Working Papers

WORKING PAPERS

Total 16 records

Copy all 16 citations

1 to
10
of 16
Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Strengthening women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and nutrition along the goat value chain in Senegal: A qualitative study

2024Kane, Papa Abdoulaye; Barry, Mamadou Bobo; Eissler, Sarah; Tall, Thiané; Camara, Astou Diao; Sall, Moussa; Fass, Simone; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Strengthening women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and nutrition along the goat value chain in Senegal: A qualitative study

Goats are an important source of income, nutrition and resilience in Senegal. This study assesses opportunities to strengthen women’s agency, increase resilience to climate change, and improve nutrition along the various stages of goat value chains from the acquisition of feed resources and other inputs to processing, marketing and consumption of various goat products. The qualitative study finds that even though goats are more climate resilient than other livestock, climate change impacts on goat production and productivity are increasingly felt, particularly through impacts on feed resources. The study identified opportunities to strengthen women’s roles along the goat value chain, particularly in goat production and, to a lesser extent, in processing of goat products. Women and their families also benefit from the consumption of goat milk and women have some degree of control over income from the sale of goat products. Strengthening women’s agency in these nutrient-rich and relatively climate-resilient value chains will require improving their access to land resources and better animal feeds, supporting women’s groups and building women’s capacity for processing and marketing goat products, improving access to electricity for cold storage of goat products, and raising awareness regarding the nutritional benefits of goat products, especially for women and children.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kane, Papa Abdoulaye; Barry, Mamadou Bobo; Eissler, Sarah; Tall, Thiané; Camara, Astou Diao; Sall, Moussa; Fass, Simone; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Kane, Papa Abdoulaye; Barry, Mamadou Bobo; Eissler, Sarah; Tall, Thiané; Camara, Astou Diao; Sall, Moussa; et al. 2024. Strengthening women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and nutrition along the goat value chain in Senegal: A qualitative study. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2274. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152294

Country/Region

Senegal

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Climate Change; Goats; Nutrition; Climate Resilience; Value Chains; Women’s Empowerment; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Gender implications of agricultural commercialization in Africa: Evidence from farm households in Ethiopia and Nigeria

2022Berhane, Guush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Seymour, Greg

Details

Gender implications of agricultural commercialization in Africa: Evidence from farm households in Ethiopia and Nigeria

Agricultural commercialization is often pursued as an important driver of agricultural transformation in low-income countries. However, the implications it can have on gendered outcomes are less understood. While agricultural commercialization creates opportunities to increase income, this may come at the expense of change in women’s decision-making agency and control over resources. Understanding the interactions between agricultural commercialization and gender outcomes is thus critical for policymakers aspiring to achieve agricultural transformation while promoting gender equity and the evidence on the links between the two in the context of Africa is scarce and mixed. We use three rounds of Ethiopia’s and Nigeria’s LSMS-ISA panel data to understand the implications of agricultural commercialization to gendered decision-making on crop harvest use, marketing, revenue control, asset ownership, and intrahousehold budget allocation. Results indicate commercialization is associated with decreases in women’s participation in decision-making related to use of harvest, crop marketing, and control over revenue in Ethiopia, but only on harvest use and control over revenue in Nigeria. The association with land ownership is mixed: positive in Ethiopia but negative in Nigeria. Moreover, commercialization is associated with decreases in women’s share of farm-workload but with increases in share of hired labor in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia we also find women’s control over revenue is positively associated with increases in per capita consumption expenditures and dietary diversity, but men’s control is negatively associated with increases in the share of expenditure on children’s shoes and clothes. In Nigeria, women’s control is positively associated with increases in the share of expenditure on women’s shoes and clothes, food gap, and dietary diversity. In sum, we find suggestive evidence that commercialization may further marginalize women’s decision-making agency in Ethiopia and Nigeria. However, conditional on women’s control over proceeds, commercialization tends to improve women’s as well as other members’ welfare. We provide some policy recommendations and directions for future research.

