Aiming at low nitrogen leaching diets based on nitrogen fertilizer regulatory policy: A regional bio-economic assessment of the Zayandeh-Rud river basin-Iran.

Negative environmental impacts of nitrogen (N) intensive diets have triggered global debates on sustainable nitrogen management. Solutions such as dietary transitions, cropland reallocation and N Regulatory Policy (NRP) have been proposed to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of N use in food production. However, there is still insufficient understanding of how NRPs could be designed to minimize negative environmental impact across diverse agro-ecological zones without sacrificing human dietary requirements. To increase this understanding, we evaluated the consequences of three NRP scenarios (low, moderate, and high N fertilizer rates) on the amount of livestock and non-livestock diet components as well as the associated N leaching and farmers' Gross Margin (GM) by optimizing the allocation of cropland between food and feed crops. We developed a bio-economic Interval Fuzzy Multi-Objective Programming (bio-economic IFMOP) model for the Zayandeh-Rud river basin, Iran, and a procedure that accounts for annual average availability of calories per capita, calorie sources from livestock and non-livestock components of three dietary preferences, and inequality in calorie distribution. The interaction among soil, climate and weather variability and NRPs across nine sub-regions of the case study region was handled by crop yield simulation using the DSSAT software. The solution of farmers' GM, derived from the optimization problem across possibilities of water fluctuations, was assessed to determine the uncertainty in GM. We also introduced an N leaching per Block of Distributed Calories (BDC) criterion based on solutions of supplied calories and associated N leaching. The upper bound of the moderate NRP scenario resulted in the smallest N leaching per BDC. This corresponded to ∼0.34, ∼0.34, ∼3.77 and 19.00 million BDC of meat, dairy, wheat and potato, respectively. Also, the upper bound of this scenario satisfied the lowest instability in farmers' GM against water fluctuation compared with low and high NRP scenarios. The affordable volume of N leaching per BDC varied across sub-regions between [1.53,3.49], [1.52,3.33], [0.76,0.99] and [0.05,0.08] kg for meat, dairy, wheat and potato, respectively. Our results highlighted both optimistic and pessimistic prospects of producing low N leaching diets. The approach of this study could also be applied to other regions and countries.

Does climate-smart agriculture improve household income and food security? Evidence from Southern Ethiopia.

Climate change threatens African countries' economic development and affects agriculture and food security. Ethiopia is especially vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change because its economy is dependent on climate-sensitive livelihoods that have limited potential for adaptation. Emerging evidence indicates that climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and increase agricultural productivity, thereby enhancing household income and food security. In the study area, different CSA practices have been adopted to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and improve agricultural productivity, income, and food security. Therefore, this study examines the impact of CSA practices on household income and food security in southern Ethiopia. A total of 385 households were selected using multistage sampling. Primary and secondary data were used, and propensity score matching with different types of matching algorithms, such as nearest neighbor, kernel, and radius matching, was employed to quantify the conditional impacts of CSA intervention on farm income and food security. In comparison with non adopters farmers that have adopted CSA practices had a higher food consumption score between 6.27 and 8.15, which was statistically significant at the 1% level. Overall, 34.55% of interviewed households had acceptable food consumption scores, 44.68% had borderline, and 20.77% had poor food consumption scores. Furthermore, households that adopted CSA practices had a 20.30% higher average annual farm income per hectare than non-adopters. The study suggests that effective extension services, accurate climate information, and sound policy support are required to promote and scale up CSA measures in the study area to improve farmers' adaptive capacity, farm income, and food security.

Health gender gap in Uganda: do weather effects and water play a role?

