Browsing by Subject "Food security"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A Comparative SWOT Analysis of the National Agricultural Extension Program Organization to Determine Best-Fit Program Model: A Case Study of the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.(2012-07-16) Nyambi, GwendolineAgriculture is crucial to the economic and social wellbeing of the Republic of Cameroon. A national need for increased productivity, farm incomes, food security and rural development requires more effective agricultural extension and advisory systems. The need is persistent. This study analyzed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that existed within the current national extension program and examined how form, function, and policy influenced two regions in Cameroon. Analysis focused on 15-year time changes using a comparative case study design. Four regional focus groups and 28 individual interviews bounded 59 cases from four stakeholder groups of farmer leaders, non-governmental organizations, extension representatives, and governmental counterparts. Eighteen primary themes emerged with overlap of opportunities and threats among stakeholders. Incentives to program performance included staff competence and innovative technology transfer. Barriers included infrastructure, postharvest technology, market incentives, financial sustainability, and feedback. A lack of vision for sustainability, inadequate government funding, poor collaboration and linkages, uncoordinated parallel programs, and ineffective management systems reduced program potential. Four themes framed recommendations for improved programs: government investment, trainings, market incentives, and management. Options to improve program sustainability included subsidies that benefit all farmers, more council and private sector engagement with extension, rural infrastructure development, price standardization, and fees for service. Medium and large-scale farmers were willing to pay for extension services when and if available whereas small-scale farmers relied heavily on subsidized services. Accessibility to markets, farm size, and cash crop production are associated with farmers? acceptance of fees for service. These findings highlighted areas where changes in the nation?s agricultural extension service could improve its relevance in meeting performance targets. Stakeholders? recommendations for more effective agricultural extension and advisory systems included: 1) providing an autonomous extension service that focuses on specific needs and market opportunities and coordinates all support/parallel programs while collaborating among research and private advisory services; 2) implementing holistic government policies that integrate technology transfer, innovation, health, value-chains, and markets to benefit all farmers; 3) redesigning subsidies that equitability incentivize production and sound environmental practices that benefit all farmers; 4) increasing in-service trainings related to innovations; and 5) updating innovations and harmonizing program activities.Item Framing the food landscape of Travis County(2011-08) Banks, Karen Oren; Sletto, Bj¢rn; Osborne, Cynthia Anne, 1969-Food is something that we all need to survive but it is not something that we all have access to. In the mid 1990’s, a community-based movement arose to systematically address injustices in access to this basic human necessity. The community food security movement approaches issues of food security at each stage of the life cycle of food to ensure that each stage is sustainable, socially just, and equitable. This study uses this framework to challenge traditional notions of food security by critically examining the economic, social and environmental barriers to food equity in Austin, Texas. Austin is said to be one of the best cities to live in the United States, but not because it is food secure. This study therefore examines the food landscape of Travis County and the accessibility of food resources to meet the food needs of area residents. It utilizes a combination of quantitative analysis of food retail locations, focus groups and surveys to gather information about the food needs of underserved residents in Travis County.Item Narratives from Rajendranagar: A Critical Ethnographic Study of Food Insecurity in an Indian Slum(2013-11-13) Ramadurai, VandhanaThis dissertation is an ethnographic inquiry into women?s experiences of food insecurity in Rajendranagar, a slum in Bangalore, India. As a critical ethnographer, I undertook this study with a goal of addressing the problem of malnourishment that plagues India. The number of slums in the developing world is rapidly increasing. With increased migration to urban areas, the poor will live mainly in the slums of the city. However, relatively little is known about how slum residents struggle and cope with food insecurity. The dissertation contributes to the existing body of literature by arguing that responsibilities associated with food simultaneously empowers and disempowers women in cultural contexts. The findings of the dissertation will facilitate the process of female empowerment by understanding the communication processes and meanings that create the conditions which make women vulnerable to food insecurity. I used the Culturally Sensitive Model of Health Communication to design the study and analyze the data. I employed a variety of qualitative methods such as participant observations, textual analysis, interviews, and photographs to understand the experiences of food insecurity. My exploration resulted in three analytic chapters. I begin this dissertation by sharing the structural support and constraints that affected the food security of women. There were four types of structural support: infrastructure, healthcare, government food programs, and NGO programs. I then discuss the cultural constraints and support that affect women?s experiences of food insecurity. There were four cultural constraints that disempowered women: preference for boys, gender-based violence, forced child marriages, and the lack of education. Rajendranagar culture was also rich in social capital. To this end, women benefitted from material, informational, and emotional social support through their networks. These types of support empowered women to cope with food insecurity. I also share how an infrastructural development intervention in Rajendranagar affected women?s community relationships and food security. Together, these findings illuminate the experiences of hunger among women in an Indian slum. Additionally, I provide insight into how marginalized women in a resource-limited setting enacted their agency to cope with food insecurity.