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Globally, waste is accepted as an emerging issue and it concerns everyone, locally, nationally, and globally. However, studies on waste generation, composition, and management systems are often focused on urban areas. Similarly, Bhutan lacks information and reliable data about rural household solid waste generation and its composition at large and there is vague information on its management systems. This paper presents precise information on waste generation, composition, and management systems in rural areas in three administrative units called Gewogs namely Khatoed, Semjong, and Phangkhar under Gasa, Tsirang, and Zhemgang districts respectively. These study areas are located in different regions of the country with varying geographic locations, natural resources, altitudes, cultural diversity, lifestyles, and consumption patterns. The study envisioned narrowing the data gap, creating a yardstick for similar studies to be undertaken henceforth, and delivering sufficient and reliable information for informed decision-making for the successful progression of waste prevention and management programs to achieve "Zero Waste Bhutan", the vibrant vision of the country towards attaining zero waste society. On average, each household generated about 0.17 kg per day in the study areas and the per capita waste generation was 0.039 kg, 0.037 kg, and 0.032 kg a day in Khatoed, Semjong, and Phangkhar Gewogs respectively. On average, at least 72.9% practiced reduction, 86.8% reported that they reused, and 29.4% practiced recycling in their daily lives. At least 95.7%, 73.7%, and 82.1% of the household under Semjong, Phangkhar, and Khatoed Gewogs respectively practiced waste segregation into wet and dry at the source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring national food security without decreasing environmental quality is essential for China’s agricultural sustainability. This paper proposes an analytical framework that integrates the influence of rural livelihood transitions and the constraint of local resource availability to explore possible approaches for addressing the dual challenges of food security and environmental sustainability. Using data from land-use images, farmland quality investigations, household surveys, and plot surveys, this framework is applied within a catchment in Taojiang County, which is a key commodity grain base location in China. The results indicate that the combined effects of local livelihood transitions, farmland allocation systems and the current subsidy policy resulted in a higher environmental cost per unit rice output. The results also suggest that the “one-size-fits-all” policy that favors large-scale double cropping rice is problematic. Local decision makers need to develop contextually sensitive policies that promote moderate-scale farm households and cropping patterns that are consistent with farmland grain-planting suitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines self-reported food waste volume generated by a sample of rural households in Lubelskie Voivodship in Poland accounting for four different categories of food waste. Food waste does occur and some of it is unavoidable leading to the question how to manage it. This study identifies factors responsible for the volume of self-reported food waste by category, but also identifies factors influencing the decision to collect food waste in household for the purpose of local biogas production. Tobit technique is applied to identify factors, demographic and socio-economic characteristics of consumers and their households that influence the percentage of wasted food by type. A separate decision equation identifies supporting or limiting factors influencing the decision to sort food waste for biogas production. Education, gender, age, household size, and employment status have been identified as relevant characteristics determining the volume of wasted food and the decision to support using food waste for biogas generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Clean energy is essential for households to overcome poverty and maintain a reasonable standard of living. Many households throughout the world lack access to electricity and clean cooking fuel and risk their lives by cooking with traditional biomass. This study aimed to investigate energy choices for cooking and fuel stacking among rural households in Southern Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling design was used to collect primary data from 568 households from six randomly selected woredas of the Southern Nations Nationalities Peoples Region (SNNPR). As a data collecting tool, a structured interview schedule and FGD were employed. Descriptive statistics and a Multinomial Logit model were used to analyze the data. The results show that >66.73 % of the households choose traditional biomass, 22.71 % report choosing transitional fuel, and 10.56 % use modern fuel dominantly for cooking. In the study area, households use more than one type of fuel simultaneously for cooking, indicating a fuel stacking problem. The Multinomial Logit model revealed that income, family size, household's off-farm activities, mass media exposure, tropical livestock unit (TLU), having farmland, and having a bank or microfinance account contributed to the choice of energy in the household significantly. The government should raise public awareness about the risks of using traditional biomass with unimproved cookstoves. Furthermore, incentive-based policies should be created to facilitate public access to modern energy sources at a lower cost. • Traditional biomass is the most important source of cooking in rural Ethiopia, with more than 66.73% of households using it. • Fuel stacking is common among households, and there are various reasons for it, such as cost, access, and affordability. • Women and girls are disproportionately affected by energy collection and transportation job burdens. • Enhancing household income through poverty reduction strategies can encourage clean energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research was conducted to study factors influencing choice of household fuel energy among rural households of Hisar district of Haryana, with a sample of 100 female respondents, selected randomly from Gangwa village, in Hisar block I, district Hisar. Data were collected with the help of structured and duly pretested interview schedule. Findings revealed that the majority of the respondents were from a middle age group (40.00%), were illiterate (36.00%) and had medium family educational status (56.00%). On the whole, the research findings forcefully point out that the use of biomass (non-commercial fuel) as main fuel has not changed over the years and women continue to face severe problems