Harnessing the Opportunities for Sustainable Small-Scale Rural Farming Towards Attaining Food Security in Southern Africa

Agriculture is the main food production industry in emerging economies. Its importance in increasing food security is reflected in SDGs 1 and 2 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus, improving food production through small-scale agriculture transformation and sustainability is crucial. However, recent pandemic (COVID-19) awareness and impacts necessitate urgent need for sustainable small-scale farming. This study sought to find ways for small-scale agriculture in Southern Africa to withstand natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify solutions to boost production amid COVID-19 effects on labour, markets, and access to knowledge or inputs. Local and international reports on small-scale agriculture in Southern Africa, and literature from 2009 to 2022, were systematically used. Technology that could be harnessed to ameliorate the identified challenges and enhance small-scale farming productivity in the region is recommended. Finding solutions to the issues encountered by small-scale farmers in general and due to the pandemic will promote the transformation and sustainability of small-scale agriculture and hence food security in the region. Additionally, the importance of science communication related to small-scale farming in Southern Africa, along with practical and policy implications to enhance and support small-scale farming, and subsequently food security is highlighted. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Towards a classification of vulnerability of small-scale fisheries

Vulnerability of small-scale fisheries (SSF) results from complex interactions amongst various threats and stressors, including biophysical risks, environmental variability, unstable political situations, and weak governance, to name a few. SSF vulnerability has become more evident, with increased severity, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge about what makes SSF vulnerable is limited, which impedes appropriate policy responses and intervention. As a first step to rectifying the situation, a classification approach is proposed to better describe and differentiate types of vulnerability to SSF and to guide data collection and dissemination about SSF vulnerability. The classification system is developed based on a narrative review of case studies worldwide, published in scientific journals in the past 20 years. The case studies cover SSF in diverse aquatic environments, including river, floodplain, reservoir, river delta, lake, atoll, estuaries, lagoon mangrove, coral reefs, seagrass ecosystem, islands, coastal and marine environment. Similar to the five pillars of sustainability, SSF vulnerability is associated with five main factors, i.e., biophysical, social, economic, technological, and governance. Knowledge about SSF vulnerability helps inform tailored management strategies and policies to reduce SSF marginalization and promote viability, aligning, therefore, with the goal of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Understanding small- and very-small-scale meat processors in Missouri to strengthen the local supply chain

Promoting local food systems is crucial to provid-ing a more viable economy, eco-friendly produc-tion, and equal opportunities for producers, con -sumers, and communities. Meat processors are critical to local meat producers and the meat supply chain. However, various barriers have restricted small-scale meat processors and challenged the lo -cal meat supply chain. Although local food systems have gained enormous scholarly attention, little at-tention has been devoted to specifically exploring the meat processing sector. This study investigated the characteristics and challenges of small-scale (<750 employees) and very-small-scale (<200 em-ployees) meat processors in Missouri. Twenty-six meat processors participated in an online survey through Qualtrics, a mail survey, or a structured phone interview between May 2021 and March 2022. We identified the characteristics and con-straints related to their businesses. The analysis re-vealed that 76% of meat processors perceived that their business was in better or much better condi-tion than before the COVID-19 pandemic, reflect-ing their adaptability to the disrupted meat supply chain. However, small-scale meat processing facili-ties were limited by the labor shortage, complicated regulations and high regulatory compliance costs, a lack of consistent supply, and limited access to tools and equipment. More integrated work is needed to aid smaller processors in positively im-pacting the local community and environment through locally sourced meat production. This study contains helpful implications for state-level policymaking, extension programs, and future re-search directions.

Playful Co-Design: Creating an AR-Prototype with Nurses in Interlocking Remote and On-Site Workshops

Deeply engaging nurses in a participatory co-design process, especially in times of COVID-19, is challenging. In this case study, we shed light on the process of developing a prototype for AR-glasses in nursing. We show the challenges we faced, the methods we used and how they contribute to the core principles of participatory design. A special focus is laid on small-scale interventions with high-impact, that helped us to truly engage users. We introduce empathetic ways to connect contrasting work environments, establish mutual understanding, make the more graspable with playful tools like PLAYMOBIL®, and support co-design development with online formats. Finally, we discuss the transferability to other projects. © 2023 Owner/Author.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Coastal Fishery Livelihood Systems: Socio-economic Implications for Small-Scale Fisherfolk in Winneba, Ghana

