| 1. |
- A. Bateki, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Of milk and mobiles: Assessing the potential of cellphone applications to reduce cattle milk yield gaps in Africa using a case study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1699. ; 191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are growing expectations that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications could help improve on-farm yields amongst smallholder farmers in developing countries, and consequently, food and nutrition security. However, few studies have quantified the actual contribution of ICT applications on farmers’ yields, and these studies predominantly focused on crop production. We assessed the potential of ICT applications to close milk yield gaps among small- and medium scale dairy cattle farmers in Africa. First, we developed a theoretical framework summarizing biophysical and socio-economic constraints that foster milk yield gaps and discussed which constraints can be addressed using ICT applications. Second, using a case study of a feeding advice application for dairy cattle pre-tested with farmers in rural Kenya, we analyzed how much stand-alone the application could contribute to close dairy cattle milk yield gaps. Our findings suggest that ICT applications could help address some existing biophysical and socio-economic constraints fostering milk yield gaps, including data collection for breeding programs, feeding management advice, and facilitating access to markets and capital. Our stand-alone ICT application closed yield gaps by 2 % to 6 % on representative farms. Several factors may explain the limited actual contribution of selected ICT applications to reduce existing milk yield gaps, including the quality of the input data and models used in ICT applications, and more structural constraints that cannot be addressed by digital tools. Therefore, although ICT applications could help address constraints to achieving higher milk yields on dairy farms, a significant contribution to improve yields may only be achieved when conditions surrounding their use are adequate.
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| 2. |
- Adu-Baffour, Ferdinand, et al.
(författare)
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Governance challenges of small-scale gold mining in Ghana: Insights from a process net-map study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Land Use Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0264-8377. ; 102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) sector – commonly described as low-tech, labor-intensive mineral extraction and processing, in developing countries, is increasingly associated with the use of heavy earth moving machines and hazardous chemicals for ore extraction, which can have negative implications on agricultural land use and the environment. Moreover, land reclamation, or the lack thereof, associated with ASM is a rising concern. Despite the potentially far-reaching effects of informal ASM operations on the environment and human health, the legal framework for ASM, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries, is not well implemented. Focusing on Ghana as a study case, this paper explores the factors that hinder the implementation of its legal framework for mining. A combination of qualitative explorative methods was applied, including an innovative tool called “Process Net-Map”, a visual participatory mapping technique. The results help to explain the governance challenges of the ASM sector, enabling identification of policy reform options to address them. The findings exposed outdated legislature, which fails to capture the ever-growing complexities of the subsector's operations, as a major bottleneck. Hurdles associated with formal licensing bureaucracies and fees, land tenure, compliance monitoring, and ineffective collaboration of relevant stakeholders with and at the local level were identified as hindering the implementation of the existing legal framework. These bottlenecks must be addressed. Moreover, we recommend the adoption of collaborative governance systems, like co-management, which has been successfully implemented in other disciplines, in the ASM sector to ensure sustainability.
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| 3. |
- Birner, Regina, et al.
(författare)
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‘We would rather die from Covid-19 than from hunger’ - Exploring lockdown stringencies in five African countries
- 2021
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Ingår i: Global Food Security. - : Elsevier BV. - 2211-9124. ; 31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Facing COVID-19, African countries were confronted with a dilemma: enacting strict lockdowns to “flatten the curve” could potentially have large effects on food security. Given this catch-22 situation, there was widespread concern that Africa would suffer most from the pandemic. Yet, emerging evidence in early 2021 showed that COVID-19 morbidity remained low, while “biblical famines” have been avoided so far. This paper explores how five African countries maneuvered around the potentially large trade-offs between public health and food security when designing their policy responses to COVID-19 based on a content analysis of 1188 newspaper articles. The findings show that food security concerns played an important role in the public policy debate and influenced the stringency of lockdowns, especially in more democratic countries.
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| 4. |
- Birner, Regina, et al.
(författare)
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Who drives the digital revolution in agriculture? A review of supply-side trends, players and challenges
- 2021
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Ingår i: Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. - : Wiley. - 2040-5790 .- 2040-5804. ; 43:4, s. 1260-1285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digital agriculture offers far-reaching opportunities for accelerating agricultural transformation. Based on empirical evidence and guided by economic theory, this study shows that digital agriculture is driven by private firms, including established input firms and global software firms and start-ups that are new to agriculture. Although there are concerns that digital agriculture will enhance the market power of large agribusiness enterprises and increase the digital divide, a combination of new actors and public action can help accelerate the supply of digital agricultural technology, manage threats of market concentration, and harness the opportunities of digital agriculture for all.
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| 5. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Uber for tractors? Opportunities and challenges of digital tools for tractor hire in India and Nigeria
- 2021
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Ingår i: World Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-750X .- 1873-5991. ; 144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digital tools hold great promise to promote agricultural transformation and benefit smallholder farmers in the developing world. One such tool is Uber for tractors, which aims to enable farmers to access tractor hire services in a way that is deemed similar to the Uber service for ride-hailing. While widely praised, Uber for tractors has not yet been rigorously analyzed. How does it work in practice? And what is its potential to reduce the transaction costs of tractor service provision, both for tractor owners and for smallholders who use tractor services? To answer these questions, we present case studies of two companies that apply digital tools in support of tractor hire: Hello Tractor in Nigeria and EM3 Agri-Services in India. A transaction costs economics framework was developed to identify how Uber for tractor tools can, in theory, influence the attributes of service hire transactions and, thus, reduce transaction costs. For the empirical analysis, a mixed-methods approach was applied involving approximately 400 respondents and comprising net-maps (a participatory mapping tool), focus group discussions, interviews with tractor owners and other stakeholders, and a survey among farmers. Our results show that the Uber for tractor models have indeed the potential to reduce transaction costs for service providers, in particular the owners of several tractors, by enabling the monitoring of tractors and operators through GPS devices. Farmers who access services have, so far, only indirectly benefitted from the new digital tools, because they still relied on “analog” solutions - booking agents and phone calls - rather than a smartphone app to request services. Overall, the paper shows that Uber for tractors is a pioneering concept, but investment in enabling conditions, such as digital literacy and network coverage, is required to harness the full potential of such digital innovations for smallholder farmers in the developing world.
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| 6. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Using smartphone app collected data to explore the link between mechanization and intra-household allocation of time in Zambia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Agriculture and Human Values. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0889-048X .- 1572-8366. ; 38, s. 411-429
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digital tools may help to study socioeconomic aspects of agricultural development that are difficult to measure such as the effects of new policies and technologies on the intra-household allocation of time. As farm technologies target different crops and tasks, they can affect the time-use of men, women, boys, and girls differently. Development strategies that overlook such effects can have negative consequences for vulnerable household members. In this paper, the time-use patterns associated with different levels of agricultural mechanization during land preparation in smallholder farming households in Zambia were investigated. A novel data collection method was used: a pictorial smartphone application that allows real-time recording of time-use, which eliminates recall bias. Existing studies analyzing the intra-household allocation of resources often focus on adult males and females. This study paid particular attention to boys and girls as well as adults. The study addressed seasonal variations. Compositional data analysis was used to account for the co-dependence and sum constraint of time-use data. The study suggests a strong gender differentiation for land preparation activities among mechanized households; for households using manual labor, such differentiation was not found. There is some evidence that the surplus time associated with mechanization is used for off-farm and domestic work. The study cannot confirm concerns about negative second-round effects: mechanized land preparation is not associated with a higher workload for women and children during weeding and harvesting/processing. The study provides a proof-of-concept that smartphone applications can be used to collect socioeconomic data that are difficult to measure but of high relevance.
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