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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Lessons Learned From The 2019 Nebraska Floods: Implications For Emergency Management, Mass Care, And Food Security, Eric E. Calloway, Nadine B. Nugent, Katie L. Stern, Ashley Mueller, Amy L. Yaroch Sep 2022

Lessons Learned From The 2019 Nebraska Floods: Implications For Emergency Management, Mass Care, And Food Security, Eric E. Calloway, Nadine B. Nugent, Katie L. Stern, Ashley Mueller, Amy L. Yaroch

Nebraska Extension: Faculty and Staff Publications

This qualitative study aimed to understand the actions, challenges, and lessons learned for addressing the food and water needs of flood survivors, with a special focus on vulnerable populations and the implications for food security, to inform future disaster response efforts in the U.S. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted from January to August 2020 with the local, state, and national stakeholders (n = 27) involved in the disaster response to the 2019 Nebraska floods, particularly those involved in providing mass care, such as food, water, and shelter, for the flood survivors. The challenge themes were related to limited risk …


The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Food Security Of Mississippians, Hannah Noel Irwin Aug 2022

The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Food Security Of Mississippians, Hannah Noel Irwin

Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi leads the United States in food insecurity, with 15.3% of Mississippians experiencing food insecurity in a given year. To determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food insecurity of Mississippians, a survey containing the USDA Household Food Security Questionnaire was distributed to adult Mississippi residents. By employing the USDA Household Food Security Scale and the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Methodology, this study finds that the food insecurity rate, food insecurity gap, and squared food insecurity gap have worsened in Mississippi since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this study finds that households which were food insecure prior to March …


Narrating Agricultural Resilience After Hurricane María: How Smallholder Farmers In Puerto Rico Leverage Self-Sufficiency And Collaborative Agency In A Climate-Vulnerable Food System, Abrania Marrero, Andrea Lόpez-Cepero, Ramón Borges-Méndez, Josiemer Mattei Jun 2022

Narrating Agricultural Resilience After Hurricane María: How Smallholder Farmers In Puerto Rico Leverage Self-Sufficiency And Collaborative Agency In A Climate-Vulnerable Food System, Abrania Marrero, Andrea Lόpez-Cepero, Ramón Borges-Méndez, Josiemer Mattei

Sustainability and Social Justice

Climate change is a threat to food system stability, with small islands particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. In Puerto Rico, a diminished agricultural sector and resulting food import dependence have been implicated in reduced diet quality, rural impoverishment, and periodic food insecurity during natural disasters. In contrast, smallholder farmers in Puerto Rico serve as cultural emblems of self-sufficient food production, providing fresh foods to local communities in an informal economy and leveraging traditional knowledge systems to manage varying ecological and climatic constraints. The current mixed methods study sought to document this expertise and employed a questionnaire and narrative interviewing …


Bridging The Gap Between Research And Smallholder Farmers Through Community-Based Development Organizations, Nathan D. Fortner Jun 2022

Bridging The Gap Between Research And Smallholder Farmers Through Community-Based Development Organizations, Nathan D. Fortner

Doctor of Plant Health Program: Dissertations and Student Research

Food demand is expected to increase 30% to 62% by 2050 according to recent estimates. Yet, annual increases in agricultural productivity have slowed and plateaued since the green revolution increases of the 1960’s. Two strategies to help address future food demand are reducing post-harvest loss and consumer waste, and closing the yield gap between potential and farmer realized yields. Some of the largest yield gaps are those of smallholder farmers. While solutions may exist to close these gaps, delivering and integrating solutions into smallholder production systems is a complex process involving research, extension, cultural factors, government policy, NGOs, private industry, …


Advances In Field-Based High-Throughput Photosynthetic Phenotyping, Peng Fu, Christopher M. Montes, Matthew H. Siebers, Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Justin M. Mcgrath, Elizabeth A. Ainsworth, Carl J. Bernacchi May 2022

Advances In Field-Based High-Throughput Photosynthetic Phenotyping, Peng Fu, Christopher M. Montes, Matthew H. Siebers, Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Justin M. Mcgrath, Elizabeth A. Ainsworth, Carl J. Bernacchi

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Gas exchange techniques revolutionized plant research and advanced understanding, including associated fluxes and efficiencies, of photosynthesis, photorespiration, and respiration of plants from cellular to ecosystem scales. These techniques remain the gold standard for inferring photosynthetic rates and underlying physiology/biochemistry, although their utility for high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) of photosynthesis is limited both by the number of gas exchange systems available and the number of personnel available to operate the equipment. Remote sensing techniques have long been used to assess ecosystem productivity at coarse spatial and temporal resolutions, and advances in sensor technology coupled with advanced statistical techniques are expanding remote sensing …


