Suchergebnisse

Tanzania is the second-largest producer of rice (Oryza sativa) in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa after Madagascar. Unfortunately, the sector has been performing poorly due to many constraints, including poor agricultural practices and climate variability. In addressing the challenge, the government is making substantial investments to speed the agriculture transformation into a more modernized, commercial, and highly productive and profitable sector. Our objective was to apply a Monte Carlo simulation approach to assess the economic feasibility of alternative rice farming systems operating in Tanzania while considering risk analysis for decision-makers with different risk preferences to make better management decisions. The rice farming systems in this study comprise rice farms using traditional practices and those using some or all of the recommended system of rice intensification (SRI) practices. The overall results show 2% and zero probability of net cash income (NCI) being negative for partial and full SRI adopters, respectively. Meanwhile, farmers using local and improved seeds have 66% and 60% probability of NCI being negative, correspondingly. Rice farms which applied fertilizers in addition to improved seeds have a 21% probability of negative returns. Additionally, net income for rice farms using local seeds was slightly worthwhile when the transaction made during the harvesting period compared to farms applied improved varieties due to a relatively high price for local seeds. These results help to inform policymakers and agencies promoting food security and eradication of poverty on the benefits of encouraging improved rice farming practices in the country. Despite climate variability, in Tanzania, it is still possible for rice farmers to increase food production and income through the application of improved technologies, particularly SRI management practices, which have shown a promising future. ; Peer Reviewed

Cognitive aging is characterized by large heterogeneity, which may be due to variations in childhood socioeconomic conditions (CSC). Although there is substantial evidence for an effect of CSC on levels of cognitive functioning at older age, results on associations with cognitive decline are mixed. We examined by means of an accelerated longitudinal design the association between CSC and cognitive trajectories from 50 to 96 years. Cognition included two functions generally found to decline with aging: delayed recall and verbal fluency. Data are from six waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), conducted between 2004 and 2015 (n = 24,066 at baseline; 56% female, age 50+). We found a consistent CSC pattern in levels of cognitive functioning in later life. Older people with disadvantaged CSC had lower levels of cognitive functioning than those with more advantaged CSC. We also find that decline is almost 1.6 times faster in the most advantaged group compared with the most disadvantaged group. The faster decline for people with more advantaged CSC becomes less pronounced when we additionally control for adulthood socioeconomic conditions and current levels of physical activity, depressive symptoms, and partner status. Our findings are in line with the latency, pathway, and cumulative model and lend support to theories of cognitive reserve, stating that neuronal loss can no longer be repaired in people with more cognitive reserve once the underlying pathology is substantial and speed of decline is accelerated. ; We are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for financial assistance. This paper uses data from SHARE waves 1, 2, 3 (SHARELIFE), 4, 5, and 6 (DOIs 10.6103/SHARE.w1.600, 10.6103/ SHARE.w2.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w3.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w4.600, 10.6103/SHARE. w5.600, and 10.6103/SHARE.w6.600). The SHARE data collection was primarily funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3, RII-CT-2006-062193; COMPARE, CIT5-CT-2005-028857; and SHARELIFE, CIT4-CT-2006-028812), and FP7 (SHARE-PREP, 211909; SHARE-LEAP, 227822; and SHARE M4, 261982). Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the US National Institute on Ageing (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, and HHSN271201300071C), and various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www.share-project.org). This work was supported by the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES–Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives, which is financed by the SNSF (51NF40-160590). M.J.A. was supported by a grant from the Research Council of Norway (Grant 228664) and from Nordforsk (Grant 74637). B.W.V.d.L. is supported by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement 676060. ; publishedVersion

