Francesco Caracciolo

The scientific information activity of Bioversity International: the descriptor lists

This paper explores the history of descriptor lists (DLs)—scientific standards for documenting plant genetic resources—which have been published by Bioversity International since 1976 (formerly IBPGR 1974–1991; IPGRI 1991–2006). Each DL represents an important tool; together, they constitute the basis for a standardized characterization system that provides an internationally agreed format and universally understood ‘language’ for plant genetic resources data. The paper also presents an analysis of data collected through questionnaires and web statistics on the impact of DLs in order to understand their use by major stakeholders. The usefulness of Bioversity’s DLs was measured in terms of their value in facilitating the establishment of databases, and improving collaborations and information exchange among organizations. Most survey respondents reported that they not only used Bioversity’s DLs, but recognized them as the standards for plant genetic resources data collection and management. Bioversity’s DLs are widely respected because they are developed by large groups of crop specialists. Together, the DLs are helping Bioversity to meet the ambitious objective of establishing a Clearing-House Mechanism as set forth by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Article 18.3, which seeks to promote and facilitate information exchange among parties, Governments and stakeholders in order to assure a full implementation of the CBD. A number of areas for improvement were identified, although some of them are either outside Bioversity’s mandate or depend on human or financial capital for implementation.

Conserving landraces and improving livelihoods: how to assess the success of on-farm conservation projects?

Smallholder farmers who grow diverse landraces in centres of crop diversity contribute to sustaining the capacity of agricultural and food systems to adapt to change by maintaining crop evolution in their fields today, thus enabling humanity to continue to have the broad genetic variation needed to adapt crops to changes tomorrow. Given this fact, the last 20 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in on-farm conservation of crop infra-specific diversity. While numerous projects to support it have been, and continue to be, implemented worldwide, there has been very little systematic assessment of the extent to which these projects have been effective at contributing to the maintenance of crop diversity on-farm and the creation of associated benefits for the farmers involved. The factors and relationships implicated in attaining conservation and livelihood results are complex, so that a conceptual scheme that brings them together in a simplified but coherent fashion can be extremely useful for the scientists, donors, policy-makers and practitioners concerned. This paper presents a conceptual framework for analysing on-farm projects, the trade-offs involved and assesses their success in a more systematic way.

On-Farm Diversity and Market Participation Are Positively Associated with Dietary Diversity of Rural Mothers in Southern Benin, West Africa

Objective The objective of this study is to test the extent to which, under different opportunities for market participation, the diversity of plant species rural households grow or collect (on-farm diversity), and the variety of foods mothers purchase (market diversity) are associated with their dietary diversity. Methods Rural households from three districts in southern Benin were interviewed during dry (n = 472) and wet (n = 482) seasons between 2011 and 2012. Villages within districts and their households were selected randomly according to market accessibility, with a mother selected from each household. Information on on-farm diversity was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Market diversity was obtained through a 7-day food frequency questionnaire that elicited if foods were purchased. Dietary diversity was derived from a quantitative 24-hour food recall. A system of three simultaneous equations via a Generalized Methods of Moments was estimated to address potential endogeneity between dietary diversity and on-farm diversity and market diversity. Results Results show rich on-farm diversity with more than 65 different edible plant species grown or collected by households. More than 70% of foods consumed by mothers were purchased in 55 market places. More than 50% of mothers met minimum dietary diversity with at least 5 food groups consumed. Diagnostic tests indicated the existence of endogeneity. Econometric results showed that on-farm and market diversities were positively associated with mothers’ dietary diversity (p < 0.05) once market opportunities, seasonality and other socioeconomic factors were controlled for. Conclusion Results provide evidence of a positive relationship between on-farm diversity and dietary diversity among participant mothers. They demonstrate the important contribution of market diversity to their dietary diversity. Links among these three facets of diversity suggest that production for self-consumption and food purchases complement rather than replace each other in their contribution to dietary diversity and thus dietary quality.

