Improving developing country food security through aquaculture development—lessons from Asia

This paper provides a framework for examining aquaculture’s linkages to food and nutritional security by elucidating key hypotheses concerning the role of aquaculture in household food and income systems in developing countries. Taking examples from developing Asia, where aquaculture showed a steady growth over the last decade, the implications of aquaculture development are examined from the standpoint of its impact on employment, income and consumption. Analysis revealed clear evidence of positive income and consumption effects of aquaculture on households. However, employment effects are still not significant. The context of targeting small-scale and subsistence-oriented farmers as a means of improving food security in the developing countries has also been analyzed by identifying key socio-economic and policy factors affecting aquaculture adoption and its impact on the poor. The paper concludes that national policies for aquaculture development will need to concurrently address the food security and poverty questions more sharply than has been done at present, by providing institutional and infrastructure support for access to resources such as land and water and to markets by poor households. Finally, more empirical evidence should be collected on the varied opportunities aquaculture would provide to improve the income, employment and food consumption levels within households.     

Household food security in semi-arid Africa—the contribution of participatory adaptive research and development to rural livelihoods in Eastern Kenya

The already precarious household food-security situation in many semi-arid areas of Africa may be rendered more so through the implementation of structural adjustment programmes that frequently prescribe austerity measures, along with a safety net to protect the vulnerable. However, longer-term development policy perspectives on the one hand, and shorter-term food-relief considerations on the other, often conflict. This paper illuminates the policy conflicts which arise when local-level research and development initiatives interface with the effects of macro-policy-initiated changes and safety-net interventions. Using a participatory agricultural research project in Eastern Kenya as a case study, the paper describes specific household food-security problem diagnosis and a range of research interventions planned within a more sustainable rural livelihoods framework. Working with local farmers, the project implemented a range of applied research and linked development interventions that showed promise in easing food security through a broadening of the livelihood base. Some of these initiatives were carried further through the local farmers' own initiative. The conclusion is that semi-arid areas, despite views that see these as low-potential and obvious safety-net candidates, often have potential for agricultural intensification and increased productivity. However, to ensure that research results are utilised and farmers have access to new technology and markets, there is a need for external or public-sector support to integrated longer-term development initiatives. This may require rethinking the scope of research and development approaches, particularly removing unhelpful boundaries between research, extension and development functions, and increasing farmer participation in the whole process—if possible as part of a less centralised and more household-oriented approach to food-security policy and strategy.     

Does food security matter for transition in Arab countries?

Expectations are high that transition in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen will bring about more freedom, justice, and economic opportunities. However, experiences from other world regions show that countries in transition are at high risk of entering conflicts, which often come at large economic, social and political costs. In order to identify options on how conflict may be prevented in Arab transition countries, this paper assesses the key global drivers of conflicts based on a dataset from 1960 to 2010 and improved cross-country regression techniques. Results show that unlike in other studies where per capita incomes, inequality, and poor governance, among other factors, emerge as the major determinants of conflict, food security at macro and household-levels emerges as the main cause of conflicts in the Arab World. The high exposure of Arab countries to global food price variations proves to be an important source of vulnerability for a peaceful Arab transition. If history is also a guide to the future, improving food security is not only important for improving the lives of rural and urban people; it is also likely to be the key for a peaceful transition. The paper concludes with a set of policy options on how to improve food security at macro and household-levels, including safeguard mechanisms against excessive price volatility, export-led and pro-poor growth, the creation/expansion of social safety nets and targeted nutrition programs.     

Fit for purpose? Rethinking food security responses in protracted humanitarian crises

The recent rise in the price of food worldwide defied easy categorization. However, the impact of the price hikes on developing country consumption served to refocus attention on food security. Much attention was paid to short-term buffering of nutrition in tandem with new investments in agriculture – a dual approach that served to reinforce a longstanding bifurcation in analysis and programming between “emergency” and “development” categories, suggesting that “emergency” responses deal with immediate needs while “development” means addressing underlying causes with a longer-term lens. The notion of the “relief to development continuum” has long been dismissed as conceptual framework, but has never really been replaced as a programmatic framework. This paper suggests a multi-dimensional way of conceiving of these categories and a more systematic way of thinking about response. Ethiopia is noted as an example where elements of this new approach are taking shape but even Ethiopia has not adopted all of these components in an integrated way, and the programming there has not been comprehensively evaluated.     

