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Isabelle Baltenweck

Other affiliations: CGIAR
Bio: Isabelle Baltenweck is an academic researcher from International Livestock Research Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Livelihood & Livestock. The author has an hindex of 22, co-authored 53 publications receiving 1384 citations. Previous affiliations of Isabelle Baltenweck include CGIAR.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of GIS-derived measures of market access and agro-climate are included in a standard household model of technology uptake, applied to smallholder dairy farms in Kenya, using a sample of 3330 geo-referenced farm households.

200 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how smallholder agricultural systems in the Kenyan highlands might intensify and/or diversify in the future under a range of socioeconomic scenarios, and identify trajectories of intensification, diversification and stagnation for different farming systems.
Abstract: We explore how smallholder agricultural systems in the Kenyan highlands might intensify and/or diversify in the future under a range of socio-economic scenarios. Data from approximately 3000 households were analyzed and farming systems characterized. Plausible socio-economic scenarios of how Kenya might evolve, and their potential impacts on the agricultural sector, were developed with a range of stakeholders. We study how different types of farming systems might increase or diminish in importance under different scenarios using a land-use model sensitive to prices, opportunity cost of land and labour, and other variables. We then use a household model to determine the types of enterprises in which different types of households might engage under different socio-economic conditions. Trajectories of intensification, diversification, and stagnation for different farming systems are identified. Diversification with cash crops is found to be a key intensification strategy as farm size decreases and labour costs increase. Dairy expansion, while important for some trajectories, is mostly viable when land available is not a constraint, mainly due to the need for planting fodders at the expense of cropland areas. We discuss the results in relation to induced innovation theories of intensification. We outline how the methodology employed could be used for integrating global and regional change assessments with local-level studies on farming options, adaptation to global change, and upscaling of social, environmental and economic impacts of agricultural development investments and interventions.

110 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply a gender lens to a conceptual framework for understanding the role of livestock in pathways out of poverty, using a livelihoods approach that centralizes the importance of assets, markets, and other institutions.
Abstract: Livestock make substantial contributions to the livelihoods of poor women in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, yet the factors that enhance or constrain livestock-related opportunities for women have received relatively little empirical analysis. This review applies a gender lens to a conceptual framework for understanding the role of livestock in pathways out of poverty, using a livelihoods approach that centralizes the importance of assets, markets, and other institutions. The three hypothesized livestock pathways out of poverty are (1) securing current and future assets, (2) sustaining and improving the productivity of agricultural systems in which livestock are important, and (3) facilitating greater participation of the poor in livestock-related markets. While these three pathways are distinct, with each requiring particular strategies and interventions to be successful, they are not mutually exclusive. The chapter summarizes what is known for each pathway and what these pathways imply for programmatic and policy interventions.

102 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify and map critical spatial factors grouped into natural, human, social, financial and physical capital assets, which largely determine livelihood options, strategies and welfare of agropastoral communities in a semi-arid district of southern Kenya.

84 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: To prepare for future outbreaks or threats to food systems, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be most acutely felt by the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities and a “Planetary Health” perspective is needed.
Abstract: We present scientific perspectives on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and global food security. International organizations and current evidence based on other respiratory viruses suggests COVID-19 is not a food safety issue, i.e., there is no evidence associating food or food packaging with the transmission of the virus causing COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), yet an abundance of precaution for this exposure route seems appropriate. The pandemic, however, has had a dramatic impact on the food system, with direct and indirect consequences on lives and livelihoods of people, plants, and animals. Given the complexity of the system at risk, it is likely that some of these consequences are still to emerge over time. To date, the direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic have been substantial including restrictions on agricultural workers, planting, current and future harvests; shifts in agricultural livelihoods and food availability; food safety; plant and animal health and animal welfare; human nutrition and health; along with changes in public policies. All aspects are crucial to food security that would require "One Health" approaches as the concept may be able to manage risks in a cost-effective way with cross-sectoral, coordinated investments in human, environmental, and animal health. Like climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be most acutely felt by the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities. Ultimately, to prepare for future outbreaks or threats to food systems, we must take into account the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and a "Planetary Health" perspective.

74 citations


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Book
01 Jan 2009

8,216 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

6,278 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

1,610 citations

BookDOI
TL;DR: This article conducted a large-scale survey of agriculturalists in 11 African countries to determine the ability of farmers in Africa to detect climate change, and to ascertain how they have adapted to whatever climate change they believe has occurred.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to determine the ability of farmers in Africa to detect climate change, and to ascertain how they have adapted to whatever climate change they believe has occurred. The paper also asks farmers whether they perceive any barriers to adaptation and attempts to determine the characteristics of those farmers who, despite claiming to have witnessed climate change, have not yet responded to it. The study is based on a large-scale survey of agriculturalists in 11 African countries. The survey reveals that significant numbers of farmers believe that temperatures have already increased and that precipitation has declined. Those with the greatest experience of farming are more likely to notice climate change. Further, neighboring farmers tell a consistent story. There are important differences in the propensity of farmers living in different locations to adapt and there may be institutional impediments to adaptation in some countries. Although large numbers of farmers perceive no barriers to adaptation, those that do perceive them tend to cite their poverty and inability to borrow. Few if any farmers mentioned lack of appropriate seed, security of tenure, or market accessibility as problems. Those farmers who perceive climate change but fail to respond may require particular incentives or assistance to do what is ultimately in their own best interests. Although experienced farmers are more likely to perceive climate change, it is educated farmers who are more likely to respond by making at least one adaptation.

1,025 citations