Women‘s land rights in Gambian irrigated rice schemes: Constraints and opportunities

This paper discusses the significance of gender-based conflicts for thefailure of Gambian irrigated rice projects. In particular, it illustrateshow resource control of a gendered crop, rice, shifts from females to maleswith the development of pump-irrigated rice projects. Irrigation imposes aradically different labor regime on household producers, demanding thatthey intensify labor for year-round cultivation. Yet, the Gambian farmingsystem evolved for a five month agricultural calendar, in which women wereaccorded specific land and labor rights. The need to restructure familylabor, specifically skilled female labor, to meet the cultivation demandsof pump irrigation is crucial for understanding the pattern of gender-basedconflicts in Gambian rice schemes. The case study illustrates thatirrigation involves more than technology transfer. Appropriate irrigationdemands sensitivity to the social structure of household production systems. The paper concludes by emphasizing the centrality of gender issuesfor improving food security in sub-Saharan Africa.     

种植业结构调整对运城小麦产业发展的影响及对策

农业种植业结构调整使运城小麦面积大幅度下滑,经济作物面积明显增加,给运城乃至全省的粮食安全问题带来隐患。如何在农业结构调整中确保粮食总量平衡,成为运城小麦生产面临的一大课题,也是入世对运城小麦生产提出的严峻挑战。     

Conservation agriculture and gendered livelihoods in Northwestern Cambodia: decision-making,space and access

Smallholder farmers in Rattanakmondol District, Battambang Province, Cambodia face challenges related to soil erosion, declining yields, climate change, and unsustainable tillage-based farming practices in their efforts to increase food production within maize-based systems. In 2010, research for development programs began introducing agricultural production systems based on conservation agriculture (CA) to smallholder farmers located in four communities within Rattanakmondol District as a pathway for addressing these issues. Understanding gendered practices and perspectives is integral to adapting CA technologies to the needs of local communities. This research identifies how gender differences regarding farmers’ access to assets, practices, and engagement in intra-household negotiations could constrain or facilitate the dissemination of CA. Our mixed-methods approach includes focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, famer field visits, and a household survey. Gender differences in access to key productive assets may affect men’s and women’s individual ability to adapt CA. Farmers perceive the practices and technologies of CA as labor-saving, with the potential to reduce men’s and women’s labor burden in land-preparation activities. However, when considered in relation to the full array of productive and reproductive livelihood activities, CA can disproportionately affect men’s and women’s labor. Decisions about agricultural livelihoods were not always made jointly, with socio-cultural norms and responsibilities structuring an individual’s ability to participate in intra-household negotiations. While gender differences in power relations affect intra-household decision-making, men and women household members collectively negotiate the transition to CA-based production systems.     

论有机农业目标体系的整体性

本文从农业生产中人与人之间的关系、人与自然的关系,以及人与自身的关系角度,对农业效益的目标体系进行了全新的诠释,同时,建立起农业中不同利益主体目标的关联.有机农业通过政府粮食安全目标、生产者生计安全目标和消费者食品安全目标的有机整合,最大限度地实现农业经济效益、生态效益和社会效益相互间的均衡,是农业可持续发展的必然选择.     

基于混合策略纳什均衡的食品安全监管研究

食品安全问题是当今社会关注的焦点之一,它关系到我们的民生问题。近几年来食品安全问题屡见不鲜,这就警示食品生产企业必须高度重视食品安全,同时对政府监督部门也加大了压力。运用混合策略纳什均衡的方法,建立政府监督机构与食品生产企业对食品安全行为的博弈模型。讨论政府监督机构与食品生产企业在相互作用的过程中决策的选择,并提出关于食品安全方面的一些建议。     

对外直接投资与我国粮食安全保障体系的构建

粮食安全关系到一国的国计民生。在全球化的今天,在确保粮食国内供给为主的同时,我国也要利用国外的资源作为我国粮食安全保障的辅助措施。该研究通过对我国现有酌粮食耍全傈障体系的分析,发现我国粮食安全保障体系有待完善。因此,在对我国农业对外直接投资的发展及其布局进行研究的基础上,从国内保障和国外保障两方面对我国粮食安全保障体系进行了重构。     