A new-institutional framework to explore the trade-off between agriculture, environment and landscape

The focus on sustainability issues in recent years has revived interest in the complex relations between economic development and environmental impact. New characteristics are being attributed to the rural landscape, while agriculture is taking on ever-increasing roles in public intervention policies in land management. This paper lends a further contribution to the wide-ranging discussion on the complex relations between agriculture and conservation of the rural landscape, revisiting the subject in the light of the new context of the multifunctional landscape and heterodox environmental economics. Analysis of both cultural and economic changes suggests the formulation of a new paradigm of sustainable development whose theoretical basis is laid by a multi-objective optimal allocation model. Farming must be remunerated directly by the market with the right combination of intrinsic product quality and attraction capacity thanks to positive externalities and the supply of public goods. This may lead to a reappraisal of whole areas in terms of efficiency and sustainability.

Consumers’ willingness to pay and drivers of motivation to consume omega-3 enriched mozzarella cheese

Purpose Consumer interest and willingness to pay (WTP) for omega-3 enriched water buffalo mozzarella cheese are evaluated through an in-store experimental auction. The purpose of this paper is to estimate individual WTP for enriched mozzarella cheese and related it to self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations of omega-3 consumption, following regulatory focus theory. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in May-June 2015 from a sample of 150 consumers in Southern Italy. A structural equation modelling procedure was implemented. Findings The results show a significant role is played by prevention outcome expectations on consumer behaviour. While promotion outcome expectation constructs proved non-significant, self-identity correlates with prevention outcome expectations. Research limitations/implications There are several limitations that the authors are aware of regarding this study. First of all, since the authors rely on self-reported measures, optimistic bias might have affected participants’ responses (Weinstein, 1980). Second, results may be influenced by the choice of the specific information provided to consumers for the analysis; different claims and different information framings should be tested (LeBoeuf and Shafir, 2003). Practical implications Implications stemming from the results encourage the promotion of omega-3 enriched mozzarella cheese based on stimulating outcome expectations, bearing in mind that individual motivations should be enhanced by self-identity beliefs. Originality/value Although the combined role of self-efficacy and outcome expectations on personal intention to adopt healthy behaviour has already been demonstrated (Keller, 2006; Tudoran et al., 2012), to the best of the knowledge no previous study relates individual behaviour to an intention measured as a WTP for an actual product. In addition, current study has applied a non-hypothetical BDM (from Becker et al., 1964) auction in-store experiment.

Attributi di processo e di prodotto nella filiera carne suina: un’analisi europea delle preferenze dei consumatori attraverso un modello generalizzato ad utilità stocastica

This article evaluates consumers’ preferences among different pig production systems using a generalized random-parameter logit model for ranked outcome. The aim is to indagate whether process attributes are considered relevant by European consumers. Differences of preferences across subpopulations, among northern and mediterranean European countries, are also tested. The study’s background includes consumers’ concern of both farm animal welfare and environmental impact of livestock production. A self-administered structured electronic survey was developed to investigate product and process attributes of pork meat. It was completed by a sample of 2,437 representative individuals from five European countries. Each respondent made 14 choices, rank-ordering 15 pig production profiles in terms of their individual preference. The choice was organized around a fractional factorial main effect orthogonal design. Each profile consists of five different attributes, including product’s and process’s ones: stocking density and floor type process attributes have been included as proxies of animal welfare production characteristics; impact on soil, air and water were included to underline environmental related process attributes; fat contents and chain type/product were used to include in the choice set also traditional product attributes. A generalization of conditional logit model for ranked outcomes was implemented, accounting for heterogeneity and correlation among the respondent’s choices. Our analysis highlights the fundamental strategic role played by the process attributes considered. Such an influence in choices, however, does not seem connected to psychographic or particular lifestyle variables. This might suggest that a floor type more conducive to animal welfare and considerable effort made by the farm to limit environmental impact both represent for consumers indirect indicators of food health and safety. In addition, for a mature product, as is pork in current European consumption models, to focus on intrinsic attributes such as fat quantity and quality would not appear efficient. This is confirmed by the result obtained for the “obese” segment, for whom fat quality is unimportant in their choice to purchase pork.

