"Unless we take action now, all our efforts on social development and reducing poverty, even our very own survival, will be all for nothing.” Thus Presidential Assistant on Climate Change Elisea G. Guzon said Wednesday to the over 1,000 delegates during the official opening of the 58th Philsutech (Philippine Sugar Technologists, Inc.) Annual National Convention at Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu City where she was the guest speaker.

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A “radical overhaul” in agriculture could double production while protecting ecosystems, according to a report released today by the United Nations Environment Program and the International Water Management Institute.

The authors warn, however, that the world must act quickly to save the Earth’s breadbasket areas, where resource depletion is so severe that it threatens to decimate global supplies of fresh water and cripple agricultural systems worldwide.

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http://www.environmentalleader.com

In 2009, as the world food prices soared and threw millions of people into poverty, American President Barack Obama pledged US$3.5 billion in U.S investment over three years for worldwide food security.

Zambia is one of 20 Feed the Future focus countries selected worldwide for focused investment, in recognition of both its enormous agricultural potential and its significant food security challenges.

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Women make significant contributions to the rural economy in all developing country regions. Their roles differ across regions, yet they consistently have less access than men to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. Increasing women's access to land, livestock, education, financial services, extension, technology and rural employment would boost their productivity and generate gains in terms of agricultural production, food security, economic growth and social welfare.

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One of the United Republic of Tanzania’s most prized resources, forest land, is being threatened by the industry of charcoal.  Deforestation caused by the charcoal industry is a problem that developing countries around the world and particularly in Africa are facing.  This study will focus on this problem as it affects the city of Dar es Salaam, the countries largest consumer of charcoal.  A large number of citizens, 69% (Malimbwi 2001), use charcoal to cook with, increasing deforestation, adding to their health problems and emitting detrimental greenhouse gases.
 
The process of producing and using charcoal is not sustainable and many organizations are looking into ways of making the charcoal chain more sustainable.  Many options exist; however, this study will focus on decreasing charcoal consumption in the city of Dar es Salaam.  Using the results of a survey of 235 targeted households in the city, this report seeks to explain what kinds of people use certain fuels, why they use those fuels, their way of cooking with the fuel, and their willingness to switch to other fuels.

The results of the survey are used in two cost-benefit analyses (CBAs).  A household CBA will determine which fuel is the most cost effective, taking daily cost, initial investment cost, health risk avoided and time savings into account.  The results of the household CBA will be used in a social planner CBA to determine if investing in a fuel substitution campaign will benefit the society as a whole.  The social planner CBA will consider environmental benefits as well as the costs and benefits used in the household CBA.

Finally, we conclude that investing in an extensive LPG marketing campaign to target 30% of charcoal users is not only feasible but beneficial to society.  This measure will decrease consumption of charcoal and make the industry more sustainable.  Forestland, a precious resource, will have a better chance of surviving and being of continued use to the citizens of Tanzania.

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In Kenya, conservation and sustainable utilization of the environment and natural resources form an integral part of national planning and poverty reduction efforts. However, weak environmental management practices are a major impediment to agricultural productivity growth. This study was motivated by the paucity of literature on the poverty-environment nexus in Kenya, since poverty, agricultural stagnation and environmental degradation are issues of policy interest in the country’s development strategy. The paper builds on the few existing studies from Kenya and explores the impact of household, farm and village characteristics as well as the development domain dimensions on household welfare and investment in soil and water conservation. The results show that strengthening the tenure security improves household welfare. Further, soil quality, topography and investments in soil and water conservation affect household welfare. Agroecological potential, which is related to environmental conservation, is also a key correlate of poverty. Results for investment in water and soil conservation confirm the importance of tenure security in determining adoption and also the intensity of SWC investments. We also find that household assets, farm characteristics, presence of village institutions and development domain dimensions are important determinants of adoption and intensity of soil and water conservation investments. The results for both poverty and investment in soil and water conservation suggest the existence of a strong poverty-environment link in our sample. The results also suggest that rural poverty can be alleviated by policies that improve environmental conservation and strengthen land tenure security. The study also underscores the importance of village institutions in both investment adoption of soil and water conservation and in improving household welfare.