广东稻田耕作制改革策略与初步成效

分析了目前广东一些耕作制度存在过分强调直接经济效益及对耕地资源从外在数量到内在质量的过度利用,带来粮食安全与稻田效益增长不协调、菜田用地与养地不协调两大突出问题,提出了要突破传统种植制度观念束缚、以“菜稻(一季中晚稻)菜”轮作高效耕作制(123种植模式)为主要内容推动广东稻(菜)田耕作制度改革的策略,阐述了“123种植模式”的科学与技术内涵和创新实质以及实施该耕作模式的初步成效。     

Impact of cash crop cultivation on household income and migration decisions: Evidence from low-income regions in China

This study examines the impact of cash crop cultivation on household income and migration decisions, using survey data collected from low-income regions in China. Given farmers decide themselves whether to cultivate cash crops, an endogenous treatment regression model that accounts for potential selection bias issue is used to analyze the data. The empirical results show that cash crop cultivation exerts a positive and statistically significant impact on household income, but it does not affect household migration decisions significantly. The disaggregated analyses reveal that cash crop cultivation significantly increases farm income but decreases off-farm income.     

农牧交错区农牧户生计与土地利用问题研究——以内蒙古科尔沁左翼后旗农户调研为例

基于问卷调查、数理统计等方法,利用科左后旗农牧户的调研数据,研究农牧交错区农牧户生计策略与土地利用状况。结果表明:1)农业依旧是当地最主要的生计来源,农户生计与土地利用状况与区域自然环境有密切联系,水土条件差、蒙族聚集的区域,农户生计以种养结合为主,土地利用的投入集约度偏低;而土壤条件好,降雨充沛的区域,农户生计以种植为主,土地利用投入集约度明显较高。2)不同自然条件下的农户家庭生计策略选择对土地利用的影响趋同,表现为农户的土地投入集约度随种植业收入占家庭收入比例的升高有明显变大的趋势。3)农户在土地利用过程中仍然存在开垦行为,这种行为在自然条件较差的区域表现的更加显著。基于以上分析,以减少农户对自然环境的依赖,提高生计水平为目标,采取分区、分对象的手段提出了相应的政策建议。     

Understanding actor-centered adaptation limits in smallholder agriculture in the Central American dry tropics

Adaptations made by agrarian households in the face of global change risks are largely dependent on their livelihood goals. I argue that adaptation-limit research is crucial to many agrarian development programs because a focus on adaptation limits may allow researchers and practitioners to better understand and support successful adaptation and allow smallholders to pursue their goals. In this study of smallholder farming in Northwest Costa Rica, I found that security and the unique parcelero identity of rice farmers in this region define livelihood goals. I show that an understanding of the multidimensionality and fluidity of farmer livelihood goals may enrich our current understanding of actor-centered adaptation limits as insurmountable thresholds. In response to worsening global change risks, farmers in this study traded off certain goals to pursue others. In this way, farmers do not perceive adaptation limits as insurmountable. Alternative indicators of adaptation limits did exist; irreversibility in adaptation and the great hardship associated with tradeoffs among livelihood goals may mark adaptation limits.     

河南传统农业作物起源与耕作制度演变

河南传统农业有着悠久的历史和丰富的内涵。河南传统农业作物种植历史悠久,其耕作制度以精耕细作为主要特征,以多熟种植和间、混、套作为主要方式。从野生植物驯化为粮食作物到农作物育种;从传统农具的发明创造到精耕细作这种北方旱地典型耕作制度的建立和演变,河南传统农业长盛不衰,许多方面都处于当时全国乃至世界领先地位。河南传统农业作物起源以及耕作制度的演变过程,为当今保护性耕作技术的发展和农业资源环境高效利用,为新时期粮食安全和农业现代化建设提供了有益思考。     