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted livelihood options and systems of people from all walks of life. In this study, we explored the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on small-scale coastal fisherfolk in the Winneba community of the Central Region of Ghana. The study used quantitative data from a questionnaire survey (n = 50) and qualitative data from in-depth interviews with key stakeholders including chief fishermen, community leaders, and district members (n = 12) to examine the stated objectives. The empirical results showed that the overwhelming majority of fisherfolk are aware of COVID-19 and the risks it poses to their health with their main source of information on the pandemic being the radio. Most of the respondents reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had and continues to adversely transform their livelihood systems. Further analysis showed that their socio-economic vulnerabilities have further been worsened because of the extra financial costs incurred in the purchase of personal protective equipment such as face masks and hand sanitisers in response to COVID-19. The frequency and number of crews per fishing trip have decreased resulting in lower fish landings and decreased income. The volume of fish processing and trading activities has also decreased because of the increase in prices of fish and low patronage. Commonly mentioned local coping strategies against COVID-19 infection include drinking and bathing with seawater as well as the use of seawater as a desired enema solution for general detoxification. In response to declining fish catches, fisherfolk are resorting to illegal fishing activities and engaging in casual work like masonry and carpentry to supplement their income. The study urges relevant stakeholders to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on coastal fisheries' livelihoods toward designing and implementing sustainable and practical resilience-enhancing strategies. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Mask Wear Detection Algorithm Based on YOLOv5m

Wearing a mask during the COVID-19 epidemic can effectively prevent the spread of the virus. In view of the problems of small target size, crowd blocking each other and dense arrangement of targets in crowded places, a target detection algorithm based on the improved YOLOv5m model is proposed to achieve efficient detection of whether a mask is worn or not. This paper introduces four attention mechanisms in the feature extraction network based on the YOLOv5m model to suppress irrelevant information, enhance the information representation of the feature map, and improve the detection capability of the model for small-scale targets. The experimental results showed that the introduction of the SE module increased the mAP value of the original network by 9.3 percentage points, the most significant increase among the four attention mechanisms. And then a dual-scale feature fusion network is used in the Neck layer, giving different weights to the feature layers to convey more effective feature information. In the image pre-processing, the Mosaic method was used for data enhancement, and the CIoU loss function was used for coordinate frame positioning in the prediction layer. Experiments on the improved YOLOv5m algorithm demonstrate that the mean recognition accuracy of the method improves by 10.7 percentage points over the original method while maintaining the original model size and detection speed, and better solves the problems of small scale, dense arrangement and mutual occlusion of targets in mask wearing detection tasks in crowded places. © 2023 IEEE.

Design and Development of Toroidal Core Winding Machine with Digital Interface

The small size and inherent superior electrical characteristics of a toroid has made it the first choice for many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). However, the lack of knowledge regarding the toroidal coil winding equipment is still hampering the growth of toroid as the first choice for transformers, inductors and other electrical applications. Additionally, due to Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown situation, small scale companies are lacking skilled manpower for the high precision task of toroidal core winding and taping. Although the machine is readily available in the market, the cost is still very high. Toroidal core winding machine is an equipment used for the purpose of winding toroidal cores which is used in various electrical machines such as current transformers, power transformers, isolation transformers, inductors and chokes, auto transformers, etc. This project aims to develop a low-cost toroidal winding machine with a user-friendly digital interface for selection of winding parameters as per the user input. The winding machine developed in this project is efficient and reliable with high-speed performance and negligible error. © 2022 IEEE.

Immediate impact of COVID-19 across tropical small-scale fishing communities.

The volume and value of fish catches by Indonesia's small-scale fisheries have declined significantly since national government restrictions on travel and social distancing were imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a digital data collection system (OurFish), that records purchases by fish traders from small-scale fishers, data was collected across 82 coastal communities in Southeast Sulawesi. We found that the number of active fishers and traders declined by more than 90% after the onset of the pandemic and the average weight of catch per fishing trip increased across fishers. Although the average price per kilogram of fish declined after the pandemic began, fishers that were able to maintain fishing had on average higher catches and therefore daily catch value was maintained. High value fisheries that usually enter export supply chains were more negatively impacted compared with lower value species that are commonly sold to local markets. We interviewed 185 small scale fishers and fish traders across 20 of the 82 communities in Southeast Sulawesi province, recording the perceived level of impact on local fisheries and the fish trade, causes of this impact and proposed coping strategies. Over 50% of both fishers and fish traders believed low demand for fish from traders and a decline in the price received for fish were disrupting their lives. Approximately 75% of both male and female fishers are coping by continuing to fish, highlighting that there were few alternative livelihoods available at the time of the interviews. Our results provide key insights into the vulnerability of small-scale fishing communities to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impacts of COVID-19 on small-scale aquaculture of marine species in earthen ponds in Surat Thani Province, Thailand

Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has made adverse impacts on the economy of many countries, including Thailand where small-scale aquaculture was important for seafood supply and livelihood of the country. The objectives of this study were to describe the characteristics of small-scale aquaculture, identify the impacts of COVID-19 on small-scale aquaculture and adaptation of farmers to cope with the impacts, and depict the support received by farmers. Face-to-face interview was carried out in Surat Thani Province with 110 farmers from three types of small-scale aquaculture (i.e. fish, crab, and shrimp farming) between August 2020 and April 2021. The results revealed that the characteristics of farmers among the three types of small-scale aquaculture were not different, while characteristics of farms among them were different. Most farmers (89%) was affected by COVID-19 with the major impacts such as decreased number of market channels, price of fish, and revenue from farm production. The farmers among the three types of small-scale aquaculture similarly adapted their farming activities (farm management and marketing strategies). There were similar proportions of farmers among the three types of small-scale aquaculture in receiving the support to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. The major support was financial assistance from the national government. Furthermore, the government bodies were the most important sector to help farmers to relieve the impacts of COVID-19, while non-government bodies should also get involved in mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 as well as other pandemics or disasters in the future.

THE IMPLICATION OF MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER (MCO) TOWARD THE SMALL-SCALE FOOD AND BEVERAGE ACTIVITIES IN JOHOR, MALAYSIA

The implementation of a movement control order (MCO) in Malaysia due to the COVID-19 pandemic has widely affected the majority of small-scale economic activities, including the food and beverage (F&B) sector. This paper aims to analyse the impact of MCO implementation on small-scale F&B activities in Majlis Bandaraya Iskandar Puteri (MBIP), Johor, Malaysia. Descriptive and inferential analyses were employed to analyse the impact of MCO implementation via a questionnaire sampling of 60 small-scale F&B operators across the case study. The research found that the movement restrictions had a massive influence on the economy of most of the businesses, particularly on their income generations. The MCO also obstructed a smooth economic recovery of any business, including the small-scale F&B activities, despite the various initiatives being addressed to minimise the economic impact of pandemic and sustain the business activities and income generations. Hence, a planning approach should be taken to manage the chain impact of a health crisis, such as movement restrictions, in reducing the economic impacts of small-scale F&B activities. © 2022 by MIP.

COVID-19 experiences of small-scale fishing households: The case of Lake Victoria, Kenya

Introduction: The impact of COVID-19 on small-scale fishing communities is of great concern given the importance of aquatic foods in trade, nutrition and livelihoods. Using a case study of Lake Victoria, augmented by published literature, we examine the socioeconomic dynamics and severity of COVID-19 impacts on Kenyan fishing communities. Methods: A household level questionnaire was administered through phone interviews on a monthly basis from June 2020 to May 2021, including a focus group discussion in July 2021. Results: We find that multifold fear of COVID-19 infection and control measures were present and varied across case rates and stringency of control measures. Fishers and traders reported being affected by disease control measures that limited market access and their ability to fish overnight. In spite of these worries, and contrary to what has been reported in the published literature regarding impacts observed in the early months of the pandemic, we see stable participation in fishing and fish trading over time despite the pandemic. Food insecurity was high before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not substantially shift with the pandemic. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Kenyan fishing and fish trading households adopted diverse strategies to cope and balance generating income to provide for their families and staying safe. Our results underscore the need to understand ways in which acute pandemic impacts evolve over time given that effects are likely heterogeneous across small-scale fishing communities. Copyright © 2023 Okronipa, Bageant, Baez, Onyango, Aura and Fiorella.

Role of Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme in Enabling Growth of SME

Despite their importance Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Azerbaijan and in other developed and developing countries suffer from limited access to financing due to high costs of small-scale lending, information asymmetry, high risks attributed to SMEs and collateral requirements. Thus, the lack of SME access to finance is to the large extent the consequence of weaknesses in enabling environment for finance. Shortfall in enabling environment becomes major constraint for economic growth and diversification and/or causes regionally-unbalanced growth. These deficiencies motivate government to make policy interventions toward SME financing expansion. Largely interventions come in form of credit guarantee schemes (CGS), direct lending facilities and lending by state-owned financial institutions. In turn, partial credit guarantee schemes are considered as most market friendly intervention type. There are also notable examples when countries like South Korea employed PCG as countercyclical policy tool to face difficulties came from economic downturn. The diverse and resilient SME sector is the center piece of the Azerbaijan government's strategic agenda to diversify the economy away from oil. Credit Guarantee Schemes were introduced in Azerbaijan as a measure of Government to make financing accessible for SMEs and to reduce effect of negative impact of two recent major events: the drop in worldwide oil prices and COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this paper is to review characteristics of Credit Guarantee Schemes and assess preliminary outcomes of Partial Credit Guarantee mechanism implementation in Azerbaijan. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Measuring the Struggle of Small-Scale Businesses in the COVID-19 Environment

Small-scale business owners are among those who were very affected when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. This group supports their families solely through daily sales profits. However, when the country began implementing the Movement Control Order (MCO) from March 2020 to May 2020, it was difficult for this group to survive. Some of them were unable to do business at all, while the majority experienced a significant decline in sales. This study aims to measure the ability of small-scale business owners to survive before and after the COVID-19 period. GIS software (ArcMap 10.4.1) was used to map the ability of small-scale business owners to survive before and after the pandemic. Data were obtained through face-to-face questionnaires conducted throughout the state of Kedah. Findings indicated that several districts have successfully managed the pandemic for economic survival. This was achieved through a well-collaborated effort by the government and NGOs to strengthen certain aspects of these small-scale business and revive their growth. Future work should focus on studying the actions taken by successful business owners in coping with the pandemic environment. © 2023 by the authors.