Year published

2022

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Seymour, Greg

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; and Seymour, Greg. 2022. Gender implications of agricultural commercialization in Africa: Evidence from farm households in Ethiopia and Nigeria. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2151. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136492.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Nigeria

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Gender; Income Control; Farmers; Households; Agriculture; Commercialization; Women; Agricultural Trade

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136492 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 13

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Hello, can you hear me? Impact of speakerphones on phone survey responses

2022Alvi, Muzna; Barooah, Prapti; Gupta, Shweta; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Hello, can you hear me? Impact of speakerphones on phone survey responses

Ensuring privacy of respondents in phone surveys is especially challenging compared to face-to-face interviews. While the use of phone surveys has become more common in development research, there is little information on how the conduct of phone surveys affects responses. Using phone survey data from India and Nepal, we test the impact of speakerphone use on bias in responses by women and men. We find that 65% of women respondents in India, and 61% of women and 59% of men respondents in Nepal had their phone on speaker during the survey. Speakerphone use is lower when women are matched with the same enumerators in the second round. Speaker use was associated with lower reported agency by women over their own income and the income of their spouse, while it is opposite for men. Our findings have important implication for the collection, design, and analysis of phone survey data.

Year published

2022

Authors

Alvi, Muzna; Barooah, Prapti; Gupta, Shweta; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Alvi, Muzna Fatima; Barooah, Prapti; Gupta, Shweta; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; and Ringler, Claudia. 2022. Hello, can you hear me? Impact of speakerphones on phone survey responses. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2123. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135926.

Country/Region

India; Nepal

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Role of Women; Gender; Surveys; Capacity Development; Survey Methods; Information and Communication Technologies; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135926 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 5

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Weather variability and extreme shocks in Africa: Are female or male farmers more affected?

2022Nico, Gianluigi; Azzarri, Carlo

Details

Weather variability and extreme shocks in Africa: Are female or male farmers more affected?

Agriculture in Africa has been traditionally seen as an important employment provider, supporting agriculture-based livelihoods of the vast majority of the African population, (James, 2014; World Bank, 2011) and absorbing the largest share of the employed population. Data suggest that almost 224 million people aged 15 and above are directly engaged in agriculture in Africa (ILO, 2021), corresponding to nearly half of the total employed population in the continent and absorbing ¼ of global agricultural employment.

Year published

2022

Authors

Nico, Gianluigi; Azzarri, Carlo

Citation

Nico, Gianluigi; and Azzarri, Carlo. 2022. Weather variability and extreme shocks in Africa: Are female or male farmers more affected? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2115. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135870.

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Middle Africa; Eastern Africa; Northern Africa; Southern Africa; Western Africa; Gender; Shock; Employment; Farmers; Weather Shock; Agriculture; Weather Variability; Literature Reviews; Men; Women; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135870 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 3

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Agriculture and youth in Nigeria: Aspirations, challenges, constraints, and resilience

2020ElDidi, Hagar; Bidoli, Thomas; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Agriculture and youth in Nigeria: Aspirations, challenges, constraints, and resilience

Nigeria’s rural youth are facing various challenges in agriculture, with limited job opportunities outside the sector. Using qualitative focus group discussions and individual interviews with youth in four communities in two Nigerian states, the paper reflects on nuanced differences in perceptions of opportunities, coping mechanisms and overall resilience of youth in rural Nigeria, as well as differential access to information, inputs and irrigation based on age, gender and community. We apply the GCAN framework, to illustrate the factors that shape resilience pathways in the context of climate change and other shocks and stressors. Many of the constraints rural youth face are faced by other groups, including lack of finance, farm inputs and modern equipment for production and processing. Yet, youth face higher and specific hurdles related to lack of capital, experience and a strong social capital and networks that would facilitate coping with climatic and other shocks and improving their livelihoods. Young women in particular have less access to information and irrigation, and are less likely to benefit from cooperative memberships. Nevertheless, young men and women have higher resilience compared to older groups in terms of health, mobility and ability to migrate, as well as easier access to the internet as a source of information. Youth can better build resilience and a network and receive government assistance when part of a cooperative. Nevertheless, a larger enabling environment in the sector is needed, to improve roads, access to markets, information, inputs and equipment to support young farmers who cannot leave the agriculture sector. A promising factor is that many young men and women realize the importance of agriculture and aspire to become successful in the sector.