in the procurement and use of biomass fuels. It is also concluded that clean commercial fuel energy has not penetrated at large scale in villages because of lack of effective supply network. Further, it was also concluded that cleaner fuels like LPG are not easily available and are expensive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a dynamic process perspective, this study examined households’ adaptive choice of livelihood patterns in the context of changing rural China based on a 12-year continuous household survey in Jungar Banner. By referring to households’ diversified income and vocation, we classified rural livelihood patterns into planting oriented, stockbreeding oriented, half labour and half peasant, non-agriculture oriented, and labour-losing. Results show that different livelihood patterns exhibit distinctive disparities and geographical regularities. Stockbreeding oriented and non-agriculture oriented livelihood patterns are relatively more lucrative. The former was traditionally widely adopted by rural households and the latter has become the most popular in recent years, while the other three patterns are emerging or transitional ones. Then we explored the internal mechanisms of households’ livelihood choices using a multinomial logit model. Results indicate that human capital and physical capital were key factors affecting the differentiation of livelihood patterns, and natural capital was the premise for livelihood pattern transformation. Based on a series of policy interventions, the overall trends in livelihood transitions revealed that the proportion of stockbreeding oriented households and half labour and half peasant households sharply decreased, while the proportion of non-agriculture oriented households and labour-losing households largely increased, and the proportion of planting oriented households increased slightly with their management style transforming from extensive to intensive and specialized. Therefore, government interventions must conform to the transition trends and be tailored to fit different livelihood patterns by adjusting and enforcing each type of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science and technology services (STS) are requirement for sustainable agricultural development and are hypothesized to be crucial for raising rural households' income. However, evidence regarding the impact of STS on rural household income has primarily been limited to qualitative research, with limited quantitative research conducted to date, resulting in a lack of clear consensus. This study uses survey data from rural households in poor rural counties in the three northeastern provinces of China to examine the mechanism behind the impact, heterogeneity, and asymmetry of STS on rural households' agricultural income. Our results show that STS has income-promotion effect, which is enhanced with income level. All subdimensions of STS examined have promotional effects, including technical training, industrial demonstration, information services, and organizational drive; moreover, technical training and information services have the greatest and least impacts, respectively. These effects are more pronounced among rural households with young, male and highly educated householder, poor, have received STS for longer periods or adopted green production techniques. These effects are attained through improved agricultural production efficiency, capabilities to adopt new technologies, endogenous motivation, and lowered costs. The findings have important implications for scholars and policymakers in terms of enhancing effectiveness of STS for disadvantaged groups. • Science and technology services (STS) have positive impact on Chinese farmers' agricultural income. • Both sub-dimensions with STS have promotion effect. • The impact is less pronounced with disadvantaged households, and widen the income gap. • The mechanisms of the effect on agricultural income are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data from 412 households, this study used the sustainable livelihoods approach to analyse changes in livelihood strategies and the relationship between those changes and rural household attitudes in an eastern coastal region of China. Focussing on household off-farm employment decisions and land transfer decisions, we classified the households into six types based on their livelihood strategies, namely, off-farm employment-oriented, balanced, off-farm, idle, professional, and conventional. The survey results indicate that two capital factors, age and education, and two mediating factors, wage and crop prices, are important influences of off-farm employment decisions, whereas factors such as policies and subsidies, machinery, activities organized by local agricultural cooperatives, and land rent substantially influence land transfer decisions. By analysing the characteristics, trends and driving factors of livelihood transitions, i.e., changes in rural household livelihood strategies, from 1993 to 2013, we explored the mechanisms of livelihood transitions. The results indicate that the proportion of conventional households decreased and the proportion of off-farm employment-oriented households and off-farm households increased. Agricultural production transformed from a system of scattered households (conventional and off-farm employment-oriented households) into broad-scale management households (professional and balanced households). These changes were the main characteristics of livelihood transitions under rapid industrialization combined with rapid urbanization in the Qingpu district. Rural livelihood transitions exhibited a stepped pattern, going through an initial stage, a self-organizing stage, and a government-led stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania is the country with the largest number of subsistence farms in the European Union. Practically, out of the 3.7 million farms from Romania, 3.3 million can be considered subsistence farms, having in view the extremely low value of the obtained productions. Although these small farms have a less important role on the markets, they are important in the rural world, as they provide food and social security for the population, contributing to environment preservation through the use of traditional production methods. The paper attempts to investigate the small farm role in the economy of rural areas and in the welfare of peasant households. The data source used were the Agricultural Census, for the analysis of small farm production structure and the Household Budget Survey in order to reveal the importance of own resources in the food consumption and incomes of rural households. The main conclusions of the paper refer to the strong production diversification on the small farms compared to the large farms, which