[NAIROBI] Some of the farmers who lost their crops in the Horn of Africa drought this year may be able to afford farming next season, with the help of a ‘micro-insurance’ scheme.Kilimo Salama — Swahili for ‘safe farming’ — was launched last year, providing small-scale farmers in Kenya with crop insurance by combining mobile phone payment with the data from automated weather stations.Farmers register with one of 30 solar-powered weather stations, each covering a 15–20 kilometre radius, and purchase insurance when buying seeds and fertilisers. Kilimo Salama uses data from these stations to calculate the severity of droughts — or excessive rainfall. Eligible farmers then receive payouts via their mobile phones.In March, it paid out US$3,135 each to more than 1,200 farmers for losses after lack of rain, and more than 1,400 farmers received US$9,230 each in September because of prolonged droughts that caused crop failure.”Since its inception, the project has been a big success,” said Wairimu Muthike, project’s lead field coordinator.

Micro-insurance scheme pays off for Kenyan farmers – SciDev.Net

Related posts:

1. Poverty Insurance: Micro Insurance Agency Steps In To Fill Risk Gap
2. Index insurance for pro-poor conservation of hornbills in Thailand

There is growing interest in the production of biofuels from woody biomass. Critical to the financial success of producing biofuel is identifying the optimal location for the facility. The location decision is especially important for woody biomass feedstock owing to the distributed nature of biomass and the significant costs associated with transportation. This study introduces a two-stage methodology to identify the best location for biofuel production based on multiple attributes. Stage I uses a Geographic Information System approach to identify feasible biofuel facility locations. The approach employs county boundaries, a county-based pulpwood distribution, a population census, city and village distributions, and railroad and state/federal road transportation networks. In Stage II, the preferred location is selected using a total transportation cost model. The methodology is applied to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to locate a biofuel production facility. Through the application of the two-stage methodology, the best possible location for biofuel production was identified as the Village of L’anse in Baraga County. Also investigated are the sensitivity of transportation cost and the optimal site for biofuel production to changes in several key variables. These additional variables included fuel price, transportation distance, and pulpwood availability. By applying sensitivity analysis based on limited availability of feedstock, the City of Ishpeming emerged as another viable location for the production facility.

doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2011.06.006

Related posts:

1. Biomass logistics as a determinant of second-generation biofuel facility scale, location and technology selection
2. Heat, Electricity, or Transportation? The Optimal Use of Residual and Waste Biomass in Europe from an Environmental Perspective

This study assesses the extent and location of salt-affected soils worldwide and their current land use and cover as well as the current technical and economic potential of biomass production from forestry plantations on these soils (biosaline forestry). The global extent of salt-affected land amounts to approximately 1.1 Gha, of which 14% is classified as forest, wetlands or (inter)nationally protected areas and is considered unavailable for biomass production because of sustainability concerns. For the remaining salt-affected area, this study finds an average biomass yield of 3.1 oven dry ton ha−1 y−1 and a global technical potential of 56 EJ y−1 (equivalent to 11% of current global primary energy consumption). If agricultural land is also considered unavailable because of sustainability concerns, the technical potential decreases to 42 EJ y−1. The global economic potential of biosaline forestry at production costs of 2€ GJ−1 or less is calculated to be 21 EJ y−1 when including agricultural land and 12 EJ y−1 when excluding agricultural land. At production costs of up to 5€ GJ−1, the global economic potential increases to 53 EJ y−1 when including agricultural land and to 39 EJ y−1 when excluding agricultural land. Biosaline forestry may contribute significantly to energy supply in certain regions, e.g., Africa. Biosaline forestry has numerous additional benefits such as the potential to improve soil, generate income from previously low-productive or unproductive land, and soil carbon sequestration. These are important additional reasons for investigating and investing in biosaline forestry.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C1EE01029H

Related posts:

1. Ranking of biomass pellets by integration of economic, environmental and technical factors
2. Additional CO2 emissions from land use change — Forest conservation as a precondition for sustainable production of second generation bioenergy

Calculating the costs and benefits of investing in biofuels may become easier for policymakers with a guide launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Analytical Framework, released last month (17 May), was developed over the past three years and tested in Peru, Tanzania and Thailand.Heiner Thofern, head of the BEFS project, said that the goal is to help policymakers make informed decisions on whether development of bioenergy is a viable option for their countries and, if so, identify policies that will maximise benefits for the economy and minimise risks to food security.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1968e/i1968e00.htm

FAO’s tool weighs pros and cons of biofuels – SciDev.Net

Related posts:

1. IEA releases landmark “Status of 2nd Generation Biofuels Demonstration Facilities” report
2. Paying for Biofuels at Scale: Asset-Backed Securities Proposal

The Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) was launched in 2006 to improve food security by directly providing cash transfers to the country’s most destitute households. Although government-implemented cash transfer schemes have gained popularity throughout Latin America, these schemes are just emerging in Africa. While where there is evidence of the beneficial impact of cash transfers on food security from Latin American countries, there is a dearth of evidence from resource poor countries in Africa.In order to fill this gap, we conducted a longitudinal, randomized community control study of the pilot SCTS in Mchinji, Malawi from March 2007 to April 2008. In this study, we describe the impact of approximately US$14 per month on food security among recipient households compared to control households using indicators of food consumption and expenditures and dietary diversity.We present compelling evidence, whereby each of the tested outcomes yields large effect sizes that are highly statistically significant, demonstrating a sizeable impact of cash transfers on food security and food diversity in rural Malawi. The SCTS appears to be an effective tool within the National Social Welfare Policy for improving food security in the country’s destitute households.

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.11.020

No related posts.

We use recent data on transport costs in West Africa, including the added burden of bribes and enforced delays, to show how such costs represent a deterrent to investment in — and therefore the sustainability of — agricultural assets. We focus on data for two important tree crops in West Africa, cashew and shea. We also have data for the transport of onions between Niger and the urban market in Accra, Ghana. Our data allow us to predict plausible increases in farm-gate prices from a reduction in transport costs and bribes. A 10% reduction in the total transport costs (actual costs plus corruption costs) of onions from Niger could result in a 12-13% price increase to onion farmers. Similar elasticities are 2% for cashew in Ghana and 7% for shea in Mali. These feasible price increases would encourage farmers to improve onion production, and to protect and improve production from cashew and shea trees, thereby enhancing the sustainability of agro-forestry in West Africa. We call these price increases the “sustainability dividend”.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2011.01342.x

Related posts:

1. Cellphone based micro-insurance scheme pays off for Kenyan farmers
2. The global technical and economic potential of bioenergy from salt-affected soils