Year published

2020

Authors

ElDidi, Hagar; Bidoli, Thomas; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

ElDidi, Hagar; Bidoli, Thomas; and Ringler, Claudia. 2020. Agriculture and youth in Nigeria: Aspirations, challenges, constraints, and resilience. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1946. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133798.

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Youth Employment; Gender; Agricultural Extension; Farmers; Water; Capacity Development; Youth; Agriculture; Irrigation; Cooperatives; Decision Making; Migration; Access to Information; Rural Areas; Resilience; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133798 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 10

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Adapting the global food system to new climate realities: Guiding principles and priorities

2019De Pinto, Alessandro; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; Cenacchi, Nicola

Details

Adapting the global food system to new climate realities: Guiding principles and priorities

The effects of climate change are increasingly felt among vulnerable populations in many developing countries, particularly those relying on agriculture for their livelihoods, but also the urban poor. Adverse impacts include lower crop yields and crop nutritional values and ripple effects will be felt throughout the entire food value chain unless significant adaptation actions are taken. This paper takes a broad food system perspective and connects the roles and actions of international organi-zations, national governments, local communities and farmers. After an extensive review of the likely effects of climate change and the available adaptation responses, the paper identifies a series of guiding principles to be considered by decision makers as they plan adaptation actions.

Year published

2019

Authors

De Pinto, Alessandro; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; Cenacchi, Nicola

Citation

De Pinto, Alessandro; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; and Cenacchi, Nicola. 2019. Adapting the global food system to new climate realities: Guiding principles and priorities. Washington, DC; Rotterdam, Netherlands: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Global Center on Adaptation. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146976

Keywords

Gender; Food Production; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Trade; Risk; Food Systems; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Evaluating risk of aflatoxin field contamination from climate change using new modules inside DSSAT

2019Thomas, Timothy S.; Robertson, Richard D.; Boote, Kenneth J.

Details

Evaluating risk of aflatoxin field contamination from climate change using new modules inside DSSAT

Aflatoxins affect the health of close to 70 percent of the population of the world through contaminated food. Smallholder farmers in developing countries can be especially hard hit, since they consume a high proportion of what they produce without a clear knowledge of the level of contamination their harvest might have. Climate change can cause dramatic shifts in the level of contamination and the frequency of that high levels of aflatoxins are found in harvested foods, particularly maize and groundnuts. In this paper, we introduce new software that is able to estimate potential field concentrations of aflatoxins based on weather, and then apply the software to the question of how projected changes in climate will affect the occurrence of aflatoxins in six countries. The analysis is done at a very fine geographic resolution so that problem areas within countries are also identified. For rainfed groundnuts, baseline period calculations using the module show fairly high frequency of expected contamination levels above 4 ppb for Burkina Faso and Niger (39 and 56 percent), while Nigeria has a more modest estimate of 14 percent. However, factoring in climate change, we find great variation in projections. One of the five climate models used in the analysis projects a much wetter region which serves to drive down aflatoxin concentrations steeply. However, others have lower or even negative projections for changes in rainfall and coupled with temperature increases (large in some climate models), three of the five climate models project rising aflatoxin concentrations. The frequency of projected contamination levels above 4 ppb in rainfed maize are high in the baseline for Niger, at 43 percent, though Niger grows little maize. Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Guatemala, and Honduras all have more modest projections in the baseline (8, 9, 4, 10), while Nepal has just a trace above 0. Aflatoxin concentrations are projected to rise with climate change by all 5 models for Nepal, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nigeria, but only rise for 3 models for Niger and 4 of the 5 models for Burkina Faso. We use regressions with weather variables on projected aflatoxin concentrations levels above 4 ppb to better understand critical levels of rainfall and temperature that could trigger local crises with aflatoxins in on-farm consumption of harvested foods. At the end of the paper, we examine why aflatoxin concentrations in Nepal as reported by the modeling results appear low despite aflatoxins being a significant issue for the country.

