Sustainability
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Abstract
This first issue for 2023 focuses on sustainability in several forms: the capacity of an industry to keep going in the face of financial restrictions, the ability to keep farming in an increasingly hostile climate, the need for community participation for sustainable adaptation. All of these things are, of course, linked, and this issue brings together several articles from a range of countries in the Global South— including Pakistan, Myanmar, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone and India—which focus on a common goal: the sustainability of an industry, approach, or practice that will improve the lives of local residents. In one sense, sustainability refers to the capacity of an industry to continue. Effective marketing can have a strong effect on this. Muhammad Yaseen et al. investigate what influences Pakistani cotton farmers’ use of marketing information sources, such as mobile phones, internet, television, radio, newspapers, extension services, market commission agents, and fellow farmers. They find that the uptake of these sources of information, as well as any subsequent marketing opportunities, is dictated by a range of structural factors such as information and communications technology access, education, access to formal credit, land ownership and farm size. In a practice note that also considers the relationship of agriculture to marketing, Randel Esnard et al. discuss the formation of producer groups as central to agriculture livelihoods, exploring some of the factors that hinder value addition for agricultural products in southern Myanmar. They focus on the importance of good, participatory governance. Furthering the discussion of sustainable livelihoods, Katja Mikhailovich, Ellis Mackenzie, and Douglas Smith consider half-pearl aquaculture and handicrafts in Tonga and Fiji. They demonstrate how useful these livelihoods are for women’s social and economic empowerment. Other articles focus on sustainability in terms of the need to adapt to the changing climate. Emily Nabong and Aaron Opdyke discuss the importance of viewing migration as an adaptation response to climate change, rather than a failure to adapt, arguing that support mechanisms must be put in place to assist safe mobility as needed. Examining factors that keep populations in place in areas that risk becoming barren or hazardous in response to the changing climate, they suggest ways that governments can assist migration. In the face of the changing climate, water scarcity is becoming an ever-more challenging problem. Giuseppe Tesoriere and Raffaele Scuderi look at willingness to pay in cities across Kenya, suggesting that poverty and experience of waterborne diseases can have a negative effect on this. Turning to the important topic of water conservation, Paul Adjei Kwakwa et al. assess how opinion leaders influence water conservation in Ghana households. They highlight the influence of women on water conservation, as well as the effect of emotions. Continuing the discussion of water, Jyoti Nair and Bejoy K. Thomas look at why the adoption of micro-irrigation systems has been slow among Indian farmers, finding that the demographic contexts and interests of farmers have not been well considered. They argue that farmers need to be properly incentivised to implement micro-irrigation systems effectively and suggest that subsidies are not enough to ensure such systems are used correctly and sustainably, so as not to overuse groundwater resources.