Evaluation of the determinants of food security within the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances- a particular case of Shaanxi, China.

BACKGROUND: Agricultural food production and distribution industries may play a vital role in determining the current conditions of any country's food security and sustainable development goals. This paper examined the determinants of food security within three distinct aspects (effective utilization of food, food availability, and food access) within the COVID-19 epidemic situation. METHODS: The qualitative set-up of the study comprised with the identification of drivers by critical analysis of published papers and discussion held with some practitioners. The quantitative data used in this research were collected from a survey covering the agricultural food supply industry in China (Shaanxi Province). The survey was conducted from November to December 2020 and we mainly focus on three aspects of food security (effective utilization of food, food availability, and food access). The core analytical assumptions were made by employing exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). RESULTS: After analyzing the data collected from 257 agricultural food productions and distribution personnel along with the hypothesis testing, it found that the determinants of the effective utilization of food were positively related to the determinants of food access (ß = 0.291, p = 0.029) and food availability (ß = 0.298, p = 0.011), and the determinants of food availability were positively related to the food access determinants (ß = 0.128, p = 0.002). The association and variance values between food availability and food access were 0.659 and 0.407; the association and variance values between for effective utilization of food and food availability aspects were 0.465 and 0.298, and between effective utilization of food and economy were 0.508 and 0.475. CONCLUSION: The study critically evaluated the interconnection among the crucial determinants within the banner of three dimensions, which will act as a major contribution to existing literature. This research will help the government and industry to develop policies and strategies for the successful implementation of all the associated determinants of food security in terms of the epidemic situation.

Determinants of Farmers’ Confidence in Agricultural Production Recovery during the Early Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the agricultural supply chain, export of agricultural products, and overall food security. However, minimal exploration has been attempted of farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study intends to explore the determinants of farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery in China during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we analyzed the relationship between risk expectation and social support on the farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery by using the ordered probit model. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from February to March 2020 from 458 farm households in the 7 provinces of China to produce the findings. We found that the risk expectation of farmers had a significant negative impact on farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery. Social support seemingly had a significant positive impact on the farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery, and could play a supportive role in moderating the relationship between risk expectation and farmers’ confidence in recovery. However, social support alleviates the adverse effect of risk expectation on farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery to a certain extent. In addition, there were intergenerational differences in the effects of risk expectation and social support on farmers’ confidence in agricultural production recovery. These results imply that policies establishing the risk early warning mechanisms for agricultural production and strengthening the social support from governments and financial institutions are likely to significantly impact agricultural development in the post-COVID-19 era. The formal and informal risk minimization mechanisms should extend their support to vulnerable sectors such as agribusiness.

Evaluation of preventive, supportive and awareness building measures among international students in China in response to COVID-19: a structural equation modeling approach.

BACKGROUND: Education institutions promptly implemented a set of steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among international Chinese students, such as restrictive physical exercise, mask wear, daily health reporting, etc. Success of such behavioral change campaigns largely depends on awareness building, satisfaction and trust on the authorities. The purpose of this current study is to assess the preventive, supportive and awareness-building steps taken during the COVID-19 pandemic for international students in China, that will be useful for planning such a behavioral change campaign in the potential pandemic situation in other parts of the world. METHODS: We conducted an online-based e-questionnaire survey among 467 international students in China through WeChat. The data collection duration was from February 20, 2020 to March 10, 2020 and we focused on their level of awareness, satisfaction, and trust in authorities regarding pandemic measures. Simple bivariate statistics was used to describe the background characteristics of the respondents along with adoption of the partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) as the final model to demonstrate the relationship between the variables. RESULTS: In our study, the leading group of the respondents were within 31 to 35 years' age group (39.82%), male (61.88%), living single (58.24%) and doctoral level students (39.8%). The preventive and supportive measures taken by students and/or provided by the respective institution or authorities were positively related to students' satisfaction and had an acceptable strength (ß = 0.611, t = 9.679, p < 0.001). The trust gained in authorities also showed an acceptable strength (ß = 0.381, t = 5.653, p < 0.001) with a positive direction. Again, the personnel awareness building related to both students' satisfaction (ß = 0.295, t = 2.719, p < 0.001) and trust gain (ß = 0.131, t = 1.986, p < 0.05) in authorities had a positive and acceptable intensity. Therefore, our study clearly demonstrates the great impact of preventive and supportive measures in the development of students' satisfaction (R2 = 0.507 indicating moderate relationship). The satisfied students possessed a strong influence which eventually helped in building sufficient trust on their institutions (R2 = 0.797 indicating above substantial relationship). CONCLUSIONS: The worldwide student group is one of the most affected and vulnerable communities in this situation. So, there is a profound ground of research on how different states or authorities handle such situation. In this study, we have depicted the types and magnitude of care taken by Chinese government and educational institutions towards international students to relieve the panic of pandemic situation. Further research and such initiatives should be taken in to consideration for future emerging conditions.