中国刘易斯拐点和耕地红线的判断与三农治理新思维

刘易斯拐点的到来,导致传统劳动密集型农业生产模式的衰落,联产承包责任制的瓦解,粮食安全危机凸现;农地所有权的政府垄断也导致城市化成本过高,阻碍了农民的城市化,形成庞大的伪城市化人群,严重威胁到社会稳定。只有尽快改变以堵为目标的三农治理旧思维,充分利用耕地红线神话破产、刘易斯拐点到来的历史新机遇,进行深刻的农地制度改革,我们才能实现农地的规模化、产业化经营,降低农民的城市化成本,减少伪城市化人口,缓解国家粮食安全与社会稳定危机,实现城乡一体化的和谐发展。     

The construction of an alternative quinoa economy: balancing solidarity, household needs, and profit in San Agustín, Bolivia

Quinoa farmers in San Agustín, Bolivia face the dilemma of producing for a growing international market while defending their community interests and resources, meeting their basic household needs, and making a profit. Farmers responded to a changing market in the 1970s by creating committees in defense of quinoa and farmer cooperatives to represent their interests and maximize economic returns. Today farmer cooperatives offer high, stable prices, politically represent farmers, and are major quinoa exporters, but intermediaries continue to play an important role in the local economy. Meanwhile, some farmers rebuff the national cooperatives and intermediaries in favor of a denomination of origin and closer association with local cooperatives. This article, based on 4?months of ethnographic research, explores the reasons for the continued presence of intermediaries on the market landscape and how farmers have worked to create a quinoa economy embedded with fair trade values. Farmers demand stable prices, flexible standards, provision of services, and promises of maintaining the distinctive qualities of San Agustín quinoa. They frame their trades in economic, utility, and solidarity terms to reflect their livelihood strategies, farming capabilities, and personal concepts of fair trade. Meanwhile cooperatives, development initiatives, and intermediaries each argue that their particular buying practices allow farmers to attain household goods, credit, and cash for food and economic security.     

Farmers＇ Character and Behavior of Fertilizer Application - Evidence from a Survey of Xinxiang County, Henan Province, China

Agricultural chemical use has caused a public concern over environmental issue while decisions about applying chemicals are made by individual farmers. The critical decision-making role of farmers relative to agricultural chemical use creates a need for accurate information on their perceptions of various chemical-related hazards and the factors that may influence such judgments. Based on data collected from 177 land operators at Xinxiang County in Henan Province of China, an empirical analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between farmers＇ character and the behavior of fertilizer application. Study findings reveal that： the characteristics of household head and household, and the nature of farming management positively affect the amount of fertilizers applied; information on fertilizers and the knowledge about environmental impact of fertilizer application have negative impacts by contrast. To formulate effective pollution control policies at the farm level, it is imperative for policy-makers to convey information to producers by demonstration projects, technical assistance, and education programs. Under a changed political environment, some combination of education and economic incentives could be lower cost and more effective tools for achieving desired environmental conservative goals.     

Exclusions in inclusive programs: state-sponsored sustainable development initiatives amongst the Kurichya in Kerala,India

We critically discuss the impact of sustainable development initiatives in Kerala, India, on biodiversity and on women farmers in the matrilineal Adivasi community of the Kurichya-tribe in Wayanad. By contextualizing development programs regarding the specifically gendered access to land, division of labor, distribution of knowledge and decision-making power, we situate our analysis within the theoretical framework of feminist political ecology. We first outline women’s gaining of social and political space in local self-government institutions (Panchayath) and then critically discuss the impacts of women’s farming groups (Joint Liability Groups: JLGs). Decentralization and development programs have aimed at empowering women and reducing poverty through improved food security. However, little success has materialized, as patriarchal power structures concerning decision-making processes as well as control over the most valuable resources (land and rice) and traditional knowledge have been maintained. Whereas women’s self-help groups (Kudumbasree) in Kerala have enhanced their position, women’s farming groups (JLGs), by contrast, have brought little betterment. In some cases they have even downsized women’s management and knowledge of resources related to agriculture and do not integrate or enhance Kurichya women’s knowledge. As some women are now introducing high-yielding rice seeds and fertilizer and as it is impossible for them to control land and get access to traditional rice seeds—the domain of men—we contest the notion of women being considered the preservers of agrobiodiversity. We argue, rather, that the construction and transformation of ecological traditional knowledge is highly dependent on the gendered multi-scaled power structures of state and community.     