Year published

2019

Authors

Thomas, Timothy S.; Robertson, Richard D.; Boote, Kenneth J.

Citation

Thomas, Timothy S.; Robertson, Richard D.; and Boote, Kenneth J. 2019. Evaluating risk of aflatoxin field contamination from climate change using new modules inside DSSAT. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1859. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146893

Country/Region

Niger; Burkina Faso; Guatemala; Honduras; Nigeria; Nepal

Keywords

Central America; Southern Asia; Africa; Western Africa; Northern America; Sub-saharan Africa; Asia; Health; Technology Transfer; Contamination; Smallholders; Aflatoxins; Developing Countries; Decision Making; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133372 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 16

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Women’s empowerment and crop diversification in Bangladesh: A possible pathway to climate change adaptation and better nutrition

2019De Pinto, Alessandro; Seymour, Greg; Bryan, Elizabeth; Bhandary, Prapti

Details

Women’s empowerment and crop diversification in Bangladesh: A possible pathway to climate change adaptation and better nutrition

The existing literature shows that climate change will likely affect several of the dimensions that determine people’s food security status in Bangladesh, from crop production to the availability of food products and their accessibility. Crop diversification represents a farm-level response that reduces exposure to climate-related risks and it has also been shown to increase diet diversity and contribute to the reduction in micronutrient deficiencies. In fact, the Government of Bangladesh has several policies in place that encourage and support agricultural diversification. However, despite this support the level of crop diversification in the country remains low. Women empowerment has been linked to diversified diets and positively associated with better child nutrition outcomes. Furthermore, although traditionally their role in agriculture tends to be undervalued, women involvement has already been shown to affect agricultural production choices and enhance technical efficiency. This paper connects three different areas of inquiry - climate change, gender and nutrition – by exploring whether women’s empowerment in agricultural production leads to increased diversification in the use of farmland. Specifically, we use a series of econometric techniques to evaluate whether there is sufficient evidence to claim that a higher levels of empowerment lead to greater diversity in the allocation of farmland to agricultural crops. Our results reveal that indeed some aspects of women empowerment, but not all, lead to a more diversified use of farmland and to a transition for cereal production to other uses like vegetables and fruits. These findings provide some possible pathways for gender-sensitive interventions that promote crop diversity as a risk management tool and as a way to improve the availability of nutritious crops.

Year published

2019

Authors

De Pinto, Alessandro; Seymour, Greg; Bryan, Elizabeth; Bhandary, Prapti

Citation

De Pinto, Alessandro; Seymour, Gregory; Bryan, Elizabeth; and Bhandary, Prapti. 2019. Women’s empowerment and crop diversification in Bangladesh: A possible pathway to climate change adaptation and better nutrition. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1849. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146113

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Gender; Empowerment; Nutrition; Diversification; Women; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133306 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 58

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Gender and agricultural mechanization: A mixed-methods exploration of the impacts of multi-crop reaper-harvester service provision in Bangladesh

2019Theis, Sophie; Krupnik, Timothy J.; Sultana, Nasrin; Rahman, Syed-Ur; Seymour, Greg; Abedin, Naveen

Details

Gender and agricultural mechanization: A mixed-methods exploration of the impacts of multi-crop reaper-harvester service provision in Bangladesh