“Zero” in terms of food policy and risk perception

In the present article, the concept of “zero” is discussed using three examples, chemical contaminants/residues in foods, radionuclides, and GM foods. These examples share several common features. First, the risk reduction is generally quantified as the “fold” reduction, i.e., risk reduction by twofold, 10-fold, etc., as no other convenient parameters are available. Second, there are situations where “zero” virtually does not exist, such as in the case of toxicants in GM plants or of radionuclides, because the background always exists. Third, assuring “zero” is often impossible on technological and other reasons. This shows the critical importance of understanding and communicating “zero” in terms of food policy.     

How do stakeholder interactions influence national food security policy in the Caribbean? The case of Saint Lucia

Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success. Recognizing the significance of the challenge, this paper explores the nature of the stakeholder interactions surrounding the development of Saint Lucia’s 2009–2015 National Agricultural Policy and considers some of the implications for food and agriculture-related policy outcomes. Results reveal a general lack of supportive conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes, including low stakeholder participation levels, conflicting roles of different forms of social capital in the interactions between stakeholders, and missing “boundary” organizations capable of facilitating a transition towards more flexible and adaptive institutions, enhanced knowledge exchange and learning, and greater trust among stakeholders in the policy network. Future avenues for research and development are subsequently identified.     

Narrative approach in business network process research — Implications for theory and methodology

The continuous development of theoretical and methodological approaches provides novel insights into how to conceptualize and empirically study multilayered and multi-actor network processes. This theoretic-methodological article shows how network processes can be conceptualized, and how the narrative approach advances the empirical study of these processes. The study builds an agency-structure meta-framework that conceptualizes the emergence of network processes in terms of interaction between individuals from different network actor organizations. The narrative research approach is put forward to implement the study of network processes into empirical reality. The narrative approach allows capturing the relevant actors, their multiple motives, interests and activities, and the mutual interplay of these elements with the contextual levels, thus providing an essential understanding of various types of network processes.     

The framing of innovation among European research funding actors: Assessing the potential for ‘responsible research and innovation’ in the food and health domain

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has recently emerged as a new framework for science and technology governance. The concept articulates the need for mutual exchange by which societal actors become responsive to each other early on in the process of innovation, with a view to facilitate ethically acceptable and sustainable innovation. There is relatively limited evidence to explore the extent to which the process of research and innovation under the terms of RRI is realised in practice, particularly in the context of food and health research. Although research to date has been examining innovation from the point of view of inputs and outputs—R&D funding and patents—we propose to examine the cognitive framing of innovation that shapes decisions of those who constitute a part of the innovation chain. This paper explores how the concept of innovation is understood and used in policy implementation, with a particular focus upon ‘food and health’ science and research policy and funding. Our analysis is based on 55 interviews of various actors engaged in research funding decision-making across eight European countries. Three themes emerged from the analysis: concept of innovation; conditions for innovation; and drivers of innovation; through these themes, the cognitive framing was drawn out. The cognitive framing suggests that innovation in the food and health domain is perceived to be focused on biosciences and marketable applications to the neglect of social sciences and broader public interest; that the “innovation network” is primarily viewed as centred around scientific/technical and industrial actors; and that the demand-pull dynamic is relevant to innovation in the area of food and health, despite having been relegated in contemporary thinking and policies around innovation. These findings point to the inadequate consideration of the normative issues—how problems are to be defined and addressed—among national research funders in the food and health domain, and indicate a gap between the ideas of innovation under the terms of RRI and innovation as conceptualised by those involved in its governance.     

Who are the producers and consumers? Value chains and food policy effects in the wheat sector in Pakistan

We develop a disaggregated Nominal Rate of Assistance (NRA) methodology to disentangle the welfare impacts of policies for various interest groups along the value chain (to disaggregate effects within the “producer” and “consumer” umbrellas). We apply our value chain NRA methodology to the case of Pakistan’s wheat price and trade policy. We analyze the welfare implications for various agents in the wheat-flour value chain from 2000 to 2013, a period characterized by major global price volatility and by regular adjustments of domestic policies. We find that the wheat policy has generally benefitted flour consumers and wheat traders at the expense of wheat farmers, with limited effects on flour millers. Our findings illustrate that the welfare implications of policies can be quite different within the “producer” and “consumer” umbrellas, which has potentially important implications for economic and political economy analyses and for the design of policies that aim to target the poorest groups along value chains.     