are much more specialized. The analysis of food consumption behavior of the rural households reveals high shares of self-consumption in most products, a lower food diversification compared to urban households and a lower cost of calories in the rural households diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in-use material stocks (MS) of durable household goods provide various functions or services, reflecting society's well-being. However, research on rural households is scarce. This study attempts to bridge this gap by analyzing rural households' long-term in-use stock dynamics using follow-up survey data of more than 2000 rural households in five provinces in China from 2007 to 2018. Results reveal that by 2018, the MS of durable goods in rural China households reached 230.8 t per household, with an average annual growth rate of 5.3%, with residential buildings accounting for the largest proportion. From 2007 to 2015, the MS of buildings and home appliances revealed a trend of rapid growth initially, and then witnessed a slowdown. However, the MS of transportation tools is still growing rapidly. The east-west gap has been replaced by the north–south gap of MS. Moreover, high inequality exists between different rural household groups. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Food security of poor rural households has always been a policy concern. Based on a field survey on three western provinces, the paper finds that over two thirds of households achieved self-sufficiency in grain consumption, but the consumption of other major food items are all below recommended standard. Most households are unsatisfied with and expect to change this situation. Econometric analysis indicates that income, education, and household stock-raising have significant impact on food consumption. The paper suggests strengthening grain relief, agricultural development, local successful practices and poverty reduction to enhance food security for poor rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health effects of heavy solid fuel use in winter in rural China are of concern. The effects of air pollution resulting from domestic solid fuel combustion in rural households on rural homemakers' biomarkers were revealed in this study. In total, 75 female homemakers from rural areas of Guanzhong Basin, the Fenwei Plain, People's Republic of China, were randomly selected and divided into three groups (biomass users, coal users, and nonusers of solid fuel user [control group]). The differences in biological indicators, including 8-hydrox-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), interlukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in urine samples as well as blood pressure (BP, including systolic BP [SBP] and diastolic BP [DBP]) and heart rate (HR) among the groups in winter and summer were investigated using statistical analysis. IL-6, 8-OHdG, HR, SBP, and DBP were significantly higher in winter than in summer (P < 0.05) owing to the poor air quality resulted from the excessive use of solid fuels in winter. Significant seasonal differences in 8-OHdG were observed for both coal and biomass users. After the influence of confounders was removed, only IL-6 levels in the urine of solid fuel users were significantly higher than that of the control group. IL-6 is a sensitive biomarker representing inflammatory responses to particulate matter emitted through household solid fuel combustion. Locally, excessive use of solid fuels in winter posed serious PM 2.5 pollution in this area and adverse effects on inflammatory biomarkers in these rural homemakers and induced DNA damage related to oxidative stress. [Display omitted] • IL-6, 8-OHdG, HR, SBP, and DBP were significantly higher in winter than in summer. • IL-6 of solid fuel users was significantly higher than that of the control group. • Solid fuel burning is a critical risk for inflammatory reaction and oxidative stress. • IL-6 is a sensitive biomarker to PM exposure emitted by solid fuel combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household has been widely considered as the top contributor to food waste generation in industrialized countries. However, the characteristics and driving factors of household food waste generation in developing countries, particularly in rural areas, remain less understood. In the present work, we reported a case study for rural households in China, where food consumption structure has been undergoing rapid transformation, to explore the scales and drivers of rural household food waste generation. A direct-weighing method was used in a field survey for 207 rural households in 21 villages of 3 prefecture-level cities in Shandong province, northern China. We determined the average rural household food waste generation as 8.74 g/cap/meal (more than 90% was plant-based food waste in which nearly half was vegetable waste), a number much lower than that in high-income countries and the Chinese urban restaurants. We also found that such a number varies considerably by household (0–126.21 g/cap/meal), and almost half of surveyed households generated almost no food waste. Among the surveyed prefectural areas, food waste in Jinan was significantly higher than that in Dezhou and Weifang (P <0.01). Moreover, village type, household size, household income, household age structure, health status, pet keeping, household dietary diversity, and perception on food edibility are identified as key driving factors of food waste generation in Chinese rural households, while increased availability of information on food waste reduction and food storage conditions have relatively small but noteworthy impact on food waste reduction. • Food waste in rural households and its driving factors in China was analyzed. • Average food waste in rural households was lower than that of urban restaurants. • Vegetable food items accounted for the highest proportion of total food waste. • Pet keeping, age structure, and dietary diversity positively affect food waste. • Household income negatively affects food waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas are meeting considerable challenges today which arise mainly from globalization, demographic change and the rural migration -to-urban migration. Rural farmers were account the prominent part of the population of any developing country such as Kurdistan Region. When the rural farmers lack access to knowledge, general services, early warning systems (drought, pests, diseases etc.), improved seedlings, fertilizer, lack of agricultural equipments, credit, market prices and lack of information that would help them achieve maximum agricultural yield, they are not only grope in the dark but are driven to the urban centres in search of formal employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]