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This paper investigates environmental and design related issues that can affect the performance of small-scale water harvesting schemes in theTigray region of northern Ethiopia. Results indicate that the impact of evaporation loss during the rainy season on net harvested water is generally small, and depends on the extent of the surface area of the ponds. However, the impact of the seepage loss on the net harvested water is very high unless there is proper lining of the bed and walls of the ponds. The irrigated area can be increased considerably if proper water saving and utilization measures and mechanisms are implemented.

The current silt trap structures are ineffective in minimizing the sediment deposition in the ponds. The design, construction and maintenance of the structures need to be improved in order to reduce the sediment deposition and increase the water storage capacity of the ponds.

As there is little experience with the extensive use of ponds and hand dug wells for supplementary irrigation in Tigray, the soils of almost all schemes are currently salt free. If the soil salinity and good quality water of the ponds are taken into account, salinity may not be a threat for farmers using ponds for supplementary irrigation. However, the water quality of wells is poor. Besides, since they are continuously recharged by the groundwater, most of the wells irrigate longer period than the ponds. Farmers using wells would have to implement necessary measures indicated earlier to minimize the effect of salinity.

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Water harvesting is increasingly seen as a means of reducing poverty in many drought prone areas. While extensive efforts are going on in constructing and providing smallholder farmers with water harvesting structures, such as household ponds and wells in Ethiopia, there is limited effort to systematically assess the impact of households’ access to ponds and wells on household welfare. This study applies advanced econometric evaluation techniques to assess whether households with ponds and wells are better off compared to those without. It also explores the factors that explain household level poverty. Results show that households with ponds and wells are not significantly better off compared to households without, even though they are comparable in essential household characteristics. A range of household characteristics, demographics, asset endowments and village level factors were found to be significant in explaining household poverty. Policy conclusions are drawn.

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The main objectives of this paper are to design and test the commercial viability of the introduction of different flood insurance schemes in Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most flood struck developing countries in the world. The study presented here takes place in the context of both low supply due to the inherent risky nature of high expected losses caused by flooding and low insurance demand due to lack of financial income resources of large parts of the floodplain populations. In this paper we compare the expected compensation payment by potential insurers with the expected premium for different flood insurance schemes under two different institutional- analytical models: a partner-agent and full service model of micro-insurance. We find that although demand and willingness to pay (WTP) for flood insurance are low in flood risk areas in Bangladesh, commercially viable markets exist for house property and unemployment insurance. However, administrative implementation costs of micro-insurance play a significant role in determining the viability as well as the long-term sustainability of micro flood insurance schemes. The policy implication of the work presented here is that partner-agent models of microinsurance organization are a precondition for the long-term sustainability of a micro flood insurance market. We conclude that a full service based organizational structure is only viable in places where flood probability is considerably low.

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The main objectives of this paper are to design and test the commercial viability of the introduction of different flood insurance schemes in Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most flood struck developing countries in the world. The study presented here takes place in the context of both low supply due to the inherent risky nature of high expected losses caused by flooding and low insurance demand due to lack of financial income resources of large parts of the floodplain populations. In this paper we compare the expected compensation payment by potential insurers with the expected premium for different flood insurance schemes under two different institutional- analytical models: a partner-agent and full service model of micro-insurance. We find that although demand and willingness to pay (WTP) for flood insurance are low in flood risk areas in Bangladesh, commercially viable markets exist for house property and unemployment insurance. However, administrative implementation costs of micro-insurance play a significant role in determining the viability as well as the long-term sustainability of micro flood insurance schemes. The policy implication of the work presented here is that partner-agent models of microinsurance organization are a precondition for the long-term sustainability of a micro flood insurance market. We conclude that a full service based organizational structure is only viable in places where flood probability is considerably low.

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