BACKGROUND: Vulnerabilities of men and women to adverse health effects due to weather variability and climate change are not equal. Uganda was among the countries in the world most affected by extreme weather events during the last decade. However, there is still limited gendered empirical evidence on the links between weather variability and health and the possible pathways through which these health effects occur. Therefore, this study analyses the effect of weather variability on illness, and the extent to which water collection 'time burden' mediates the relationship between weather anomalies and illness among men and women of working age in Uganda. The study also quantifies the health inequalities to be eliminated if resources are equalized. METHODS: Socioeconomic, health and time use data were obtained from the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Studies - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS -ISA), combined with high resolution remotely-sensed weather data. Two-parts and non-linear decomposition regression analysis were used on the national representative pooled dataset from the four household survey waves collected between 2009 to 2014, comprising a total of 22,469 men and women aged between 15 and 64 years. RESULTS: Empirical results show that low rainfall below the long-term mean increased the likelihood of illness by at least 8 and 6 percentage points for women and men, respectively. The indirect effect of low rainfall on illness through water access pathway was estimated at 0.16 percentage points in women. Decomposition results reveal that health inequalities among women and men would have been narrowed by 27-61%, if endowments were equalized. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies that promote women empowerment (such as education, labor force participation, access to financial services and clean water), health adaptation and time poverty reduction strategies (such as rain water harvesting and improved access to quality health care) would reduce gender-based health inequalities in Uganda despite changing climatic conditions.

Knowledge of climate change and adaptation by smallholder farmers: evidence from southern Ethiopia.

Climate change has the greatest negative impact on low-income countries, which burdens agricultural systems. Climate change and extreme weather events have caused Ethiopia's agricultural production to decline and exacerbated food insecurity over the last few decades. This study investigates whether farmers' awareness and perceptions of climate change play a role in climate change adaptation using climate-smart agricultural practices. To collect data, 385 households in Southern Ethiopia were sampled using a multistage sampling. A Heckman probit two-stage selection model was applied to investigate the factors influencing farmers' perceptions to climate change and adaptation measures through adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices, complemented with key informant interviews and focused group discussions. The results indicated that most farmers (81.80%) perceived that the local climate is changing, with 71.9% reporting increased temperature and 53.15% reporting decreasing rainfall distribution. Therefore, farmers attempted to apply some adaptation practices, including soil and water conservation with biological measures, improved crop varieties, agroforestry, improved breeds, cut and carry system, controlled grazing, and residue incorporation. The empirical results revealed that farmers adaptation to climate change through adoptions of CSA practices was significantly influenced by education, family size, gender, landholding size, farming experience, access to climate information, training received, social membership, livestock ownership, farm income and extension services. The study found that farmers' perceptions of climate change and variability were significantly influenced by their age, level of education, farming experience, and access to climate information, hence, the need to focus on enhancing the accuracy of weather information, strengthening extension services, and considering a gender-sensitive adaptation approach toward improving farmers' knowledge and aspirations. Agricultural policies should support the efforts of farmers to increase the reliance on climate risk and alleviate farmers' difficulties in adopting climate-smart agriculture practices.

High­magnesium waters and soils: Emerging environmental and food security constraints.

Food insecurity and declining availability of freshwater and new productive land in water-scarce areas and countries necessitate effective use of marginal-quality waters and underperforming soils. High­magnesium waters and soils are emerging examples of water quality deterioration and land degradation leading to environmental and food security constraints in several irrigation schemes. A ratio of magnesium-to-calcium > 1 in irrigation waters and an exchangeable magnesium percentage > 25% in soils are considered high enough to result in soil degradation and impact crop yields negatively. These soil and water resources occur in the Aral Sea Basin in Central Asian countries, the Cauca River Valley in Colombia, the Central Plateau Basin in Iran, the Indus Basin in Pakistan, the Indo-Gangetic Plains in India, the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia, and the Coastal Mountain Range in California, among others. With limited and scattered information, their occurrence remains hidden or unnoticed in many cases due to the lack of criteria in water quality assessment and soil classification systems. Managing high­magnesium waters and soils requires a source of calcium to mitigate magnesium effects, in addition to an effective drainage system for safe disposal of excess magnesium salts. There is a need to put high­magnesium waters and soils on the public policy agenda. Pertinent policies can catalyze stakeholders' involvement in supporting water and land quality monitoring systems and introducing innovative financial mechanisms to facilitate provision of calcium-supplying amendments in affected areas. Equally important would be strengthening institutional and professionals' capacity, enhancing institutional collaboration, encouraging private sector involvement in at-risk areas, and engaging local communities and farmers. These efforts will support the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Eradicating extreme poverty and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in water-scarce areas without adequately addressing underperforming land and water resources is highly unlikely.