Consumers’ willingness-to-pay for food safety labels in an emerging market: The case of fresh produce in Thailand

Food safety systems in emerging markets are currently facing a transformation period, becoming more stringent because of an increasing demand for safer food. Consequently, policy makers need to find strategies to increase food safety while giving the industry time to improve their performance. In Thailand, policy makers have adopted the strategy of upgrading food safety standards gradually. Government and private food safety brands and labels were introduced onto the market but little is known whether Thai consumers have preferences for them or not. This study is aimed at evaluating Thai consumers’ preferences for food safety labels and brands on fresh produce, using a surveyed based on discrete-choice experiments. A sample of 350 Thai consumers was surveyed in Bangkok and Nonthaburi in 2013. Quota sampling according to the shopping outlets and convenience sampling methods were adopted. Two hundred respondents were recruited at fresh-food markets and 150 respondents were recruited at supermarkets. We found that consumers are willing-to-pay more for both government led food safety label and private brands, but that there is high heterogeneity in their preferences. The high degree of social desirability for food safety labels confirms that food safety labelling policy should be supported. However, the provision of information and credibility are vital in order to mitigate the risk of consumer deception by self-claimed labels.     

An analysis of multi-stakeholder initiatives to reduce food loss and waste in an emerging country – Brazil

This paper aims to investigate the roles adopted by the distinct stakeholders that are engaged in a voluntary initiative to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) in the context of an emerging country. Data were collected by way of participant observation in multi-stakeholder events, observation visits and interviews with 54 food sector stakeholders, and from secondary data. The theoretical contribution of this paper is that it provides a systemic and realistic perspective for tackling FLW, as research in the field usually only focuses on one supply chain agent, or on consumer behaviour. Another contribution that may be replicated in other countries has to do with the role of each stakeholder in identifying the processes with which they are involved for reducing FLW. Activities and actions in a multi-stakeholder initiative change according to their positioning at the institutional or value chain level of analysis. Future studies should consider the extensive interplay that exists between the institutional and value chain levels in the food sector, and how they interact     

Asia’s national innovation systems: Institutional adaptability and rigidity in the face of global innovation challenges

This paper explores several features of, and changes in, innovation capacity in Asia. The growth of technology-based industries has been a critically important element of Asian industrial development and has required extensive institutional support for the diffusion of innovation and technological learning. As a number of Asian countries reach the global technological frontier they need to develop new capabilities for creating “radical” innovations in order to sustain their international competitiveness. Using the analytical frameworks of national innovation systems and varieties of capitalism, the paper reviews some systemic and environmental factors encouraging and constraining these developments. By referring to illustrative case studies of institutional evolution within Taiwan’s national innovation system and technological entrepreneurship in Korea, the paper argues that whilst there are major developments in models of innovation support, emulating those found in liberal market economies, enduring cultural legacies can remain influential. It highlights the central importance of social as well as economic institutional adaptation. Some management and policy implications of this attribute are considered, and a future research agenda is proposed.

Performance of foreign subsidiaries “in” and “from” Asia: A review,synthesis and research agenda

The performance of foreign subsidiaries (FS) has been the topic of studies since the beginning of the international business (IB) field. However, research findings are contradictory because of the disparate foci of individual studies. In this review paper, we first identify key determinants of the performance of FS through a structured content analysis of 73 articles and 679 relationships since the year 2000. Second, we explain the effects of each determinant, and perform meta-analysis to determine which relationships are statistically meaningful. Third, we compare the effects of determinants across different combinations of home and host contexts, based on which, we provide possible explanations of previous inconsistent findings. We conclude by offering new theoretical directions to better understand determinants of the performance of FS.     