Farmer hiring of agricultural machinery services is common in South Asia. Informal fee-for-service arrangements have positioned farmers so they can access use of machinery to conduct critical, timesensitive agricultural tasks like land preparation, seeding, irrigation, harvesting and post- harvesting operations. However, both the provision and rental of machinery services are currently dominated by men, and by most measures, it appears that women have comparatively limited roles in this market and may receive fewer benefits. Despite the prevailing perception in rural Bangladesh that women do not participate in agricultural entrepreneurship, women do not necessarily lack a desire to be involved. Using a mixed methods approach involving literature review, secondary data collection, focus groups and key informant interviews, and a telephone survey, we studied the gendered differences in women’s and men’s involvement in emerging markets for rice and wheat reaper-harvester machinery services in Bangladesh. We find that women benefit from managing and sometimes owning machinery services, as well as from the direct and indirect consequences of hiring such services to harvest their crops. However, a number of technical, economic, and cultural barriers appear to constrain female participation in both reaper service business ownership and in hiring services as a client. In addition, women provided suggestions for how to overcome barriers constraining their entry into rural machinery services as an entrepreneur. Men also reflected on the conditions they would consider supporting women to become business owners. Our findings have implications for addressing social norms in support of women’s rural entrepreneurship and technology adoption in South Asia’s smallholder dominated rural economies.

Year published

2019

Authors

Theis, Sophie; Krupnik, Timothy J.; Sultana, Nasrin; Rahman, Syed-Ur; Seymour, Greg; Abedin, Naveen

Citation

Theis, Sophie; Krupnik, Timothy J.; Sultana, Nasrin; Rahman, Syed-Ur; Seymour, Gregory; and Abedin, Naveen. 2019. Gender and agricultural mechanization: A mixed-methods exploration of the impacts of multi-crop reaper-harvester service provision in Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1837. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147057

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Role of Women; Gender; Agricultural Technology; Rural Women; Technology; Capacity Development; Harvesters; Farm Equipment; Agricultural Mechanization

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133260 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 14

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Building resilience for all: The gender and social dynamics of resilience

2018Theis, Sophie; Bryan, Elizabeth; Choufani, Jowel; Ringler, Claudia; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Details

Building resilience for all: The gender and social dynamics of resilience

This policy note recommends key areas of inquiry for assessing gender and social differences in resilience that can be used to inform, evaluate, and strengthen resilience programming. Grounded in the conceptual framework of the Gender, Climate, and Nutrition Integration Initiative(GCAN), the note identifies and describes key gender issues related to resilience. Greater attention to heterogeneity in resilience forms the foundation for developing locally specific strategies to strengthen resilience for all.

Year published

2018

Authors

Theis, Sophie; Bryan, Elizabeth; Choufani, Jowel; Ringler, Claudia; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Citation

Theis, Sophie; Bryan, Elizabeth; Choufani, Jowel; Ringler, Claudia; and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela. 2018. Building resilience for all: The gender and social dynamics of resilience. GCAN Policy Note 11. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institue (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146518

Keywords

Gender; Welfare; Capacity Development; Social Equality; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

The impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on crop nutrients and human health

2018Smith, Matthew R.; Thornton, Philip K.; Myers, Samuel S.

Details

The impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on crop nutrients and human health

Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are rising globally at a rapid pace, on track to surpass 550 parts per million (ppm) by midcentury. Studies have found that, when grown under elevated CO2 concentrations of 546–586 ppm, many food crops—including wheat, rice, barley, and soybeans—have lowered concentrations of nutrients, including many that are important for overall health, such as iron, zinc, and protein. Elevated CO2 also affects both the quantity and quality of forage, thereby affecting animal performance and production and, consequently, the availability of nutrients from animal-source foods, such as meat, milk, and eggs. This loss of dietary nutrients in foods could translate to increased nutritional deficiency for hundreds of millions of people already on the brink of deficiency—mainly developing countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa based on dietary preferences for the commodities most affected. This policy note examines the link between rising CO2 levels and declining nutritional content for a number of major crops, as well as forage. The discussion includes a comparison of the varying effects by crop, and strategies to address this challenge in the context of climate change.

