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Food security is among the most pressing global concerns. It is principally threatened by the combination of rural migration and the pressure of climate change. In order to mitigate these effects, the need to promote stable conditions for small producers -who generate 80% of the world's food- has arose. In search to improve market conditions, this study aims to evaluate the feasibility of cross-hedging between electrical derivatives market and spot agricultural products in Colombia. This hypothesis is proposed, as Colombia depends upon hydro-electricity, an electricity source which is heavily influenced by climatic conditions, particularly the “El Niño” southern oscillation (ENSO). The prices of agricultural products are thus volatile, and subject to this phenomenon. ENSO is presumed to be an important link between these two markets. To contrast the hypothesis, the most commonly- methods in cross-hedging literature were employed to estimate hedge ratios: OLS, Error Correction Models, and GARCH estimations. This last estimation was found to be the one with the best performance for hedge ratio estimation. Despite this, of 93 products analyzed, statistically significant relationships were found for only nine. Besides, it was found that cross-hedging contributes to a risk reduction of not more than 32%., Agriculture cross-hedging; Agriculture risk management; Sustainable risk management; Price risk exposure; Food security; Agricultural economics; Econometrics; Food economics; Risk management

This study employs the multinomial endogenous treatment effect model to examine the effect of flood adaptation strategies on farm households' food security in the Upper East region, Ghana. In addition, an ordered probit model was used to analyse the determinants of household's recovery from flood shocks. Farmers adopt on-farm and non-farm activities as adaptation strategies. Estimation results indicate that farmers that employ on-farm and non-farm strategies had their food security situation improved and recovered faster from flood shocks. Age, education, access to extension, credit, farm size and information on flood occurrence drive the farmer's decision to adopt on-farm practices. Marital status, education, farm size and information on flood occurrence significantly influenced adaptation decisions related to non-farm activities. Other factors that influence household's recovery period from flood events were age, education, FBO and perceived severity of flood. Programs and policies that promote extension contacts, increase awareness on flood occurrences and provide non-farm work opportunities can be beneficial to reduce the adverse effects of floods., Non-farm; Multinomial endogenous treatment effect; Flood adaptation; Food security; Ghana; Agricultural economics; Econometrics; Environmental economics; Food economics; Poverty, Economics, Agriculture, Environmental science

This paper evaluates current food commodity trading from the Shariah point of view, which is particularly relevant for the MENA region. It focuses on futures contracts as the main instrument for grain trading and analyzes the traders’ activities. Through a qualitative and multifaceted approach, the paper accumulates and evaluates the suggestions for 15 Shariah-based alternatives to futures by contemporary researchers. Sukuk, commodity funds and takaful programs are among potential structures that could be developed and broadly implemented. The research compares the current criticism of futures markets with the opinions of Islamic scholars and researchers, as well as Shariah standards. The paper also evaluates several recent suggestions by researchers to raise the efficiency of the international commodity trading market for the sake of food security. The results show that there is space for cooperation taking into account Islamic financial principles and conventional commodity exchange regulations, in combining existing best practices of the latter and the rulings of the former in engineering a sounder system of grain trading for the benefit of market players and the end consumers. This would require a joint effort and support from exchanges, standard-setting bodies, and regulators. Among the areas of cooperation are the approach towards corners (ihtikar), squeezes, speculation (gharar, maysir, and najash), and defining the border between reasonable and excess speculation; financial architecture using new technologies in developing a commodity trading contract conforming to the Shariah regulations and the exchange requirements. There is a need to develop the ideas for global food contracts and grain reserve systems, and to test the contracts based on existing exchanges., Islamic finance; speculation on commodity markets; food commodity trading; wheat reserves; Food Security; commodity futures; sukuk salam; Shariah-based alternatives to futures; globalisation of wheat trading; futures, options and swaps from the Shariah perspective; Financial market; International Finance; Agricultural economics; International trade; Pricing; Food economics; Globalization

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms provide economic viability for rural communities and their regions. We suggest multiple and integrative research priorities in production, enterprise, and farm economics, environmental impacts of farming at different scales, and social and community consequences of value adding and economic multipliers in local food webs and systems as well as the structure of agriculture. Research into key questions on food security and how it relates to increased food sovereignty is clearly needed to assess creative food system alternatives for the future.