease attributable to risk factors in European countries: a scoping literature review
- 2023
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Ingår i: Archives of Public Health. - 0778-7367 .- 2049-3258. ; 81:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Within the framework of the burden of disease (BoD) approach, disease and injury burden estimates attributable to risk factors are a useful guide for policy formulation and priority setting in disease prevention. Considering the important differences in methods, and their impact on burden estimates, we conducted a scoping literature review to: (1) map the BoD assessments including risk factors performed across Europe; and (2) identify the methodological choices in comparative risk assessment (CRA) and risk assessment methods. Methods: We searched multiple literature databases, including grey literature websites and targeted public health agencies websites. Results: A total of 113 studies were included in the synthesis and further divided into independent BoD assessments (54 studies) and studies linked to the Global Burden of Disease (59 papers). Our results showed that the methods used to perform CRA varied substantially across independent European BoD studies. While there were some methodological choices that were more common than others, we did not observe patterns in terms of country, year or risk factor. Each methodological choice can affect the comparability of estimates between and within countries and/or risk factors, since they might significantly influence the quantification of the attributable burden. From our analysis we observed that the use of CRA was less common for some types of risk factors and outcomes. These included environmental and occupational risk factors, which are more likely to use bottom-up approaches for health outcomes where disease envelopes may not be available. Conclusions: Our review also highlighted misreporting, the lack of uncertainty analysis and the under-investigation of causal relationships in BoD studies. Development and use of guidelines for performing and reporting BoD studies will help understand differences, avoid misinterpretations thus improving comparability among estimates.
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