Year published

2018

Authors

Smith, Matthew R.; Thornton, Philip K.; Myers, Samuel S.

Citation

Smith, Matthew R.; Thornton, Philip K.; and Myers, Samuel S. 2018. The impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on crop nutrients and human health. GCAN Policy Note 10. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institue (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145924

Keywords

Carbon Dioxide; Malnutrition; Diet Quality; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Aflatoxins in food and feed: Impacts risks, and management strategies

2018Brown, Lynn R.

Details

Aflatoxins in food and feed: Impacts risks, and management strategies

Aflatoxins are fungal metabolites—mainly produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus living in soil—that contaminate crops throughout growth, harvest, storage, transportation, and processing. Aflatoxin B1 is not only the most potent natural carcinogen known, but also the most commonly produced toxic strain. As of 2010, roughly 5 billion people worldwide were estimated to be exposed to high levels of aflatoxins. High consumption levels can result in aflatoxicosis, which is often fatal. Habitual consumption at lower levels causes liver cancer and immune suppression, and is strongly associated with stunting. Of 315 cases of aflatoxicosis in Kenya in 2004, 125 people died. Consumption of aflatoxins is cumulative: they are not eradicated through standard cooking processes, and the body is unable to destroy or excrete them. This policy note examines what aflatoxins are; how they are linked to gender, climate change, and nutrition; and how they can be controlled and managed effectively.

Year published

2018

Authors

Brown, Lynn R.

Citation

Brown, Lynn R. 2018. Aflatoxins in food and feed: Impacts risks, and management strategies. GCAN Policy Note 9. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Instititute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147076

Keywords

Crop Management; Gender; Mycotoxins; Crop Production; Food Safety; Aflatoxins; Nutrition; Climate Change; Women; Postharvest Losses

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134485 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Can women’s empowerment increase animal source food consumption in flood prone areas of Bangladesh?

2018Theys, Natalie

Details

Can women’s empowerment increase animal source food consumption in flood prone areas of Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is one of the most flood-prone countries in the world and households located in at-risk areas endure periodic destruction and losses, thus making them worse off than those not prone to flooding. Our paper provides evidence that promoting women’s empowerment could be a promising way to improve quality of life for these at-risk households. Our focus is on the relationship between empowerment and improved dietary quality, specifically through the increased consumption of animal source foods (ASF).

Year published

2018

Authors

Theys, Natalie

Citation

Theys, Natalie. 2018. Can women’s empowerment increase animal source food consumption in flood prone areas of Bangladesh? IFPRI Discussion Paper 1736. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146547

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Gender; Women's Empowerment; Animal Source Foods; Surveys; Flooding; Households; Capacity Development; Empowerment; Nutrition; Food Security; Diet Quality; Food Consumption; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/1046080804 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 16

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Using natural areas and empowering women to buffer food security and nutrition from climate shocks: Evidence from Ghana, Zambia, and Bangladesh

2018Cooper, Matthew

Details

Using natural areas and empowering women to buffer food security and nutrition from climate shocks: Evidence from Ghana, Zambia, and Bangladesh

As climate change makes precipitation shocks more common, policymakers are becoming increasingly interested in protecting food systems and nutrition outcomes from the damaging effects of droughts and floods (Wheeler and von Braun, 2013). Increasing the resilience of nutrition and food security outcomes is especially critical throughout agrarian parts of the developing world, where human subsistence and well-being are directly affected by local rainfall. In this study, we use data from Feed the Future datasets from Ghana, Zambia, and Bangladesh to examine the impact of precipitation extremes on food security as well as the role of natural land cover and women’s empowerment in creating resilience. We first model the effects of extreme rainfall on indicators of nutrition and food security, and then examine whether women’s empowerment and environmental land cover types can dampen the effects of rainfall shocks on these food security and nutrition outcomes. Our results find that there is a strong association between extreme precipitation and household hunger. Further, they suggest that in certain contexts land cover types providing ecosystem services can reduce household hunger scores, that empowering women can mitigate the effects of precipitation shocks, and that there may be an interactive effect between ecosystem service availability and women’s empowerment.