Improvement in winter wheat productivity through regulating PSⅡ photochemistry,photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence under deficit irrigation conditions

Deficit irrigation is critical to global food production, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions with low precipitation. Given water shortage has threatened agricultural sustainability under the dry-land farming system in China, there is an urgent need to develop effective water-saving technologies. We carried out a field study under two cultivation techniques:(1) the ridge and furrow cultivation model(R); and(2) the conventional flat farming model(F), and three simulated precipitation level...     

Development interventions,changing livelihoods,and the making of female Maasai pastoralists

The broad objective of this paper is to examine the evolution of gendered aspects of livelihood strategies and their interaction with various development interventions. Central to this is an empirical analysis of gendered divisions of labor in the context of rapidly changing pastoralist livelihoods. The paper begins with a literature review on gender roles in pastoralist societies. Two important gaps in the existing literature are identified. First, studies on gender roles are too often studies on women’s roles as men’s roles are rarely included. Secondly, despite a recognition that pastoral livelihoods are rapidly changing, much of the research has ignored the gendered impacts of this change. The study area is Loitokitok Division, Kajiado District, Kenya. Field data were collected in an extensive household survey, key informant interviews, and group discussions held in two field seasons between 2001 and 2004. Results indicate that development interventions led to land use encapsulation, sedentarization, new ways of accessing dry season grazing areas, new land uses, new livestock breeds, and increased school enrollment. In the context of these livelihood changes and increasing drought, a fundamental shift in gendered roles in livestock production has occurred. Maasai women in the study area contribute more labor to livestock production than men do. Various efforts to modernize the livestock sector are leading to a loss of women’s control of milk resources. This finding has important implications for current and future development interventions in pastoralist communities and their ability to improve livelihoods of the most vulnerable sections of the population.

食物安全测量指标比较与影响因素分析

为探究农户饮食多样性得分和食物消费得分2种食物安全测量指标的差异以及影响食物安全的因素,采用陕西省镇安县、洛南县,云南省武定县、会泽县和贵州省盘县、正安县2015年1 368户农户实地调研数据,并运用Logit模型进行影响因素实证分析。研究结果表明:1)农户饮食多样性得分和食物消费得分的相关性较高,但从定义、测量方法到结果都有差异,饮食多样性得分的食物消费追溯期短,获取的食物消费情况更准确,而食物消费得分设定不同的食物种类权重更能识别真正食物不安全人群;2)家里有婴幼儿、劳动力平均受教育年限、家庭人均年收入、家里养殖牲畜对农户食物安全具有显著的正向影响。基于以上分析,食物安全评估和测量指标应该根据不同的需要进行选取,且在减贫的同时应关注贫困地区农户的食物获取能力以减轻农户食物不安全的状况。     

Commercial cash crop production and households’ economic welfare: Evidence from the pulse farmers in rural China

Whether promoting cash crop production can increase household welfare has long been the focus of the food policy debate. This study first investigated the determinants of household behavior in commercial pulse farming. It then examined how households’ commercial pulse production improves their economic welfare. We used a dataset of 848 households collected from 2018 to 2019 to estimate the determinants of household behavior in commercial pulse farming by the Heckman two-step model. The endogenous treatment regression (ETR) method was employed to examine the impact of commercial pulse farming on household economic welfare. The results showed that factors such as market purchase prices, agricultural technology services, farmers’ access to loans, and government subsidies promoted smallholders’ commercial pulse farming; production costs and perceptions of climate change risks constrained smallholders’ commercial pulse production. Overall, commercial pulse production has increased household farm income but there was a limited impact on household off-farm income. Our findings suggest that policies aiming to increase households’ cash crop production and market access could significantly improve the economic welfare of pulse farmers.