IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaae13/161623.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Commercializing Agriculture in Africa: The Environmental, Health and Safety Implications and the Way Forward

Author

Listed:
  • Olowogbon, S.T.
  • Fakayode, S.B.

Abstract

Commercialization of agriculture in is a worthy effort in attaining food sufficiency in Africa. However, this needed quest has had an enormous environmental, health and safety implications for the agricultural sector of the continent. This quest has led to intense use of machinery, agrochemicals and other non-environmental friendly methods of farming. This implies there will be greater chances of farm accidents, mishap, fatality, production loss time and other burdens on farmer’s wellbeing on one hand and loss of biodiversity, environmental degradation, and unsustainable use of land all leading to climate change on the other hand. Holistically, due to the modus operandi of agricultural work, the workers are exposed to hazard ranging from; chemical, physical, ergonomics, biological and psychosocial hazards thereby leading to disorders and diseases like carcinogenicity (cancer causing), mutagenicity (induce mutations), tetragenicity (affect the feotus), psychiatric disorder and delayed neuropathy (dysfunction of peripheral nerves), and the dusts have been known to cause diseases ranging from byssinosis (lung diseases), occupational asthma, pneumonitis (inflammation o the walls of alveoli) and non-specific chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and agriculturally related musculoskeletal disorder. Notwithstanding, a well implemented farm safety programme with massive awareness, more sustainable, environmental friendly method such as conservation agriculture and integration of environmental health impact assessments into African agriculture, research and development on commercialization of agriculture, are workable solutions to the likely health, safety and environmental challenges from the commercialization process.

Suggested Citation

  • Olowogbon, S.T. & Fakayode, S.B., 2013. "Commercializing Agriculture in Africa: The Environmental, Health and Safety Implications and the Way Forward," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 161623, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaae13:161623
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.161623
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/161623/files/OLOWOGBON_%20S.T%20and%20FAKAYODE%20S.B.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.161623?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Govereh, Jones & Jayne, T. S., 2003. "Cash cropping and food crop productivity: synergies or trade-offs?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 39-50, January.
    2. Oecd, 2009. "Climate Change and Africa," OECD Journal: General Papers, OECD Publishing, vol. 2009(1), pages 5-35.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Sassi & Gopal Trital, 2022. "A latent growth curve modelling approach to seasonal and spatial dynamics of food security heterogeneities in rural Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(1), pages 111-125, February.
    2. Thennakoon, Jayanthi & Findlay, Christopher & Huang, Jikun & Wang, Jinxia, 2020. "Management adaptation to flood in Guangdong Province in China: Do property rights Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. Meredith Niles & Margaret Brown & Robyn Dynes, 2016. "Farmer’s intended and actual adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 277-295, March.
    4. Nchimunya Ndiili, 2020. "Unprecedented economic attack on Sub-Sahara African economies: coronavirus," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 244-251, June.
    5. Hachigonta, Sepo & Johnston, Peter & Sibanda, Lindiwe M. & Thomas, Timothy S., 2013. "South Africa," IFPRI book chapters, in: Hachigonta, Sepo; Nelson, Gerald C.; Sibanda, Lindiwe Majele; Thomas, Timothy S. (ed.), Southern African agriculture and climate change: A comprehensive analysis, chapter 7, pages 175-212, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Giuseppe Maggio & Marina Mastrorillo & Nicholas J. Sitko, 2022. "Adapting to High Temperatures: Effect of Farm Practices and Their Adoption Duration on Total Value of Crop Production in Uganda," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 385-403, January.
    7. Gupta, Rishabh & Mishra, Ashok, 2019. "Climate change induced impact and uncertainty of rice yield of agro-ecological zones of India," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    9. Seydou Zakari & Germaine Ibro & Bokar Moussa & Tahirou Abdoulaye, 2022. "Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change and Impacts on Household Income and Food Security: Evidence from Sahelian Region of Niger," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    10. Silvia Saravia-Matus & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Sreejith Aravindakshan & Stefan Sieber & Jimmy A. Saravia & Sergio Gomez y Paloma, 2021. "Can Enhancing Efficiency Promote the Economic Viability of Smallholder Farmers? A Case of Sierra Leone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    11. Christina Handschuch & Meike Wollni, 2016. "Improved production systems for traditional food crops: the case of finger millet in western Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 783-797, August.
    12. Hallegatte, Stephane & Bangalore, Mook & Bonzanigo, Laura & Fay, Marianne & Narloch, Ulf & Rozenberg, Julie & Vogt-Schilb, Adrien, 2014. "Climate change and poverty -- an analytical framework," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7126, The World Bank.
    13. Isaac Akomea-Frimpong & Caleb Boadi & Roger Owusu-Boafo, 2021. "Determinants and challenges of supplying microlife insurance in Ghana," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(3), pages 331-357, July.
    14. Vermaak, Herman Jacobus & Kusakana, Kanzumba & Koko, Sandile Philip, 2014. "Status of micro-hydrokinetic river technology in rural applications: A review of literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 625-633.
    15. Sylvester Mpandeli & Luxon Nhamo & Sithabile Hlahla & Dhesigen Naidoo & Stanley Liphadzi & Albert Thembinkosi Modi & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, 2020. "Migration under Climate Change in Southern Africa: A Nexus Planning Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, June.
    16. Jean-Luc Mubenga-Tshitaka & Johane Dikgang & John W. Muteba Mwamba & Dambala Gelo, 2023. "Climate variability impacts on agricultural output in East Africa," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 2181281-218, December.
    17. Kwasi, Frimpong & Oosthuizen, Jacque & Etten, Eddie Van, 2014. "The Extent of Heat on Health and Sustainable Farming in Ghana –Bawku East," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 3(3).
    18. Simon Tilleard & James Ford, 2016. "Adaptation readiness and adaptive capacity of transboundary river basins," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 575-591, August.
    19. Alexa L. Wood & Louie Rivers & Amadou Sidbé & Arika Ligmann-Zielinska, 2021. "Decision-making capacity to address climate-induced food insecurity within women-led groups in Southern Mali," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1-18, February.
    20. Girma T. Kassie & Augustine Langyintuo & Olaf Erenstein & Debrah Maleni & Simon Gwara & Tsedeke Abate, 2013. "Drought Risk and Maize Production in Southern Africa," Journal of Asian Scientific Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(10), pages 956-973, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaae13:161623. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaaeaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.