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The first part of this dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of food assistance by gathering evidence from developing countries and the United States. The first essay applies a multi-market model to three developing countries and simulate recent spikes in staple prices and food aid impacts. Results indicate that higher food prices would result in reduction in household real income and deterioration of household welfare. Food aid in the form of cash transfers targeted at low-income groups could improve household real income of the target group after world price shocks and, partially or completely, offset the negative impacts of higher food prices. The impact of cash transfer on untargeted groups is ambiguous. It is likely to be positive for households that are net producers of the commodities that have increased production and prices under cash transfer and the production surplus is sufficiently large. The second essay focuses on the Food Stamp Program (FSP), a cornerstone of food assistance safety net efforts in the U.S. to reduce household food insecurity, particularly among children. The essay examines the dynamic relationship between FSP participation and child food security using monthly measures. Empirical estimates using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics demonstrate that child food security declines in the months immediately prior to FSP entrance, but then partially recovers following program entrance. These dynamic FSP effects are masked when annual measures are employed. The third paper of this dissertation studies the potential impacts of patient's widespread use of online health information. In particular, the essay employs a principal agent model and focuses on the quality of online health information. The model shows that when the quality of health information improves, since medical consultations become more efficient and less costly, a higher effort will be induced or contracted from the physician. Diagnosis becomes more accurate, because physicians will try exert more effort in diagnosing patients and patients will suffer less loss from their illnesses. / Ph. D.

Water is an integral part of agricultural practices, with agriculture being the largest user of surface water in the United States. Agriculture's reliance on surface water is strengthening as climate change and growing populations are stressing irrigated croplands. This surface water is primarily stored by a complex network of dams, but despite our reliance on surface water for irrigation, we lack a spatially detailed record of irrigation dam command areas. Therefore, we assigned irrigation command areas to the approximately 1,100 large irrigation dams in the continental United States by combining a tiered assignment strategy with field level infrastructure and agricultural data. We showed that these large irrigation dam command areas are responsible for 10.7 million acres of cropland. This translates to approximately 13.3 billion dollars of crops annually that depend on these large irrigation dams for water. The high-resolution, crop specific assignment of these command areas allows for water scarcity assessments that can be used for better water management decisions to address the changing environmental conditions and public demand pressuring the nation's agriculture and water infrastructure. / Master of Science / Agriculture depends heavily on surface water stored by large dams, especially in the face of climate change and population growth. However, the spatial distribution of croplands that rely on these dams is poorly known. We mapped the irrigation command areas of around 1,100 large dams in the continental US using a combination of field-level data and a tiered assignment method. We then traced the agricultural products from these areas to their domestic and international markets. We found that large dams support 10.7 million ares of cropland and 13.3 billion dollars of crop value annually in the US. Our high-resolution mapping of irrigation command areas enables more accurate assessments of water scarcity and reveals the local and distant connections between water infrastructure and its users.

中國的糧食安全問題在於隨著經濟成長與人口增加，造成糧食無法自給。當中國糧食不足自給而必須向國外採購時，導致國際市場缺糧、國際糧價波動，世界各國也無法置身事外。所以研究中國的糧食安全具有一定的重要性。本論文將回顧與分析中國工業化與都市化後耕地減少，單位產量增加不易，飲食結構改變下，中國政府因應糧食安全問題所採取的供需、分配與貿易政策以增進對中國因應糧食安全問題的政策思路的理解。

Thesis (M. Sc. (Agriculture)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / Food insecurity is a huge challenge for any government. Since food is a human need, it is often at the priority of any endeavour, policy or strategy undertaken by a household or government. The issue of food insecurity and the use of agricultural intervention to address it were at the centre of this study. Agricultural reform programs such as the Masibuyele Emasimini programme investigated here are argued to be the best mechanism to address food insecurity in rural areas of developing countries. This understanding, however, does not go unchallenged with some scholars believing that these programmes only mask the problem and once withdrawn an even bigger problem would arise. This study investigated why there is little indication of farmer growth despite the introduction of the Masibuyele Emasimini programme in the new forest irrigation scheme. A number of aspects such as increases in production, skills set, challenges, etc., were investigated to get a comprehensive picture of what is happening on the ground. A descriptive approach was followed in presenting the data. The major challenges faced by the programme are: poor communication, limited mechanization, insufficient production inputs late arrival of seeds and fertilizers, inexperienced drivers, and lack of consultation. From this analysis of the challenges presented by both farmers and extension officers, it becomes apparent that there is a failure of government to deliver on time. Secondly that there is a mismatch between the demand and supply of inputs, two aspects play a role firstly budgetary constraints that might limit the availability of inputs and secondly insufficient budgeting due to miscalculated demands. The study revealed that any programme meant to uplift the poor should not be a top down approach that is drafted and imposed on people. Proper consultation during the planning phase should be sought, but more crucial is the on-going communication and consultation with the people on the ground. The study then argues that poor monitoring also had a role in the weakening of the sustainability of the programme. Administrative issues on the part of government and service providers discouraged farmers and weakened the relationship of farmers with government; it also decreased the momentum of the programme. Key words: Sustainability, Food insecurity, Food security, Smallholder farmer, Masibuyele Emasimini programme.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016. / In South Africa, particularly in the Limpopo Province, the handling of human excreta and the use of human excreta for food production are still not valued and generally not acceptable. The issue of social acceptance is one of the several issues that must be tackled in order to successfully institute the practice of human waste reuse in agriculture. As such, this study explored the attitudes and perceptions towards the utilisation of urine and faeces as the alternative to chemical fertilizer in a rural agriculture in Ga-Mothapo, Polokwane Local Municipality in Limpopo. The study adopted a qualitative approach using a case study design. Data was collected using face to face interviews. A majority of the households indicated that they are not comfortable with the idea of using human excreta for agricultural purpose. According to them, it was against their cultural beliefs and it is a taboo to use the waste of human as they prefer to use animal waste instead. The health risk and environmental contamination were also highlighted by the households as weighing against the use of human excreta. Even though some respondents mentioned that using human excreta has the potential to enrich their depleted agricultural soils, and that it had the effect of reducing the cost of buying commercial fertilizers, they still felt uncomfortable using it. This study concludes by recommending that there is a need for constant intervention and awareness to address the issue of food security through ecological sanitation which will promote sustainable agriculture by providing soil with nutrients. Keywords: Ecological Sanitation, Human Excreta, Perceptions, Attitudes, Food Security

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Food regime theory emerged in the 1980s as a tool to delineate the history of the modern food system. Scholars insist that we have arrived at the third and putative corporate food regime that is dominated by a select group of agribusiness corporations. The corporate food regime"s ascent to dominance will be presented here as a product of the realization of neoliberal trade policies at the urging of the World Trade Organization. Initially promising development to fledgling countries, the WTO"s forays into agriculture have amounted to nothing less than a catastrophe for the Global South. The hope that developing countries would be able to trade their way out of debt has long been abandoned, and the gap between the developed and developing world has only been further exacerbated as a result of trade liberalization. Worse yet, the WTO"s Agreement on Agriculture was intentionally littered with loopholes that allow Northern countries to egregiously subsidize crops that are then exported off to Southern markets at artificially low prices, crippling local producers in the process. Through examining import and export flows in the Global South since the trade agreement, this cruel feature of the modern food system will become evident as will the subsequent jump in agribusiness" profits amid the direst of...