"For many people, particularly in developing countries, water scarcity will become a part of their livelihoods. The business-as-usual (BAU) scenario shows that in the year 2025, food insecurity and water scarcity will increase. If demand from industry and domestic sectors grows further, and if no more resources are made available for irrigated agriculture, agriculture, poorer economies, and particularly the poorest population in these economies, will be confronted with lower food production and reduced access to agricultural markets. In principle, supply constraints could be substituted by food imports, but only if adequate financial resources are made available. Since this is not likely, water policy changes and institutional reforms are needed such as the implementation of economic incentives to enhance the productivity of water." -- from online abstract | PR | IFPRI3; GRP22; Theme 3; Environment and Natural Resource Management; IMPACT | EPTD

On new moon day when Moon passes between Earth and Sun solar eclipse can be seen from Earth. Although solar eclipse is a fascinating astronomical event, even in today’s fast, modern and civilized life, people have not been able to go away with superstitious beliefs related to outer space activity behind solar eclipse. These misbelieves eventually lead to great socio-economic losses due to discarding of cooked food and drinking water that was exposed to the eclipse directly or indirectly. So considering these misbelieves a study was conducted to see possible biological effects of solar radiations during solar eclipse on bacteria responsible for water borne and food borne diseases. E. coli, S. aureus, B. subtilis, S. typhi, which are known water and food borne pathogens, were exposed to solar radiations throughout the eclipse period. The effect of these radiations on the survival and growth rate of these organisms was assessed by suitable method and compared with that on control day. When such comparison was made, it indicated that there was no statistically significant effect of solar eclipse on the survival and the growth rate of these organisms. Hence, we insist dumping the cooked food or drinking water after solar eclipse should be avoided.

"For many people, particularly in developing countries, water scarcity will become a part of their livelihoods. The business-as-usual (BAU) scenario shows that in the year 2025, food insecurity and water scarcity will increase. If demand from industry and domestic sectors grows further, and if no more resources are made available for irrigated agriculture, agriculture, poorer economies, and particularly the poorest population in these economies, will be confronted with lower food production and reduced access to agricultural markets. In principle, supply constraints could be substituted by food imports, but only if adequate financial resources are made available. Since this is not likely, water policy changes and institutional reforms are needed such as the implementation of economic incentives to enhance the productivity of water." -- from online abstract | PR | EPTD | Journal article | IFPRI3; GRP22; Theme 3; Environment and Natural Resource Management; IMPACT

A. Castro et al., 'Quesungual slash and mulch agroforestry system (QSMAS): Improving crop water productivity food security and resource quality in the sub-humid tropics', CIAT, 2012

Final workshop IDEADOS: The wrapping up of the IDEADOS project, International Workshop on Environment, Ecosystems and Demersal Resources and fisheries, 14-16 November 2012, Palma de Mallorca, Spain | Peer reviewed

The table of contents for this item can be shared with the requester. The requester may then choose one chapter, up to 10% of the item, as per the Fair Dealing provision of the Canadian Copyright Act | The aim of the project is to develop a modelling framework that will increase resource use efficiency along with policy coherence, through interlinkages of water, energy and food security factors in remote and impoverished areas. The case study centres around the municipality of Elundini, located in the North of the Eastern Cape. The area is a catchment for the Umzimvubu River and is characterised by rugged, mountainous terrain and abundance of water. A nexus orientated modelling framework is applied that develops interventions to supply power and piped water where it is lacking, as well as improving agricultural practices.

Food Business Operators (FBO) are responsible for the safety of the food they produce and in Ireland those under the regulatory control of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine are required to provide summary data on microbiological tests undertaken as part of their food safety controls. These data are provided to the National Reference Laboratory through the 25 private laboratories undertaking the testing. RESULTS: Over the five-year period Salmonella sp. was isolated from 0.7% of the 254,000 raw meat or raw meat products tested with the annual prevalence ranging from 0.5 to 1.1%. Poultry meats were consistently more contaminated than other meats with higher recovery rates in turkey (3.3%), duck (3.3%), and chicken (2.5%) compared with meats of porcine (1.6%), ovine (0.2%) and bovine origin (0.1%). Salmonella sp. was also isolated from 58 (0.06%) of the 96,115 cooked or partially cooked meat and meat products tested during the reporting period with the annual percentage positive samples ranging from 0.01 to 0.16%. A total of 50 different serotypes were recovered from raw meats over this period with the greatest diversity found in poultry samples (n = 36). Four serotypes, Kentucky, Typhimurium, Agona and Derby accounted for over 70% of all isolates detected on FBO testing over the period 2005 to 2009. CONCLUSIONS: Capturing microbiological data generated by Food Business Operators allows the regulatory sector access to a substantial amount of valuable data with the minimum financial outlay.

As a program designed for bridging research to development outcome, the CPWF considers regular reflection, learning and adaptive management as crucial elements in the implementation of the basin programs. Reflection implies that the project teams and key stakeholders take stock of what is going on in the project in terms of the science and the process and revisit basic assumptions that underpinned their research. Such reflection provides opportunities for the learning which directs adaptive management. In 2012, basin level reflection took the form of a Field Tour, Learning Events, and a Science Workshop, held between 29 June and 5 July.

The household survey was carried out in the Nile River Basin in Ethiopia. The household sampling frame in Ethiopia was developed to ensure representation for the Nile River Basin at the woreda (district) level regarding level of rainfall patterns in terms of both annual total and variation; the four classes of traditionally defined agro-ecological zones (AEZs) found in the basin; vulnerability of food production systems (through the proxy of frequency of food aid in the past ten years); and irrigation prevalence. All data used for the sample frame is from the Atlas of the Ethiopian Rural Economy (Benson et al., 2006).; Each woreda was classified based on : agroecological zone (Kolla, Weynadega, Dega, and Bereha), the percent of cultivated land under irrigation (no data, 0-2%, 2-4%, 4-8%, and 8% or greater), average annual rainfall (0-854mm, 854-1133mm, 1133-1413mm, 1413-1692mm, 1692mm or greater), rainfall variability (coefficient of variation for annual rainfall), and vulnerability (number of years of food aid received in the past 10 years). ;Twenty woredas were selected such that across each of the above dimensions the proportion falling into each class for the sample matched as closely as possible the proportions for the entire Ethiopian Nile basin. Peasant associations (administrative units lower than districts) were also purposely selected to include households that irrigate their farms. One peasant association was selected from every woreda for a total of 20 peasant associations. Random sampling was used in selecting 50 households from each peasant administration within the 20 woredas. Thus, the final dataset contains 1,000 observations from 20 woredas in 5 regional states in Ethiopia (Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya, Benishangul Gumuz, and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP)). | IFPRI1 | EPTD | The survey was conducted by the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Funding for the survey was provided by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany). The project forms part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)’s Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF).; Dataset Citation: Food and Water Security under Global Change: Developing Adaptive Capacity with a Focus on Rural Africa— Ethiopia Nile Basin Climate Change Adaptation dataset. 2010. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (datasets).; Data file format(s): STATA, EXCEL; Principal contact: Yan Sun; Principal researcher: Claudia Ringler