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Water availability, water equity, farmers' participation, compliance with rules and conflicts, and water theft management are the main drivers of water user associations' (WUAs) performance. The main objective of the study was to find out the relationship between water availability, water equity, economic benefits, and WUAs' performance. This study was conducted in 2 distributaries at the Lower Chenab Canal west area water board in the district of Faisalabad, Pakistan. A multistage random sampling technique was used to collect the data from 240 farmers using a well-structured questionnaire. A PLS-SEM model was used to analyze the structural paths between water availability, water equity, economic benefits, and WUAs' performance. The measurement model by using Cronbach's alpha, rho-A, composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) has confirmed the internal reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Results indicate that timely water availability, less water shortage, and timely repair and maintenance were the core influencing indicators with high factor loadings (> 0.70) to the water availability construct that significantly positively influencing the economic benefits(β = 0.74, p = 000) and performance of WUAs (β = 0.34, p = 000). Equitable distribution of water across the farm size, location, ethnic groups, and greater fair and justice were the substantial influencing indicators with high loadings (> 0.80) to the water equity construct that has positive and direct significant influence on the performance of WUAs (β = 0.48, p = 000). It has been evaluated that water availability and economic benefits had a positive and indirect impact on the WUAs performance (β = 0.09, p = 000). Besides the insights of all the drivers of performance of WUAs, the study recommended that WUAs management system still in infancy even after the decades of its establishment and establishing the parallel institutes are neither sufficient nor mandatory. Furthermore, there is a need to reconsider the inner structure of WUAs management and establishment of cohesion among all the stakeholders in decision making. There is also a need to provide trainings to farmers and WUAs officials for effective management of WUAs system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Covid-19 is a serious threat to the dietary quality of vulnerable communities in developing countries with limited economic resources. This study explored the implications of COVID-19 on daily dietary behavior and food consumption patterns of perishable and nonperishable food commodities based on the gender of household headship in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: The data was collected through an online survey using the snowball sampling technique. A mixed design ANOVA, an independent t-test and a multivariate probit model were used to look at the data from 417 female-headed households and 1,131 male-headed households that were surveyed in the study. Findings: Female-headed households experienced a greater decrease in their daily intake of perishable and nonperishable food commodities compared to male-headed households during COVID-19. The decrease in consumption of perishable food commodities was greater than the decrease in nonperishable food commodities for both female-headed and male-headed households. Female-headed households witnessed the largest decrease in daily intake of animal-derived foods, while male-headed households observed the highest diminution in consumption of fruits. Female-headed households and male-headed households reduced their consumption of perishable food commodities by more than one-third and one-fifth, respectively. Households with lower socioeconomic status reported higher reductions in their daily intakes of food commodities compared to households with higher socioeconomic status. Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow the development of a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and food consumption changes in daily dietary patterns. Originality/value: Dietary and consumption patterns of populations are changing worldwide due to COVID-19. There is no study to assist policymakers in determining how COVID-19 is affecting the daily food consumption patterns of perishable and non-perishable food commodities of households based on gender in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of global food production has been facing many threats, including climate change. The adaptation to such threats is both a challenge as well as an opportunity, especially for woman-operated farms in Pakistan. The challenge is how to devise measures and look for options to counter its impact, while the opportunity lies in developing new techniques, skills, and interventions leading to innovativeness. As women farmers are constrained regarding resources, cultural, societal, and personal reasons in Pakistan's context, they particularly need innovative behavior and decision power to adapt to climate change. This study aims to measure the decisional empowerment and innovativeness of women farmers and their role in adopting different climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices at the farm level. To this end, data from 384 farms where women were majorly involved are utilized in a multivariate probit model and propensity score matching to reveal various aspects of women's role in adopting CSA practices. Results reveal that most women farmers lacked decisional power related to productive resources such as sale/purchase and renting of farmland, using farm machinery, and availing credit. Their decisional empowerment and innovativeness positively affected the adoption of CSA practices at the farm level. Females with more decisional power and innovativeness adopted more CSA practices than women with weaker decisional power and innovativeness. Therefore, the world can benefit greatly from giving more power to women in agriculture in terms of increased adoption of CSA practices, consequently improving food security and mitigating climate change. This outcome will assist in achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals of gender equality (SDG5) and climate action (SDG 13). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owner farmers and tenant farmers have different income generating strategies related to vegetable production. It is important to know the differences between these two group farmers regarding pesticide use practices and awareness, as well as the factors influencing their knowledge of pesticide use practices. This study examined effects of land tenure status on vegetable farmer knowledge of pesticide use practices, health effects, and environmental effect of pesticides. A total of 211 owner and 173 tenant vegetable farmers from 7 districts were selected through a multistage sampling technique in 2019. More owners than tenants disposed of empty pesticide containers properly, but still a large proportion of both groups were using containers to store food. The owners have a higher knowledge of safe pesticide use practices, and greater information on environmental and health effects associated with pesticides in vegetables. It is necessary to put more emphasis on tenant farmers, as well as on the significant variables obtained from the econometric model of this study. The status of the grower has importance when use and disposal of pesticides is a concern with owners, who likely have greater respect for ownership and preservation of the land within the family, are more aware of uses and concerns involved with pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 is a health and humanitarian disaster threatening the livelihood and nutritional security of the people globally. This study examined the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic-related non-pharmaceutical measures on households' livelihood and food security in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: Data collected through an online survey from 712 households were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-test, and binary logit model. Findings: More than 71% of the total households asserted that COVID-19 had affected their livelihoods negatively. Results revealed that food insecurity among households had increased more than two folds during one year of the COVID-19 compared to the pre-pandemic period. Moreover, the number of households in food insecure and severely food insecure groups had also increased significantly during the pandemic. Increasing monthly income was negatively associated with the COVID-19 induced food security and livelihood shocks implying that households with lower monthly income were likely to suffer more from the COVID-19. Households having agriculture as their main source of livelihood were 35 percentage points less likely to suffer the negative effects of the pandemic compared to wage earners. Wage-earners were 29 percentage points more likely to suffer worsened food security than salaried persons during the COVID-19 period. A large proportion of the households were forced to change their nutritional patterns to negate the adverse consequence of the pandemic on their livelihood and food security. Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow developing a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and the food security of the households. Originality/value: The pandemic has affected every sphere of life in developing countries but there is no study to assist the policymakers that how to minimize the impacts of the COVID-19 on the food security of households. Therefore, the study will fill this gap in the literature and help policymakers in developing countries to develop strategies to lessen the impact of the pandemic on food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a serious threat to global agriculture and the farming community is well aware of this challenge. This is the first empirical study that looks beyond the traditional studies only limited to the adoption of climate change measures by estimating the impact of adopted practices on technical efficiency and computing the actual level of fertilizer at the farm level. For this purpose, face-to-face interviews were conducted for data collection with 196 farmers selected through multiple stage simple random sampling in the wheat–maize mix cropping zone of Punjab province. The results depicted that changing fertilizer was the most commonly adopted strategy (76%) to negate the effects of climate changes on crop production. Stochastic frontier analysis results revealed that the adoption of diversification practices, soil and water conservation practices, and modern input use strategies were influential factors explaining the technical efficiency differential among different farmers. The average technical efficiency score was 0.71 in the locality implying that farmers have an opportunity to increase their farm efficiency by 29% with the present level of inputs. Moreover, adopters of modern input practices with a high index were 27% more efficient than those with a low adaptation index of these climate countering measures. The empirical results also revealed the excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer to counter the climate change impacts at the agricultural farms. This result has important policy implications for government agencies that it is not enough just to guide and motivate the farmers to adopt certain strategies to negate the effect of climate change. They should also be informed about the exact usage level of those suggested measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The livelihood diversification significantly contributes to the family income having effect on food varieties' consumption in rural families of different sizes. This study investigated the food intake differences among rural families considering different income levels and family sizes. Moreover, barriers faced by the rural families to increase the consumption of food varieties were also analysed. A total of 200 rural families were selected through multistage purposive and random sampling techniques in the Punjab province of Pakistan and were directly interviewed and categorized first into low and high livelihood diversified families. The food groups were derived by assigning individual food to conventional food group taxonomies, and two‐way ANOVA (4 (income groups) × 3 (family size groups) was separately conducted for low and high livelihood diversified families. The income