Search

Domestic and international crops and livestock trade remain fragile among Zimbabwean smallholder farmers. Commercial crop-livestock integration in climate change vulnerable areas is low and sparsely documented. Practice, knowledge, and attitude indicators influencing participation of smallholder farmers in crop-livestock integrated platforms as a hedge against climate change-induced risks and uncertainties were assessed. A survey with 240 farmers in Insiza district, Matabeleland province, Zimbabwe was conducted. A modified knowledge, attitude, and perception framework was used to analyze data from six wards supported by World Vision through supplementary livelihood programs on crop-livestock integration. Conventional crop-livestock (63%), mixed crops-livestock (25%), and traditional grains-livestock (12%) options were dominant. There was a thin presence of stakeholders with a limited number of local buyers, contracting companies, and agro-dealers who participate on these platforms. Farmers have the knowledge, positive attitude, and motivated perceptions about the potential of traditional grains-livestock mechanisms to reduce climate change welfare compromising factors. Unbalanced policies, limited financing, and uncompetitive marketing channels limit the uptake of this option. Traditional grains-livestock alternatives should be supported in semi-arid environments to reduce food, income, and nutrition insecurity. Public-private partnerships should establish value addition systems to increase the market size of traditional grains-livestock products and enhance commercialization.

This paper investigates the impact of bank competition on access to credit by informal firms in 14 Sub Saharan African countries using World Bank enterprise survey data. Access to credit is one of the main factors identified as hindering the growth of these opaque borrowers with poor financial transparency. This study uses a binary choice probit model to estimate the probability or likelihood of accessing finance conditional on the level of bank competition and other firm-level characteristics. Results show that the impact of competition measured using the recent and empirically robust Boone indicator is negative and significant in line with the market power hypothesis. These results suggest that improving the competitiveness of the banking sector by encouraging entrance of more players and curbing anti-competitive conducts should be promoted without compromising the soundness of the sector. Reducing or minimizing information asymmetry using public credit registries is good for enhancing financial access and governments should invest resources on maintaining, updating and increasing the coverage of these registries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to examine the impact of water disruptions on productivity in African manufacturing firms, using cross-sectional data from the World Bank enterprise surveys. We measured water infrastructure quality or water disruptions using the number of hours per day without water and found this indicator to be a negative and significant determinant of productivity. At country level, this variable seems to be a significant determinant in Uganda and Zambia, whilst firms in the food and agriculture, chemical and pharmacy as well as construction and metals sectors are also similarly affected. To improve economic growth through firm productivity and hence encourage employment creation and better standards of living, governments in Africa need to come up with measures to strengthen the effectiveness of both technical and institutional water infrastructure services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aqueous extract of the stem bark of Cussonia paniculata was investigated for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities in animal models. The extract at 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight reduced significantly, the formation of oedema induced by carrageenan and histamine. In the acetic acid-induced writhing model, the extract showed a good analgesic effect characterized by reduction in the number of writhes when compared to the control. The extract caused dose-dependent decrease of licking time and licking frequency in rats injected with 2.5% formalin, signifying its analgesic effect. These results were also comparable to those of indomethacin and cyproheptadine, the reference drugs used in this study. Acute toxicity test showed that the plant caused 80% mortality in rats hence it is a toxic plant. Though the study has provided some justification for the folkloric use of the plant in several communities for conditions such as stomach-ache, pain and inflammations but caution should be exercised in its use for medicinal purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]