Browsing by Author "Anriquez, Gustavo"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    De-climatizing food security: Lessons from climate change micro-simulations in Peru
    (2019) Anriquez, Gustavo; Toledo, Gabriela
    This paper brings advances in weather data collection and modeling, and developments in socioeconomic climate microsimulations to bear on the analysis of the implications of climate change (CC) in the design of public policies to combat food insecurity. It uses new downscaled predictions of future climate in 2050, derived from three Earth System Models calibrated with a new historical weather station dataset for Peru. This climate data is used in a three-stage socioeconomic microsimulation model that includes climate risk, and deals with the endogeneity of incomes and simultaneity of expected food consumption and its variability. We estimate the impact of CC on agricultural yields, and find results consistent and fully bounded within what the global simulations literature has found, with yields falling up to 13% in some regions. However, we show that these drops (and increases) in yields translate to much smaller changes in food consumption, and also surprisingly, to very minor impacts on vulnerability to food insecurity. The document explores what explains this surprising result, showing that in addition to characteristics that are specific to Peru, there are household and market mediating mechanisms that are available in all countries, which explain how changes in yields, and corresponding farm incomes have a reduced impact in vulnerability to food insecurity. Finally, in light of these findings, we explore which policies might have greater impact in reducing food insecurity in contexts of hunger prevalence.
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    Exposure Practices to Animal-Origin Influenza A Virus at the Animal-Human Interface in Poultry and Swine Backyard Farms
    (2024) Baumberger, Cecilia; Anriquez, Gustavo; Galdames, Pablo; Palma, Tamara; Gonzalez, Maria Antonieta; Orozco, Katherinne; Oyarzun, Cristobal; Rojas, Camila; Marambio, Victor; Ruiz, Soledad; Di Pillo, Francisca; Schultz-Cherry, Stacey; Jimenez-Bluhm, Pedro; Rushton, Jonathan; Hamilton-West, Christopher
    Aim: Backyard production systems (BPS) represent an interface of contact between people, domestic and wild animals. Studies conducted in Chile during the last decade have provided extensive evidence of influenza A virus (IAV) circulation in backyard poultry and swine. The aim of this study was to investigate exposure practices of humans to animal-origin IAV within backyards. Methods and Results: Backyard farmers and household members of a total of 101 BPS in the proximity of wetlands located throughout Chile were interviewed between 2021 and 2022. Data were collected on the nature of human-animal contacts through participation in productive activities conducted within backyards, which was used to estimate participants' exposure risk to animal-origin IAV. Additionally, RT-qPCR and serologic IAV active surveillance was carried out in backyard animals. Multilinear regression was used to identify factors associated with exposure risk. Overall, IAV prevalence was 10.1% (95% CI: 4.7%-15.5%) and seroprevalence was 43.5% (95% CI: 29.7%-54.2%), both at the BPS level. Of 180 interviewees, 86% reported par-ticipating regularly in poultry or swine exposure activities within the backyard. A greater participation of male participants was observed when evaluating swine exposure activities, while female participation was greater for some activities related to poultry handling. Handwashing was a very extended hygiene practice; however, the use of personal protective equipment was uncom-mon. Different factors related to participants, households and backyards were associated with an increased exposure risk of participants to animal-origin IAV: (i) older age, (ii) less years of education, (iii) no off-farm work, (iv) greater backyard production value and (v) greater household consumption of backyard products.
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    In search of economically significant food losses: Evidence from Tunisia
    (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2021) Anriquez, Gustavo; Foster, William; Ortega, Jorge; Rocha, Jozimo Santos
    Large estimates of food losses among farms and intermediaries publicized recently by several international organizations invite the question: Why do economic decision makers live with such losses? The intuitive, economic response would be that the marginal benefits of loss reduction do not exceed the marginal costs. This paper analyzes the possibility that economically significant losses nevertheless might be occurring at the farm and wholesale levels in two cases that have drawn attention in the Near East and North Africa. In Tunisia, concerns exist that farm equipment, especially harvesting equipment, is a major source of wheat losses in a country for which the grain plays an important role in diets and the national import bill. Our analysis finds that smaller wheat farms do have relatively large physical losses, compared to large farms, attributable to the use of older and imperfectly adjusted harvesting equipment. Nevertheless, given the scale of most operations in Tunisia, there is little incentive for farmers to make the specific investments that would significantly reduce losses. In Egypt, local experts have focused on large post-harvest losses of tomatoes, an important crop, largely produced by small-scale farmers. We examine the effectiveness of plastic crates for reducing food losses in harvesting, transport and storage as compared to traditional palm crates. We find that there is perhaps a marginal gain to be had in terms of the value of losses avoided, but such gains are likely within a margin that makes adoption of plastic economically ambiguous.
