Papers – Food and Justice

Fast and integrated revision of agricultural risk management in Brazil

weaadmin — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:00:43 +0000

The agricultural sector is strategic for Brazilian economy and society, nevertheless, the fluctuation in GDP, which can reach 1% per year, indicates the weakness of risk management in the sector. This study identified that Brazil has good policies dedicated for risk management, although focused on risk mitigation. Response and transfer mechanisms, especially insurance, are still insufficient. The results also strongly suggest that the integration of policies and programs dedicate to agricultural risk management in Brazil is still low, consequently, it may be difficult to reduce the losses in a systematic way.

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weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:50:14 +0000

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Land use conflict among vegetable farmers in Denu: Determinants, Causes and Consequences

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

Land is an important asset that improves the livelihoods of poorer groups in every society, the world over but because of changes in some underlying factors, land is increasingly becoming a source of conflicts in Africa. This study examines the determinants of land use conflicts; assesses the causes and consequences of land use conflicts among vegetable farmers in Denu using survey data of 102 respondents. Descriptive statistics was used in assessing the causes and consequences of land use conflict and the determinants of land use conflicts was estimated using logistic regression model. Findings from the study indicate that multiple claims to ownership, land seen as the only source of survival, low level of education, strong population growth, legislative loopholes, lack of access to land administration, erosion and inaccurate surveying were identified as the major causes of land use conflict among vegetable farmers in Denu. It was revealed that land use conflicts increase cost, lead to loss of property, social and political instability, impact negatively on livelihoods and culminate in poor yield of crops and animals. The regression result suggests that length of years respondents have farmed on their plot, household size, years of education and income of respondents from other sources determine whether respondents experienced conflict or not. The study recommends that farmers engage in other businesses to reduce conflict. In addition, existing conflict resolution systems must be strengthened.

Cassava price volatility: evidence from Ghana

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in many commodity prices in general. This study is focused on examining cassava price and its volatility in the Volta region of Ghana. Secondary data was collected on cassava price and key variables that determine price volatility. Our results show that cassava price averagely increases significantly by 46% annually with the volatility level of 30.8% annually and 177.8% over the period (1970-2012). Furthermore, Inflation and exchange rate were positive and significant determinants of the price of cassava whilst cassava yield, inflation and exchange rate had significant positive relationship with the volatility of cassava price. Based on the finding of the study, it is recommended that policies stabilizing inflation, exchange rate, establishment of price controls, designing output risk insurance and training farmers in value addition will help address the challenge of a volatile cassava price.

Technical Efficiency Analysis of Pineapple Production in the Eastern Region of Ghana: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Approach

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

The study examines the technical efficiency level of pineapple farmers and the factors that influence technical efficiency in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Two hundred and seventy one pineapple farmers were selected through a two stage sampling technique. A structured interview schedule was used to gather data relating to farm and farmer specific variables, inputs and output levels. The Data Envelopment Analysis was used to estimate the technical efficiency score. Findings from the study showed that pineapple farmers in the Region were not producing at the optimal level and that 85.85% of pineapple output was not realized as a result of inefficiencies in production. Also, sex, experience, access to credit, use of plastic mulch, and GlobalGAP certification were the factors that influenced technical efficiency in pineapple production.

What is Good to Eat? The Big Question of our Times

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

Fernand Braudel points out the big centrality of food in the historical process of social constitution. When each human group in History delimited which natural objects were “good to eat” and which ones were not, that became one of the fundamental cultural act. Nowadays, food has gained a special centrality again, but it is a quite different one. 2008 has been named the Year of the Big Hunger but this was only one expression, perhaps the most terrible, of a bigger picture, consequence of a long list of problems that modern food systems have accumulated over the last century. Does the new centrality of food derived from its crises points to mankind’s current incapacity to provide sufficient and healthy food for everyone? It is not difficult to find evidence of this incapacity, as the current academic and public dispute about health effects of some foods, and the numerous and sometimes contradictory literature published. This state of confusion related to food doesn’t only concern rich consumers. In recent years, an issue related to possible future hazardous results of hunger-fighting programs in developing countries has emerged. In capitalist societies, who has the right to determine what’s is good to eat? Nutrition science? Social sciences? National and international food regulatory authorities? Consumer organizations? Individuals, through their free choice? In these conflictive, contradictory and messy state, identified as a situation of gastro-anomie, it is necessary to go deeper into the capitalist transformation of food relations, that is, the capitalist appropriation of the plants of civilization. This permits to identify the material conditions that gave rise to the increasing inability to define in Social sciences and in society as a whole what is good to eat. Food’s mercantile transformation, the abstraction process of its qualitative features and inner, essentially contradictory character, provides the conditions to understand capitalist shifts from a quality concern and questions addressing the substantive “what” and “why” to a concern about abstract quantity.

Food Sovereignty: A Strategy for Environmental Justice

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

Dominant approaches to rural development have proven unable to confront the structural challenges posed by a system where progress itself generates hunger and increasing environmental damage. This article places its accent on the direct action of communities to organize themselves to satisfy their food and other basic needs and those of their regions with self-help strategies that could be applied in both rural and urban areas. While generally applicable, this focus draws its inspiration from the experience of La Via Campesina, the largest social organization in the world, with chapters in more than 80 countries and 200 million members.The food sovereignty approach offers a forward-looking strategy to social mobilization, confronting the scourge of rural disintegration while also addressing the pressing issue of environmental balance. It proposes to direct political and social actions to the collective organization of communities to promote local mobilization and cooperation within and among communities, on a regional as well as on a much broader geographic scale. It functions by integrating experts into a well-proven farmer-to-farmer approach for the exchange of information and materials conducive to improving productivity and promoting diversity in accordance with local customs while also creating possibilities for improving the quality of foods being produced and their nutritional impact. Most organizations promoting food sovereignty consider agroecology to be the most effective approach to organizing production, emphasizing the use of locally available inputs and technologies as well as a diversity of cropping system adapted to local conditions.

