Contextual realities and poverty traps: Why South Asian smallholder farmers negatively evaluate conservation agriculture

Pragya Timsina Emma Karki Brendan Brown (2023, [Artículo])

Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) is gaining prominence as an agricultural pathway to poverty reduction and enhancement of sustainable food systems among government and development actors in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Despite substantial investment in research and extension programs and a growing understanding of the agronomic, economic and labor-saving benefits of CASI, uptake remains limited. This study explores farmer experiences and perspectives to establish why farmers choose not to implement CASI systems despite a strong body of recent scientific evidence establishing the benefits of them doing so. Through thematic coding of semi-structured interviews, key constraints are identified, which establishes a narrative that current households' resources are insufficient to enable practice change, alongside limited supporting structures for resource supplementation. Such issues create a dependency on subsidies and outside support, a situation that is likely to impact any farming system change given the low-risk profiles of farmers and their limited resource base. This paper hence sets out broad implications for creating change in smallholder farming systems in order to promote the adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies in resource-poor smallholder contexts, especially with regard to breaking the profound poverty cycles that smallholder farmers find themselves in and which are unlikely to be broken by the current set of technologies promoted to them.

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE POVERTY TRAPS

Influence of poverty concerns on demand for healthier processed foods: A field experiment in Mexico City

Marrit Van den Berg Jason Donovan (2023, [Artículo])

Living in poverty can present cognitive biases that exacerbate constraints to achieving healthier diets. Better diets could imply food choice upgrades within certain food categories, such as electing processed foods with an improved nutritional profile. This study evaluated the influence of monetary and health concerns on the willingness to pay (WTP) for healthier processed foods in a low-income section of Mexico City. We employed priming techniques from the scarcity literature, which are applied for the first time to healthier food purchasing behaviours in low-income settings. Our predictions are based on a dual system framework, with choices resulting from the interaction of deliberative and affective aspects. The WTP was elicited through a BDM mechanism with 423 participants. Results showed that induced poverty concerns reduced the valuations of one of the study's healthier food varieties by 0.17 standard deviations. The latter effect did not differ by income level. The WTP for a healthier bread product but one with relatively high sugar and fat content was reduced by induced poverty concerns only among certain consumers without bread purchasing restrictions (78% of the sample). Potential mechanisms were assessed through regression analysis and structural equation modelling. The relationship between poverty concerns and WTP was mediated by increased levels of stress. While we could not rule out impact on cognitive load, it was not deemed a mediator in this study. Our findings signal that improvements in economic and psychological well-being among low-income consumers may aid to increase their demand for healthier processed foods.

Healthier Diets Poverty Psychology Dual System Model CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA DIET POVERTY PSYCHOLOGY STRESS WILLINGNESS TO PAY

Illustrative power and epistemic roles of the image in multi-disciplinary researches on poverty contemporary Habitat

Peter Krieger (2023, [Artículo, Artículo])

This study analyses the epistemic functions of images in the geographic and sociological discourses on poverty habitat in the megacities of the global south by focusing on Mexico city. Based on a conceptual and methodological review of art history from Bildwissenschaft perspective (visual studies), this paper aims to examine the poverty habitat by describing its typologies, patterns, encodings and possible effects of its visual constructions. This contribution outlines the utility of this type of research, the function of inter and transdisciplinary studies in this field and its fundamental ethic dimension.

pobreza urbana megalópolis sociología geografía estudios visuales HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA CONDUCTA HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA CONDUCTA urban poverty megalopolis visual studies Bildwissenschaft

Utilización de aguajes por el borrego cimarrón (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) y análisis de calidad del agua en Sierra Santa Isabel, Baja California, México

Watering sites use by bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) and water quality analysis in Sierra Santa Isabel, Baja California, Mexico

Jonathan Gabriel Escobar Flores SERGIO ALVAREZ CARDENAS Sara Cecilia Díaz Castro Aradit Castellanos Vera Jorge Torres Rodriguez MARIANA DELGADO FERNANDEZ (2016, [Artículo])

"Se analizó la utilización de aguajes por el borrego cimarrón en la Sierra Santa Isabel, Baja California, México durante la temporada de sequía de 2011 y 2013 y el periodo de lluvias e inicio de la temporada de sequía del 2015. Asimismo, se estudió la calidad del agua, con base en siete parámetros fisicoquímicos. Se obtuvieron 260 registros fotográficos de borregos cimarrones, donde hembras, añeros y corderos representaron el 73%. En el periodo de lluvias, en dos de los aguajes se obtuvieron valores de conductividad de 1.31 µS/cm2 y 1.92 µS/cm2, y de sólidos disueltos totales de l0.65 ppt y 0.95 ppt, indicando un bajo contenido de sales en el agua. Los valores de oxígeno disuelto mayores a 6.4 ppm, dureza del agua menor a 100 ppm y PH entre 6.5 y 8.5, sugieren que el agua tiene condiciones óptimas para ser bebida por los borregos cimarrones. Los aguajes con mayor utilización por los borregos fueron El Zamora (n = 120) y El Cordero (n = 67), donde se registraron las mejores condiciones de calidad de agua en este estudio. El mayor registro de hembras y añeros, asociado a condiciones óptimas de calidad del agua, confirman la importancia de los aguajes para la crianza y reclutamiento del borrego cimarrón."

"Water used by bighorn sheep during the 2011 and 2013 dry seasons and the rainy season and drought of 2015 in the Sierra Santa Isabel of the State of Baja California, Mexico was analyzed for seven physicochemical parameters. At four watering sites, 260 photographs of sheep were obtained. Females, yearlings, and lambs accounted for 73% of the photographs. In the rainy season at two watering sites, conductivity was 1.31 µS/cm2 and 1.92 µS/cm2 and total dissolved solids was 0.65 and 0.95 ppt, indicating low salt content and safe for bighorn sheep. The watering sites with greater use by bighorn sheep were El Zamora (n = 120) and El Cordero (n = 67), which also had the best water quality. The frequent use by females and yearlings of the two sites with optimal water quality support the belief that watering sites for lambing and recruitment of bighorn sheep is important."

Baja California, borrego cimarrón, calidad del agua, cámaras trampa. Baja California, bighorn sheep, water quality, camera traps. BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA ANIMAL (ZOOLOGÍA) MAMÍFEROS MAMÍFEROS