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    Is the proliferation of private standards acting as a non-tariff trade barrier in agrifood trade? Evidence from Chilean grape exports
    (2024) Anriquez, Gustavo; Gajardo, Jose Tomas; de Frahan, Bruno Henry
    PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the impacts that the recent proliferation of private and overlapping standards is having in the trade of agricultural products from developing countries.Design/methodology/approachIn a first stage industry experts in the Chilean fresh fruit trading industry were interviewed to understand the perceived impact that private standards are imposing in the industry. These interviews allowed to identify the market case study, table grapes, the landscape of private standards and their prevalence in different countries. In a second stage, a gravity trade model for trade in table grapes was estimated, with a focus on the more stringent countries identified by experts in the first stage.FindingsWe show evidence that the proliferation of private standards required by large European retailers has diverted trade away from more stringent countries that require more certifications (and into less stringent European markets). We also show that the costs of these additional certifications have been shared by trading partners, via an increase in direct sales, as opposed to consignment (the traditional marketing mode), which is associated with higher prices.Research limitations/implicationsThe impacts of the recent proliferation of private and overlapping standards in international trade needs to be better understood both by the legal and economic literature. While the use of private standards has been growing since the 1990s, there is a recent trend of large European retailers imposing their own and overlapping standards that needs to be better understood to inform policy.Originality/valueWhile there is a thin literature on the impact of private standards on trade, most of this has studied the effects of the now de facto mandatory GlobalGAP certification. However, there is a recent trend by large European retailers of demanding their own private certifications, together with other already existing overlapping private standards. This study describes and analyzes the impacts of this rather new trend.
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    Long-Term Trends and Policy Challenges in Chilean Agricultural Labor Markets
    (PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA CHILE, FAC AGRONOMIA INGENIERIA FORESTAL, 2021) Anriquez, Gustavo
    This paper identifies the major longterm trends in agricultural labor markets in Chile. The document shows the increasing aging, feminization, and seasonality of the agricultural labor force. Long-term projections are made regarding the evolution of labor supply and demand based on demographic and economic trends. These projections suggest the continuation of the already existing trends of a decreasing supply of labor and an increasing demand for agricultural labor, mostly driven by the substitution of crops into labor-intensive but higher-value export crops. Hence, the paper predicts a continuation of the trend of rapidly increasing labor costs in agriculture. The paper discusses the challenges imposed on farmers and policy-makers of confronting these rapidly growing labor costs by continually raising farm labor productivity.
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    Refining the scale of the rural-urban landscape: A policy-relevant application to Chile
    (2024) Anriquez, Gustavo; Calabrese, Jazmine; Foster, William; Keim, Klaus; Osses, Pablo
    The rural-urban divide has traditionally been used to characterize key features of regions, including features of economic geography like density and connectivity that determine the prospects for economic growth and other dimensions of territorial development. In this paper, we develop a methodology that identifies areas along the urban-rural continuum according to their key features of population density and distance to large urban settlements at a more-detailed scale than the smallest administrative areas, taking Chile as a case study, a country that has experienced a rapid socio-economic transition over the last three decades. Information derived from the application of this methodology allows the identification of geographic categories according to observable density and distance. We also present geographic definitions of urban, rural, and mixed areas, which allow a practical, policy-relevant taxonomy of the rural-urban landscape, consistent with the 3-tier approach taken in most OECD countries. We demonstrate the relevance and practical importance of this smaller-scale approach by showing that, in the case of Chile, there is a significant mismatch between the official, cruder definitions, based on political subdivisions and currently in use by the government, and the realities of the country's present ruralurban landscape. Our results demonstrate that a focus on the scale at which information can be interpreted and summarized is not merely an academic exercise, but a way of correctly identifying, within the policymaking framework, communities according to the realities of their needs and capabilities.
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    The Constraints to Escaping Rural Poverty: An Analysis of the Complementarities of Assets in Developing Countries
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2011) Foster, William; Valdes, Alberto; Davis, Benjamin; Anriquez, Gustavo
    Based on Food and Agriculture Organization data for 15 developing countries, we examine household characteristics, asset bundles and income-generating activities of the rural poor. Assets aid in exiting poverty, not independent of one another, but rather in combination. We develop an approach to estimate the complementarities between education, farm size and infrastructure. Limited access to the three assets of interest here (susceptible to medium-and long-term interventions) might prevent moving a large number of small farmers out of poverty in the short-term (even with support programs). Increased land holding often has lower poverty-reducing potential, and when its potential is high, it is in countries where most land is divided among small operations (for example, Bangladesh). Education is confirmed as highly poverty-alleviating, and has a high complementarity with infrastructure.
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    Understanding Farm-Level Incentives within the Bioeconomy Framework: Prices, Product Quality, Losses, and Bio-Based Alternatives
    (2021) Jansen, Sarah; Foster, William; Anriquez, Gustavo; Ortega, Jorge
    The bioeconomy framework emphasizes potential contributions of life sciences to novel, bio-based products and to discover economic uses for what would otherwise be considered waste or loss in traditional production systems. To best exploit this perspective, especially for biowaste innovations, economists should develop behavioral models that integrate decision-making with biophysical concepts. The supply to bioeconomy uses of farm production otherwise lost depends on the relative net benefits of adjusting production across a range of quality levels. Without understanding such incentives, one cannot fully anticipate the effects on prices and consumer welfare due to new alternatives. The analysis here examines farm-level incentives that determine quality, sales and loss levels, and possible switching of supplies to alternative uses. We present a farmer decision model of the distribution of product qualities, total losses, and the adoption of alternative profitable activities, such as for antioxidants or other novel bioproducts. We demonstrate how the introduction of bio-based alternatives changes opportunity costs of resource use, altering product quality proportions and sales to traditional markets. Adopting biowaste alternatives depends on scale, productivity, and fixed costs; adopting these reduces the proportion of production going to traditional buyers/consumers and shifts downward the distribution of traditional product (e.g., food-grade) qualities.