Drought Imprints On Crops Can Reduce Yield Loss: Nature's Insights For Food Security, Peng Fu, Deepak Jaiswal, Justin M. Mcgrath, Shaowen Wang, Stephen P. Long, Carl J. Bernacchi Feb 2022

Drought Imprints On Crops Can Reduce Yield Loss: Nature's Insights For Food Security, Peng Fu, Deepak Jaiswal, Justin M. Mcgrath, Shaowen Wang, Stephen P. Long, Carl J. Bernacchi

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Midwestern “Corn-Belt” in the United States is the most productive agricultural region on the planet despite being predominantly rainfed. In this region, global climate change is driving precipitation patterns toward wetter springs and drier mid- to late-summers, a trend that is likely to intensify in the future. The lack of precipitation can lead to crop water limitations that ultimately impact growth and yields. Young plants exposed to water stress will often invest more resources into their root systems, possibly priming the crop for any subsequent mid- or late-season drought. The trend toward wetter springs, however, suggests that opportunities for …


Effect Of Agricultural Insurance Program On Income Loss Reduction: A Comparative Study Of Upland And Lowland Farmers In Japan And The Philippines, Armand Christopher C. Rola Jan 2022

Effect Of Agricultural Insurance Program On Income Loss Reduction: A Comparative Study Of Upland And Lowland Farmers In Japan And The Philippines, Armand Christopher C. Rola

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

This paper aims to inquire how agricultural insurance can be an effective and efficient coping mechanism to prevent the poorest in remote rural areas of East Asia and the Pacific from falling into the poverty trap when faced with natural disasters. Field research was conducted to examine upland and lowland farmers’ experiences with agricultural insurance and program implementation by insurance providers in Japan and the Philippines. Secondary data such as online articles, journals, books, news and annual reports, and online websites of government insurance providers in the Philippines and Japan were collected. Primary data were analyzed using descriptive and cost …


Policy Sustainability Issues: Case Study Of Cassava Farmers In Ikorodu. Lagos, Nigeria, Medinat Oluwatoyin Adetunji Jan 2022

Policy Sustainability Issues: Case Study Of Cassava Farmers In Ikorodu. Lagos, Nigeria, Medinat Oluwatoyin Adetunji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The inconsistency and lack of continuity of Nigeria's agricultural policies impact the cassava sector. Despite being the world's biggest producer, the country is yet to benefit from the advantage due to a lack of sustainable growth. The situation manifests in terms of low productivity, low production level, and poor income to the farmers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of the cassava farmers on cassava policies and the effect on their income and livelihoods in the Ikorodu local government of Lagos State. This qualitative study adopted a case study research design using participatory …


Community Responses To Food Insecurity During Covid-19: A Case Study In Sheffield, England, Nicole Kennard Jan 2022

Community Responses To Food Insecurity During Covid-19: A Case Study In Sheffield, England, Nicole Kennard

Urban Food Systems Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to a group of newly food insecure people and deepened hardship for those already food insecure. The crisis disrupted national food supplies and created challenges to accessing and utilizing the food that was available. As financial struggle deepened for people, and some became unable to shop for food or cook due to isolation requirements and illness, many turned to community organizations to obtain food. In Sheffield, England, small community food organizations soon became the leaders of the city’s emergency food response. One such organization is the Foodhall Project, a community food organization which had previously …


The Biggest Grower - A Youth Gardening Competition For Growing Specialty Crops And Urban Farmers, Stacy A. Adams, Terri James Jan 2022

The Biggest Grower - A Youth Gardening Competition For Growing Specialty Crops And Urban Farmers, Stacy A. Adams, Terri James

Urban Food Systems Symposium

Youth today have tendencies for unhealthy lifestyles, being sedentary, consuming high fat diets low in fruits and vegetables, all contributing to child obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and precedence for life-long health concerns. School lunch programs provide opportunity for youth to consume balanced diets but does not make a significant change in lifestyle. Research has identified that youth participating in gardening at home were positively impacted with making lasting healthy choices by improved knowledge and garden connection. For rural and economically disadvantaged urban households, poor diet is directly attributed to the inaccessibility of fresh produce, affordability and understanding of preparation …