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(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049205)
(1.53 MB)
Successful aquaculture depends on access to sufficient water of adequate quality, and should not significantly degrade water quality or damage ecosystems in receiving waters. While water management technologies have received a lot of attention as potential solutions, many of the outstanding challenges are collective-action problems that depend on improving aquaculture governance. In high-income countries, aquaculture is often subject to multiple regulations that constrain the development of the sector, whereas in most low- and middle-income countries, regulations are fewer, less demanding or not implemented. Many of the promising and innovative governance initiatives involve a combination of rules, information and incentives, as well as negotiation among multiple stakeholders.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050346)
(5.57 MB) (5.57 MB)
Over the last decade, there have been increasing calls for robust impact evaluations of voluntary agricultural sustainability standards (VSS’s). In response, this study reviews the literature regarding 13 major agricultural standards, asking: where are certified crops being studied? Which sustainability outcomes and indicators are measured? And finally, what does the current evidence base suggest about VSS outcomes? The analysis of 45 peer-reviewed articles suggests a mismatch between what is certified and what is studied. Some crops and standards are over-represented in the literature as compared to their amount of certified production (e.g. coffee and Fairtrade certification), while others are under-represented (cotton, sugar, cocoa, soy, and palm oil, in addition to Organic certification). The review also identifies countries which appear to be under-represented in the literature, including Brazil, Australia, Malaysia, the Ivory Coast, and the United States. When measuring success, economic indicators are the most frequently evaluated, and only 20% of studies analyze economic, social, and environmental indicators simultaneously. When grouped by case, the indicator results tend to be positive on average (51%), followed by no difference (41%) and negative (8%) outcomes. There are no significant differences among sustainability pillars in terms of the average proportion of positive and negative results. These findings should be interpreted carefully, since the evidence base is heavily weighted towards coffee certification (75% of cases analyzed), and impacts are highly context dependent. Finally, the review identifies best practices in conducting robust evaluations, including the importance of addressing sustainability trade-offs and appropriately measuring environmental outcomes. While significant gaps remain, the findings indicate an increase in research credibly measuring VSS impacts.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050408)
(1.76 MB) (1.76 MB)
Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) in global production networks (GPNs) have grown significantly in prominence. Existing research largely assumed that VSSs create linear upgrading outcomes for all GPN actors and has studied VSSs from the point of adoption in the GPNs, rather than a broader range of stages in their lifecycle. To address these limitations, and building on literature around power and agency in GPNs, we develop the constellation of priorities (CoP) model to unpack the diverse and often diverging boardroom (Northern lead firm) and local (Southern supplier) priorities involved in such standards. Through in-depth fieldwork on horticulture in Kenya and cocoa in Nicaragua across the VSS lifecycle, we find significant divergences in priorities between farmer groups in both countries and lead firms in the UK and Germany. We demonstrate analytically and empirically that diverging priorities coupled with power asymmetries produced contestations, leading to simultaneous economic and environmental downgrading, and social upgrading.
4 Thompson, W. J.; Blaser-Hart, W. J.; Joerin, J.; Krutli, P.; Dawoe, E.; Kopainsky, B.; Chavez, E.; Garrett, R. D.; Six, J. 2022. Can sustainability certification enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farmers? The case of Ghanaian cocoa. Journal of Land Use Science, 17(1):407-428. (Special issue: Women in Land Science) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2022.2097455]
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051391)
(5.93 MB) (5.93 MB)
Sustainability certification has been posited as a key governance mechanism to enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farmers. Whilst many certifications now include climate resilience in their standards, their ability to deliver this for smallholders remains untested. We take the case of the 2015–16 drought-shock to cocoa production in Ghana to examine whether certification can enhance smallholder climate resilience. We used a novel transdisciplinary methodology combining participatory outcome definition with household surveys, biophysical measurements, satellite data and counterfactual analysis. Utilising our climate resilience framework, we find that certification has a strong effect on the adoption of basic management, e.g. fertilization, but a weak influence on more complex resilience strategies, e.g. agroforest diversification. Beyond certification, we identify strong regional patterns in resilience. These findings suggest that certification has some potential to enhance climate resilience but greater focus on facilitating diversification and adapting to sub-national contexts is required for improved effectiveness.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H053003)
(1.33 MB) (1.33 MB)
Vendors in traditional urban food markets in West Africa offer locally produced vegetables. These may be unsafe, carrying pathogens and posing potential risks to consumers’ health; or safe, being free from pathogens. Safe produce is rarely differentiated from unsafe produce through certification or price differentiation. Consequently, there is no market data on consumers’ actual payments for certified safe vegetables. Therefore, we aimed to find out whether there is a demand for certified safe vegetables and whether such safety certification is profitable for small-scale farmers. Previous studies have used experiments to elicit price premia consumers’ state to be willing to pay. In contrast, we offered pathogen-free cabbage certified as safe on traditional food markets in Tamale, Ghana, and observed what consumers actually paid. We noted consumer’s actual purchases, who – at the same market stalls – chose between ordinary cabbage of unknown safety status and certified safe cabbage, which carried a price premium to be paid in addition to the price of ordinary cabbage. Our results show that 176 consumers purchased certified safe cabbage and 123 bought ordinary cabbage during the test sales. Consumers’ probability to buy certified safe cabbage is explained by the size of the price premium charged, households’ characteristics and perceptions of local production modes. Estimating customers’ demand function for certified safe cabbage revealed that a pioneer farmer should charge a monopolistic price premium of GHS 1.48 (+46 % on top of the average price for ordinary cabbage valid during the test sales) to maximise the profits from introducing certified safe cabbage into the market. We find that the most promising certification option is for groups of geographically concentrated farmers to jointly apply for safe vegetable certification.
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