Short-run subsidies, take-up, and long-run demand for off-grid solar for the poor – evidence from large-scale randomized trials in Rwanda

Submitted by Petra Hansson on

Abstract
Over a billion people lack access to electricity, instead relying on kerosene and other dirty lighting sources, while grid expansion is not expected to keep pace with population growth. Moreover, pneumonia is the leading cause of death for under-fives in the world and kerosene smoke is a significant risk factor.

Energy, Health, Policy Design

CO2 emissions, agricultural productivity and welfare in Ethiopia

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

Purpose – Climate change has become one of the most important development challenges worldwide. It affects various sectors, with agriculture the most vulnerable. In Ethiopia, climate change impacts are exacerbated due to the economy’s heavy dependence on agriculture. The Ethiopian Government has started to implement its climate-resilient green economy (CRGE) strategy and reduce CO2 emissions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of CO2 emission on agricultural productivity and household welfare.

Agriculture, Climate Change, Land, Policy Design

Games as boundary objects: charting trade-offs in sustainable livestock transformation

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

Attempts to structurally transform segments of the agri-food system inevitably involve trade-offs between the priorities of actors with different incentives, perspectives and values. Trade-offs are context-specific, reflecting different socio-economic and political realities. We investigate the potential of structured boundary objects to facilitate exposing and reconciling these trade-offs within the context of multistakeholder social learning processes with pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Agriculture, Land, Policy Design

Designing sustainable pathways for the livestock sector: the example of Atsbi, Ethiopia and Bama, Burkina Faso

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

Demand for animal sourced food is predicted to double in the upcoming 20 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is simultaneously a big opportunity in terms of poverty reduction and a significant threat to the environment. The objective of this paper is to present an approach to co-create a set of viable and acceptable development pathways for the livestock sector that maximizes benefits from increased production, exploits the synergies between livestock and the environment, while minimizing the negative effects.

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, Policy Design

Farmers’ drought experience, risk perceptions, and behavioural intentions for adaptation: evidence from Ethiopia

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

This paper examines farmers’ cognitive perceptions of risk and the behavioral intentions to implement specific drought risk reduction measures using the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) model. We follow an innovative route by extending a PMT model with a drought experience variable, which, we hypothesize, will influence risk perceptions and the take-up of adaptation measures. In order to do so, we investigated detailed historical drought patterns by looking at the spatial and temporal aspects of drought conditions during crop growing season at the village level.

Agriculture, Climate Change, Land

An Economic Valuation and Mapping of Pollination Services in Ethiopia

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

An increasing degree of attention is being given to pollination ecosystem service. It has become a commonly mentioned example of how ecosystem services are economically valuable due to its linkage to the world food production. A notable bio-economic approach is applied to estimate the economic value of pollination and the production value loss attributable due to a decline in pollinator using the Ethiopian Annual Agricultural Sample Surveys (AgSS) data for the period 2003–2013.

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land

Games as boundary objects: charting trade-offs in sustainable livestock transformation

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

Attempts to structurally transform segments of the agri-food system inevitably involve trade-offs between the priorities of actors with different incentives, perspectives and values. Trade-offs are context-specific, reflecting different socio-economic and political realities. We investigate the potential of structured boundary objects to facilitate exposing and reconciling these trade-offs within the context of multi- stakeholder social learning processes with pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Agriculture, Land

Valuing Water Purification Services of Forests: A Production Function Approach using Panel Data from China’s Sichuan Province 20-29

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

The water purification functions of forests represent one of the most frequently invoked examples of non-market ecosystem services that are economically valuable. Yet, there has been a paucity of statistical estimates that robustly quantify such benefits. This study enriches this thin evidence base through valuing forests’ water purification services in the form of the ensuing cost savings of municipal drinking water treatment, using a rich panel dataset from China’s Sichuan province.

Forestry, Water