Year published

2018

Authors

Cooper, Matthew

Citation

Cooper, Matthew. 2018. Using natural areas and empowering women to buffer food security and nutrition from climate shocks: Evidence from Ghana, Zambia, and Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 01717. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146058

Country/Region

Ghana; Zambia; Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Asia; Southern Africa; Eastern Africa; Rain; Weather Hazards; Gender; Flooding; Climate; Households; Land Resources; Stunting; Household Food Security; Hunger; Empowerment; Nutrition; Forest Land; Drought; Natural Grasslands; Scrublands; Resilience; Ecosystem Services; Climate Change; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/1032568631 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Article has an altmetric score of 6

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Overcoming gender gaps in rural mechanization: Lessons from reaper-harvester service provision in Bangladesh

2018Theis, Sophie; Sultana, Nasrin; Krupnik, Timothy J.; International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center; International Rice Research Institute

Details

Overcoming gender gaps in rural mechanization: Lessons from reaper-harvester service provision in Bangladesh

Custom hiring of labor- and cost-saving agricultural machinery services is increasingly common in South Asia. We studied the gendered differences in women’s and men’s involvement in emerging markets for reaper-harvester machinery services in the Feed the Future Zone in Bangladesh. We find that women benefit from managing and sometimes owning machinery services, as well as from the direct and indirect consequences of hiring such services to harvest their crops. However, a number of technical, economic, and cultural barriers constrain women’s full participation in these benefits. The brief provides suggestions for initiatives promoting rural machinery services to more fully engage women, as business owners and users of machinery, to expand the benefits of these markets, with relevance for South Asia and other farming geographies dominated by smallholders.

Year published

2018

Authors

Theis, Sophie; Sultana, Nasrin; Krupnik, Timothy J.; International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center; International Rice Research Institute

Citation

Theis, Sophie; Sultana, Nasrin; and Krupnik, Timothy J. 2018. Overcoming gender gaps in rural mechanization: Lessons from reaper-harvester service provision in Bangladesh. GCAN Project Note 8. CSISA Research Note 9. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145517

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Participation; Small Enterprises; Social Structure; Role of Women; Machinery Cooperatives; Mobile Phones; Cultural Factors; Training; Constraints; Harvesters; Farm Equipment; Smallholders; Ownership; Agricultural Mechanization; Agricultural Cooperatives; Discrimination; Gender Relations; Gender Equity; Credit; Equality; Women Farmers; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Climate change and variability: What are the risks for nutrition, diets, and food systems?

2017Fanzo, Jessica; McLaren, Rebecca; Davis, Claire; Choufani, Jowel

Details

Climate change and variability: What are the risks for nutrition, diets, and food systems?

The paper uses a food systems approach to analyze the bidirectional relationships between climate change and food and nutrition along the entire food value chain. It then identifies adaptation and mitigation interventions for each step of the food value chain to move toward a more climate-smart, nutrition-sensitive food system. The study focuses on poor rural farmers, a population especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change on nutrition, although we recognize that there are other vulnerable populations, including urban poor and rural populations working outside of agriculture. Although this report does not explicitly exclude overweight and obesity, it focuses primarily on undernutrition because this nutritional status is currently more prevalent than overnutrition among our target population.

Year published

2017

Authors

Fanzo, Jessica; McLaren, Rebecca; Davis, Claire; Choufani, Jowel

Citation

Fanzo, Jessica; McLaren, Rebecca; Davis, Claire; and Choufani, Jowel. 2017. Climate change and variability: What are the risks for nutrition, diets, and food systems? IFPRI Discussion Paper 1645. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146480

Keywords

Mitigation; Agricultural Value Chains; Adaptation; Nutrition; Food Security; Diet; Food Systems; Climate Change

Language

English

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

Copy all 16 citations

1 to
10
of 16