Search duplication in research and design spaces — Exploring the role of local competition

A lack of sufficient diversification in research strategies has been identified as an important problem for delegated research. We show that this problem can be solved by local competition (such as bribery, lobbying, rent seeking, competition at the patent office) among players who apply the same search strategies or develop the same design. Such competition can restore full efficiency in the non-cooperative equilibrium. Local competition interacts with the choice of whether to cluster or diversify, and rather than adding a further inefficiency to the existing ones, it eliminates inefficiency. The results are robust and hold under simultaneous search strategy choices as well as for sequential choices.     

Power resources for disempowered workers? Re-conceptualizing the power and potential of consumers in app-based food delivery

Consumers play an integral role in the labor process of app-based food delivery services through their consumption behaviors and performance ratings of workers. Some therefore see them as a potential ally of workers, whereas others view them as beholden by capital. This quantitative study uses power resource theory and a Rasch model to appraise consumers' understandings and attitudes toward working conditions in this segment of the “gig” economy. Drawing on two surveys of 1820 Australian consumers, we find that consumers are a potential yet heterogenous coalitional power resource who may align with workers on certain entitlements like minimum wages.     

Targeting population nutrition through municipal health and food policy: Implications of New York City’s experiences in regulatory obesity prevention

Obesity remains a major public health challenge across OECD countries and policy-makers globally require successful policy precedents. This paper analyzes New York City’s innovative experiences in regulatory approaches to nutrition. We combined a systematic documentary review and key informant interviews (n = 9) with individuals directly involved in nutrition policy development and decision-making. Thematic analysis was guided by Kingdon’s three-streams-model and the International Obesity Task Force’s evidence-based decision-making framework. Our findings indicate that decisive mayoral leadership spearheaded initial agenda-change and built executive capacity to support evidence-driven policy. Policy-makers in the executive branch recognized the dearth of evidence for concrete policy interventions, and made contributing to the evidence base an explicit goal. Their approach preferred decision-making through executive action and rules passed by the Board of Health that successfully banned trans-fats from food outlets, set institutional food standards, introduced menu labeling requirements for chain restaurants, and improved access to healthy foods for disadvantaged populations. Although the Health Department collaborated with the legislature on legal and programmatic food access measures, there was limited engagement with elected representatives and the community on regulatory obesity prevention. Our analysis suggests that this hurt the administration’s ability to successfully communicate the public health messages motivating these contentious proposals; contributing to unexpected opposition from food access and minority advocates, and fueling charges of executive overreach. Overall, NYC presents a case of expert-driven policy change, underpinned by evidence-based environmental approaches. The city’s experience demonstrates that there is scope to redefine municipal responsibilities for public health and that incremental change and contentious public discussion can impact social norms around nutrition.     

Leveraging agriculture for nutrition in South Asia: What do we know,and what have we learned?

Despite significant improvements over recent decades, rates of undernutrition remain high in South Asia, with adverse impacts on morbidity and mortality. Overweight/obesity, among children and adults, is now an additional and major public health concern. While agriculture has the potential to improve nutrition through several pathways, this potential is currently not being realised in the region. The Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) research consortium (2012–2018) set out to improve understanding about how agriculture and related food policies and programs in South Asia (specifically in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan) can be better conceptualised and implemented in order to enhance impacts on nutrition outcomes, especially those of young children and adolescent girls. This paper provides a snapshot of the agriculture-nutrition nexus in the region, outlines the pathways through which agriculture can influence nutrition outcomes, elaborates on the objectives of the LANSA research consortium within this context, and highlights the core findings of the six papers that form the body of this Special Issue. The paper ends with five key lessons that have emerged from this research, during this decade.     

Managing and funding germplasm preservation in Papua New Guinea — for improved indigenous foods

Since the 1960s, several countries and international agencies have embarked on collection and preservation of the germplasm of food crops. Such has been the case in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, as outlined in this study, in PNG there has been considerable economic waste in germplasm maintenance. Over half the original PNG collections of taro, yams, sweet potato, cassava, aikiba, sago and bananas have been lost. This study outlines how funding vagaries, combined with pest, environment and staff problems have led to these losses. The study concludes with a suite of options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of maintaining PNG's ex situ field collections of germplasm. Avoiding losses of germplasm is potentially important for indigenous agriculture in PNG and South Pacific.