Public procurement of family farming in Brazil

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

Family farming in Brazil has specific policies. Regarding agricultural commercialization, in 2003, the federal government launched the Zero Hunger strategy and took actions to promote food and nutrition security to eradicate hunger in Brazil. The Food Procurement Program (PAA) was set up with a view to acquiring food to donate to social organizations and to establish strategic stocks. The market was expanded in 2009 when it was provided by law that a minimum of 30% of the federal grant for National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) to states and municipalities should be spent in the acquisition of family farmed production. The objective of this study is to describe the public procurement programs of family farming in Brazil. For this is used mainly literature sources. It is found that in relation to PAA were created new forms in order to include new farmers and new beneficiaries. Currently there are six purchasing modalities of family farming. For purchases for school feeding (PNAE), even though be mandatory to purchase 30% family farming, some cities especially large urban centers are having trouble to comply with the law. The problems occur due to the difficulties of organization of farmers, infrastructure, political willingness, etc. However, in smaller municipalities the program has achieved the minimum purchase and in some municipalities purchased more than the minimum required. Thus, in addition to encouraging local farmers encourages the consumption of fresh and healthy products for children.

The democratisation of access to land in Brazil between 2003-2015

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

The settlements of agrarian reform are substantial food producers in Brazil, especially of regionals products. Between 2003-2015, the Brazilian federal government has made a great effort to guarantee the fulfilment of constitutional rights and a dignified life for rural inhabitants. In the pursuit of democratising and granting access to land, as well as in related efforts to reduce violence in rural areas, land policies have been considerably amplified and better articulated with other public policies. These actions have produced concrete results, to which the more than 798,000 families settled in 52 million hectares of land since 2003. For many people, advances above were shy, considering the huge inequality in access to land in Brazil, but were much when you consider our history of agrarian policies. Nowadays, all these advances are under threat, considering the new government’s announcements of a new legal framework for agrarian reform, from the perspective of strong reduction in social investment by the federal government.

Putting Social Justice First: The Case of Islamic Economics

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

If we try to figure out the most pressing economics problems in the world today, most concerned citizens would prioritize those problems related to urgent societal welfare needs—e.g., feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and treating the sick or disabled. But we find a huge mismatch between these objectives and the intents, priorities, and effects of modern economic systems, which are fixated on increasing wealth and production often at the cost of other factors that relate to human welfare. In this paper, we argue the case for a new economics in which social justice acts as the cornerstone. Towards this vision, we present the case of Islamic economics, which is an economic system based on justice, equality, and other principles that prohibit exploitation of others and social harm.

Diet Risks in Resource Rich Countries

weaadmin — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:48:43 +0000

Following contribution of A.K. Sen on Hunger and Public Action (1989) and G. Otero on Neo Liberal Diet Risk (2015), it makes sense to examine their applications for resource rich countries with special consideration to oil based economies. A modified index is introduced to compare diet risk index (DRI) ranking of countries with current risk indices published by EIU, FAO, WHO. The main objective of the extended risk indices is to find out the sources of food insecurity in higher income countries in developing and developed countries and introduce a basic diet risk categorization. It would pave the way for public actions by policy makers in these countries. The methodology used in this paper is based on descriptive statistical analysis and quantitative indexing method as well .The macro cross section data provided by FAO is utilized for statistical analysis and indexation tool. This study examined the correlation of components of risk factors. It shows a positive correlation of diet risk with obesity, export and import dependency and urbanization in resource rich countries.

Sustainable rural development index

weaadmin — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:18:26 +0000

The Sustainable Rural Development Index (IDRS) was elaborated with the purpose of characterizing, in the rural space (predominantly occupied by agriculture and livestock), the economical (IDE), social (IDS) and environmental (IDA) development through three primary indexes, seven secondary indexes and seven parameters. The secondary indexes were computed using the mean values of different parameters, by county, trough normalized variables (range from 0 to 1). The economical index used the following normalized variables: Gross Income Product (R$.county-1.year-1) (first parameter), per capita income (R$.person-1.year-1) (second parameter) (in relation to their maximum values for a specific county). The social index used relative values of scholarity (number of years) (third parameter), life expectance (years) (fourth parameter) and employment level (%) (fifth parameter) (also in relation to their maximum values for a specific county). The environmental index used relative values of Legal Reserve area (ha) (sixth parameter), as well as the Permanent Preservation Area (ha) (seventh parameter), actually used by farmers and the correspondent minimum areas required by the Brazilian law 12.651 (published at DOU in 25 May 2012). The universal model, that typically presents exponential growth, was proposed for computing the secondary index (dependent variable) using a normalized variable as independent variable. This methodology was applied for characterizing the CODEMAU (Association for Developing the ‘Médio Alto Uruguai’ region) area (23 counties), located at North region of ‘Rio Grande do Sul’ State. It was verified that: (i) ‘Rodeio Bonito’ and ‘Dois Irmãos das Missões’, ‘Alpestre’ and ‘Frederico Westphalen’, and ‘Vicente Dutra’ and ‘Taquaruçu do Sul’ were the counties that presented, respectively, the lowest and highest values of IDE, IDS and IDA; but, (ii) ‘Vicente Dutra’ and ‘Dois Irmãos das Missões’ were the counties that presented, respectively, the lowest and highest values of IDRS. The sustainable rural development index presents as an excellent tool for comparing regions (rural properties, counties, states and countries, for example).