Examining the drivers of agricultural carbon emissions in Africa: an application of FMOLS and DOLS approaches.

The major aim of this study was to investigate the impact of renewable energy consumption and agricultural economic growth on agricultural carbon emissions in Africa for the period 1990-2019. This paper employed panel fully modified ordinary least square (PFMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least square (PDOLS) estimation techniques. The empirical results showed that agriculture growth promote agricultural carbon emissions. More precisely, the results revealed a strong positive and statistical significant impact on agricultural carbon emissions in Africa. On the other hand, the results on quadratic show a negative causal association between agriculture growth and agricultural carbon emissions in Africa. Interestingly, renewable energy consumption was found to have a negative impact on agricultural carbon emissions. On Granger causality, the result shows that there is a unidirectional causality between agriculture growth and agricultural carbon emissions. Based on these findings, we recommend that countries should promote and encourage the use of renewable energy to curb agricultural carbon emissions. There is a need to adopt agricultural practices that have the potential to limit carbon emissions.

The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' eating and purchasing habits of agricultural products in China: key determinants and policy implications.

BACKGROUND: The study looks at a changed in consumer's eating and purchasing habits during COVID-19 period. There are several modes of transmission but transmission through food as being speculated is one area that has not been confirmed through research. The study, therefore, looks at how speculations about COVID-19 spreading through food has affected consumers' eating and purchasing habits. This study through probit model analysed how consumers' eating and purchasing habits have been influenced. RESULTS: The result shows that age, gender and education have negatively influenced consumer's eating and purchasing habits during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic period. The preference for imported food items, preference for frozen food, been infected or knowing someone who has been infected by the virus, and been infected through agricultural source or knowing someone who has been infected by the COVID-19 through agricultural source have negatively affected consumers' eating and purchasing habits compared to pre-pandemic period. The result, however, suggests that consumers who trust in the cold-chain food systems ability to limit the spread of the COVID-19 still maintain a positive eating and purchasing habits. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on consumer's eating and purchasing habits. Therefore, there is the need to institute proper sanitary measures, especially at cold-chain food systems to help curb the spread and also boost consumers' confidence.

The measurement of competitiveness of forest green food industry in Yunnan Province.

Improvement in living standards has led to the development and utilization of forest green foods. The study seeks to examine the foundation and potential of forest green food industry in Yunnan Province. By constructing the industrial competitive advantage model, this paper measured and analyzed the competitiveness of forest green food industry in Yunnan Province from 2016 to 2020 by using fuzzy evaluation method and AHP. The conclusions were as follows: (1) The competitiveness of forest green food industry in Yunnan Province was at a medium level with competitiveness index of 83.98. (2) The competitive advantage of forest green food industry in Yunnan Province mainly depended on key factors such as natural endowment and education level. The area is however not having comparative advantage in general factors and important factors. Therefore, there is the need to put in place measures to realise the full potential of forest green food industry in the area by providing players in the sector with requisite skills.

Examining the effect of land transfer on landlords' income in China: An application of the endogenous switching model.

The paper looks at factors that influence landlords' decision to transfer their farmlands and how farmland transfer has impacted on landlords' income. The essence of farmland transfer policy is to promote efficiency in agricultural land use. Endogenous regression model was adopted for the study because of its ability to handle the transfer decisions and impact of transfer decision on outcome simultaneously. The data were obtained from selected communities in Yunnan province, China. A total of 260 landlords were randomly selected for the study. The result shows that out-migration, off-farm income, agesq, public infrastructure and skill training influence transfer decision positively. The results further show that famine experience, access to credit, education and age negatively influence farmland transfer decision. The results show that farmland transfer leads to a significant increase in landlords' income.

How has formal institutions influenced opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship? The case of brics economies.

Using a panel data of BRICS economies, this study looks at how formal institutions have influenced various types of entrepreneurship. The study concentrated mainly on the following formal institutional factors: fiscal freedom, business freedom, property rights, financial freedom, labour freedom, and investment freedom. For the opportunity entrepreneurship, the result is not statistically significant. With the exception of business freedom, the remaining institutional factors have negative relationship with opportunity entrepreneurship. Fiscal freedom and business freedom show negative significant relationship with necessity entrepreneurship. The result also shows that business freedom has a negative significant effect on female opportunity entrepreneurship. The study further reveals that fiscal freedom, business freedom and financial freedom have a negative significant effect on men necessity entrepreneurship. Population growth has a positive effect on all categories of entrepreneurship whiles unemployment contributes negatively to all categories of entrepreneurship.

Tourism and sustainable development in China: a review.

The adaption of the open-up reform policies in China some three decades ago has resulted in a rapid economic transformation of which the tourism sector has equally witnessed fast development. Therefore, the essence of this article is to review the evolution and expansion of the tourism industry in China and its obligation to observing international sustainable development policies and practices. Indications of the current policy regime, establishment, and institutions, sustainable development strategies to ensure continuity and availability of resources for future use, environmental sustainability laws and regulations, and promotional events for the development of the tourism industry are made available in this article. In effect, this article reviews how the activities of the tourism sector impacts on the environment. The findings show that China in its quest to be a world leader of tourists' destination has impacted negatively on the environment which by extension affect the economy and society at large. On the other hand, as a leading nation in the United Nations, China has in contemporary times adapted sustainable development strategies to help safeguard the environment. However, more needs to be done in the area of advanced technology and renewable energy.

Entities contribution to total employment in China after 1978 reforms: urban and rural perspective.

The paper specifically looks at the rural-urban interaction and contribution of various entities or agents to the total employment in China, rural China, and urban China. The study concentrated on the total employment after 1978 reforms. The paper looked at the 1978-2004 reform and after 2004 reform. It was revealed that 1978-2004 reform hindered the flow of labor from rural to urban but after 2004 reform promoted the flow of labor force from rural to urban China the development, which resulted in a drastic reduction in the rural labor force. Before the reforms, state- and collective-owned units were the only entities that were employing people in China. Even though private enterprises were allowed after the reforms, the leading role of the state- and collective-owned units persist. State-owned units contribute immensely to the total employment in China and urban employment, but its contribution to employment in rural China is negative. Collective-owned and cooperative units show a positive contribution to employment in rural areas but its contribution to the total employment in China is negative. Units with funds from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan and rural private enterprises also contribute positively to total employment in China. Cooperative units, joint holding corporations Ltd., foreign-funded units, and rural self-employed individuals contribute negatively to the total employment in China. Collective-owned and cooperative units contribute negatively to employment in the urban areas. Urban and rural private enterprises and rural self-employed individuals contribute positively to urban employment.

Human capital accumulation and its effect on agribusiness performance: the case of China.

This study investigates the effect of accumulated human capital on the performance of agribusinesses in China. Four hundred fifty agribusiness owners were interviewed for the study. Growth in sales over the last 5 years was used as a measure of performance. The following variables were reviewed and captured as those constituting human capital: education, raised in the area, parents being entrepreneurs, attending business seminars/trade fairs, managerial experience, similar work experience, cooperative membership, and training. Logit regression model and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The logit regression model was used to analyze the effect of accumulated human capital on growth in sales. The inferential statistics on the other hand was used to measure the association between age, education, sex, provinces, and the categories of growth. Our study found that parents who are entrepreneurs and attend business seminars/trade fairs, as well as have managerial experience, similar work experience, education, and training, display a statistically significant positive effect on the growth in sales.