instability, prices of food items, market distance and storage were perceived as barriers for increasing food consumption. The high livelihood diversified families significantly and regularly consumed more food items than low diversified families. The rural households both in low and high livelihood diversified family categories having low income and high family size consumed less expensive food items. The regular consumption of fruits, bakery products, and livestock and dairy items was greatly associated with high income and small family size. One of the most remarkable findings of the multivariate multiple regression model was the households belonging to the lowest income group were significantly lowering the consumption of livestock and dairy food items as the family size increased from small to large family size. The interaction effect was highly associated with per capita income because the consumption of food items increased with the rise in income irrespective of the family size. However, family size groups showed different patterns of food intakes with different income levels. Government agencies should assist rural households to diversify their income portfolios for better nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The world is facing a formidable challenge to prevent the COVID-19 global outbreak, and health care systems are under pressure globally. The governments alone cannot prevent the spread of this pandemic without creating a sensitive public opinion and cooperation. Therefore, this study analyzed the knowledge, behavior, and precautionary measures taken by the general public to protect themselves from COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: For this purpose, snowball sampling technique was used to collect data from 401 respondents through an online survey in the Punjab province of Pakistan. A Multivariate Probit Model was used to determine the factors affecting the choice of precautionary measures to avoid COVID-19 infection. Results: Majority of the respondents (58.1%) belonged to urban areas in this study. The urban respondents had higher knowledge about Coronavirus disease as compared to rural respondents. Similarly, the hygienic behavior of urban respondents was better than rural respondents. But unavailability of hygienic material (mask and hand sanitizer) was the main problem faced by the general public. Public transportation was considered the most risk-prone place to COVID-19 by the respondents. Majority of the respondents perceived medium to highest risk from COVID-19, and it was found one of the most influential factors affecting the adoption of precautionary measures along with knowledge of this pandemic. Conclusions: Government needs to start a comprehensive awareness campaign on social media along with the mainstream media create awareness about the importance of social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks among the general public to enhance knowledge and improve the behavior of the general public about COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock plays a vital role in humans' food and nutrition security under rapidly changing climatic scenarios. This study investigates the nature and factors affecting livestock farmers' choices of climate-smart livestock practices by using a multivariate probit model and then estimates the average effect of these adopted strategies on per capita daily dietary (calorie, protein, and calcium) intake among livestock herders. For this purpose, data were collected from 196 livestock farmers residing in the Punjab province of Pakistan, selected through multistage purposive and random sampling. The Simpson diversity index results revealed that farmers used diversified food in their daily diet. The results also showed that farmers consumed more protein-rich food items as compared to calorie and calcium-rich food items in their daily diet. Moreover, the average per capita calorie intake of livestock farmers was 2413.19 kcal/day. Livestock farmers adopting a higher number of climate-smart livestock practices consumed more daily per capita calories, protein, and calcium compared to those who adopted a lower number of climate-smart livestock practices on livestock farms. Moreover, climate-smart livestock practices produced more and better nutritional outcomes in combination with each other than in isolation. Livestock training was found to be positively associated with the adoption of more climate-smart practices. Therefore, livestock training is necessary to expedite the adoption of climate-smart practices and to improve the nutritional security of the farmers.

Climate change is not a myth anymore and changing with every passing year regardless of the efforts to mitigate its root causes. Livestock being a key source of employment to a large poor world population also contributes to food security and poverty eradication. With the changing climate livestock farmers are also making their farms compatible to the new natural ecosystem. Therefore, this study investigated how small livestock farmers having large ruminants inventory perceive changes in climate, which strategies they adapt and the factors influencing the adaptation of climate changes strategies in livestock. Primary data was collected from 180 small livestock farmers of Central Punjab, and multiple (step-wise) regression analysis was used to determine the factors affecting adaptation of climate change strategies. Livestock farmers are also well aware of the climate change as majority of the farmers (63.4% and 71.4%) perceived an increase in temperature and precipitation, respectively. Livestock farmers made an attempt to adopt conventional climate change strategies such as mix farming, reduction in animals, provision of more drinking water, use of tree shades, livestock diversification, use of muddy roof, and floor in order to cope with climate changes. The adoption of these measures was significantly influenced by animal inventory, climate knowledge, livestock working hours, livestock experience, distance of veterinary hospital, and livestock-related training/workshops. Government needs to increase technical and logistic capacity of veterinary doctors, and should create awareness among small livestock farmers through media.