Poverty Impact of Commodity Price Boom Using Household Survey - The Case of Maize in Zambia

This paper uses Household Survey data to analyze the possible effects that a food price surge could have on poverty and overall welfare. In particular, we use the Zambian Living Conditions Monitoring Survey I collected in 1996 (LCMS I) to estimate a demand system that enables us to simulate various price scenarios for the Zambian main staple and its possible effects for different population categories. Differently from previous studies, in our demand system we address two flaws usually encountered in this type of applications: one is the possible selection bias due to non-consumption of a particular staple among households, the other is the difference between the quantity used for estimation (typically logarithm) and the quantity of interest (level). Jointly, this increases the reliability of our technique. Our results show that a 50 percent increase in maize prices, which is in line with the actual surge in Zambia, could lead to an average consumption decrease of 17 percent among Zambian households and overall poverty could rise from 40 percent to 43 percent fairly quickly at national level.

Extra‐virgin olive oil: are consumers provided with the sensory quality they want? A hedonic price model with sensory attributes

BACKGROUND Over the years, niche-differentiation strategies and food policies have pushed quality standards of European extra-virgin olive oil towards a product that has a sensory profile consisting of fruity, bitter and pungent notes, with such oils having excellent healthy features. However, it is unclear whether typical consumers are ready for a richer and more complex sensory profile than the neutral one historically found on the market. This potential discrepancy is investigated in the present study aiiming to determine whether current demand is able to appreciate this path of quality enhancement. Implicit prices for each and every attribute of extra-virgin olive oil with a focus on sensory characteristics were investigated using a hedonic price model. RESULTS Although confirming the importance of origin and terroir for extra-virgin olive oil, the results of the present study strongly confirm the discrepancy between what is currently valued on the market and what novel supply trends are trying to achieve in terms of the sensory properties of such products. CONCLUSION Increasing consumer awareness about the direct link between the health quality of oils and their sensory profile appears to be necessary to make quality enhancement programs more successful on the market and hence more effective for companies.

Distributional Effects of Maize Price Increases in Malawi

Abstract In the wake of highly volatile world prices of staple commodities, we examine the impacts of increases in maize prices on various categories of households in Malawi. Using household-level data, changes in household income are calculated taking into account the net maize production status of the household and food price elasticities estimated from a censored demand system. While maize price increases have unequivocal deleterious effects on the incomes of urban households, rural households experience differential impacts. Net producing households in rural areas benefit from price increases with households above the poverty line obtaining proportionally higher incomes.

Personal values and pro-social behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of socio-economic context in affecting the relationship between personal values and the purchase of fair trade (FT) products. Design/methodology/approach The study was based on data and information collected by means of a web-administered survey and was performed in two steps. First, an explanatory factor analysis on the Schwartz value system and a confirmatory factor analysis on socio-economic context variables were carried out. Second, the per capita GDP at provincial level and the predicted factor scores were used in an ordered probit model to explain the expenditure level of FT products. Findings The results provide evidence that the value system has an effect on the consumption of FT products, but the economic context, in particular the average wealth at province level, is also relevant and plays a role by either affecting FT product purchasing levels directly or interacting with personal values. Research limitations/implications Because of the electronic submission and the specific channel used in the survey, the sample cannot be considered as representative of Italian consumers, and thus the analysis has a merely descriptive (non-inferential) function. Originality/value While several studies investigated how personal values affect consumers’ behaviour directly or indirectly, very few studies analysed the way socio-economic context interacts with the value structure and the way both aspects influence ethical consumption. The present study analyses this last aspect and provides evidence of the role economic context plays in affecting the relationship between personal values and FT products consumption.