Background: Welfare regimes in Europe modify individuals' socioeconomic trajectories over their life-course, and, ultimately, the link between socioeconomic circumstances (SECs) and health. This paper aimed to assess whether the associations between life-course SECs (early life, young adult-life, middle age and old age) and risk of poor self-rated health (SRH) trajectories in old age are modified by welfare regime (Scandinavian [SC], Bismarckian [BM], Southern European [SE], Eastern European [EE]). Methods: We used data from the longitudinal SHARE survey. Early-life SECs consisted of 4 indicators of living conditions at age 10. Young adult-life, middle-age, and old-age SECs indicators were education, main occupation and satisfaction with household income, respectively. The association of life-course SECs with poor SRH trajectories was analysed by confounder-adjusted multilevel logistic regression models stratified by welfare regime. We included 24,011 participants (3,626 in SC, 10,256 in BM, 6,891 in SE, 3,238 in EE) aged 50 to 96 years from 13 European countries. Results: The risk of poor SRH increased gradually with early-life SECs from most advantaged to most disadvantaged. The addition of adult-life SECs differentially attenuated the association of early-life SECs and SRH at older age across regimes: education attenuated the association only in SC and SE regimes and occupation only in SC and BM regimes; satisfaction with household income attenuated the association across regimes. Conclusions: Early-life SEC has a long-lasting effect on SRH in all welfare regimes. Adult-life SECs attenuated this influence differently across welfare regimes. ; This work was supported by the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research "LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives", which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant no. 51NF40-160590]. The authors are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial assistance. BWAvdL is supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie (grant no. 676060). MPB is supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). ; acceptedVersion

Objectives: This study aimed to assess whether cumulative disadvantage in childhood misfortune and adult-life socioeconomic conditions influence the risk of frailty in old age and whether welfare regimes influence these associations. Method: Data from 23,358 participants aged 50 years and older included in the longitudinal SHARE survey were used. Frailty was operationalized according to Fried's phenotype as presenting either weakness, shrinking, exhaustion, slowness, or low activity. Confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to analyze associations of childhood misfortune and life-course socioeconomic conditions with frailty. Results: Childhood misfortune and poor adult-life socioeconomic conditions increased the odds of (pre-)frailty at older age. With aging, differences narrowed between categories of adverse childhood experiences (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime) and adverse childhood health experiences (driven by Eastern European welfare regime), but increased between categories of occupational position (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime). Discussion: These findings suggest that childhood misfortune is linked to frailty in old age. Such a disadvantaged start in life does not seem to be compensated by a person's life-course socioeconomic trajectory, though certain types of welfare regimes affected this relationship. Apart from main occupational position, our findings do not support the cumulative dis/ advantage theory, but rather show narrowing differences. ; This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant (agreement number 676060 [LONGPOP] to B. W. A. van der Linden); and the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research "LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives", which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 51NF40-160590). B. Cheval is supported by an Ambizione grant (PZ00P1_180040) from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). This article uses data from SHARE Waves 1, 2, 3 (SHARELIFE), 4, 5 and 6 (DOIs: 10.6103/SHARE.w1.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w2.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w3.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w4.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w5.600, 10.6103/SHARE.w6.600). The SHARE data collection was primarily funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812), and FP7 (SHARE-PREP: N°211909, SHARE-LEAP: N°227822, SHARE M4: N°261982). The authors gratefully acknowledge additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the US National Institute on Aging (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, HHSN271201300071C) and various national funding sources (www.share-project.org). Author Contributions ; publishedVersion

Social cohesion plays a key role in processes of peacebuilding and sustainable development. Fostering social cohesion might present a potential to enhance the connection of natural resource management and peacebuilding and better functioning of sustainable land use systems. This contribution explores the nexus between social cohesion, natural resource management, and peacebuilding. We do so by (1) reviewing literature on the three concepts and (2) studying four different key action areas in the context of sustainable cocoa production for their potential to enhance social cohesion, namely (a) agroforestry; (b) cooperatives; (c) certification schemes; and (d) trade policies. Research is based on experience from cocoa production in two post-conflict countries, Côte d'Ivoire and Colombia. Our findings show that by fostering environmentally sustainable agricultural practices, these key action areas have a clear potential to foster social cohesion among cocoa producers and thus provide a valuable contribution to post-conflict peacebuilding in both countries. However, the actual effects strongly depend on a multitude of local factors which need to be carefully taken into consideration. Further, the focus in implementation of some of these approaches tends to be on increasing agricultural productivity and not directly on fostering cocoa farmers' wellbeing and societal relations, and hence a shift toward social objectives is needed in order to strengthen these approaches as a part of overall peacebuilding strategies.