Participatory evaluations reveal positive impacts for small-scale fishing communities in Indonesia and Honduras

Small-scale fishing communities are often particularly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks, as exemplified by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, extreme weather events as a result of climate change, and rising costs associated with the war in Ukraine. These positive impacts were experienced in vulnerable communities facing several external stressors, thus highlighting the benefits of strengthening community governance and supporting improved and diversified livelihoods to increase resilience to threats. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Oryx is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Medical Small-scale Transportation Object Detection Algorithm Based on Multimodal Data Fusion

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impact transportation, and unmanned transportation has been widely used in medical. The average precision of object detection as an important part in unmanned medical transportation. Object detection mainly relies on sensors of vehicles to obtain information about the surrounding obstacles like camera and LIDAR. In this paper, we introduce a new fusion way to fuse data from different modalities, as 2D and 3D object detection encouraging performance, they are typically based on a single modality and are unable to leverage information from other modalities. We leverage the geometric semantic consistency of 2D and 3D detection to obtain more accurate fusion results, and address the weaknesses of IoU in fusion network by using a generalized version as both a new loss and a new metric. The experimental evaluation on the challenging KITTI object detection benchmark, shows significant improvements in average precision, especially at bird's eye view metrics, which shows the feasibility and applicability of the network. © 2022 IEEE.

How the pre and post COVID-19 era have shaped system understanding of the socioeconomic impact of small-scale inland fisheries

The current study provided a socioeconomic quantification of small-scale inland fisheries in East Africa using fish market information data for major markets in the pre (2009–2017) and post COVID-19 containment (Jan–May 2022) eras. The socioeconomic status index (SEI) incorporated 6 dimensions: access to fresh fish, access to market, available fish processing (drying) infrastructure, favourable price range, high quantity range traded, and high seasonal profit margins;using three major commercial fishes (Nile perch, Tilapia and Dagaa) and the season (pre and post COVID-19) as the main independent variables. The SEI was calculated using a segmented sociometric scale interval as: ≥ 4.21Very High ≤5.00;≥3.41 High ≤4.20;≥2.61 Moderate ≤3.40;≥1.81 Low ≤2.60;and ≤1.00 Very Low ≤1.80. The socioeconomic quantification was highly dependent on COVID-19 containment periods that reflected very high (pre COVID-19 = 4.67, post COVID-19 = 4.06) impacts on small-scale inland fisheries. This suggested a negative impact of COVID-19 on small-scale inland fisheries attributed to various factors such as disrupted value chains, reduced purchasing power among the customers, struggles by businesses to compensate for losses incurred during the pandemic, and diversion of economic focus. The impact had a lower proportion on Dagaa, given its low value compared to the other two major commercial species. The quantification of fish data during a pandemic is useful to provide mitigation measures for shocks that could be anticipated in the sector for sustainable fish-food systems. © 2022 The Author(s)

Impacts of COVID-19 on small-scale freshwater carp and coastal brackish water shrimp farming in India

The present study was simultaneously conducted in two distantly located areas to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on farming processes, instantaneous financial impacts and mitigation strategies adopted by the farmers in the small scale freshwater carp farming and coastal brackish water shrimp farming sectors in India. Primary data were collected through interview of the farmers with the help of pre-tested structured interview schedules. Though the initial impact in both the sectors were substantial, freshwater carp farmers mitigated the crises comparatively well because of wider option in alternative livelihood, low cost locally available inputs, mobilization of local market, direct door to door vending of live fish and mobilization of women work force from the family in the farming sector. Untapped resource in the form of women's' participation in the freshwater farming practices was noteworthy during the pandemic period which increased polynomially (y = - 1.0714x2 + 7.5286x -2.2;R2 = 0.9648). As the shrimp farming sector was dependent upon external markets and burdened with high cost inputs primarily supplied by the input dealers on credit basis, the sector has to bear the burden most. Garret's Rank analysis revealed that integration with other production sectors ranked first as mitigation perception to the freshwater carp farmers, whereas, to the coastal shrimp farmers, the highest rank was with the perception that everything will be normalized within 2- 3 months naturally. Garret's Rank analysis also revealed that in both the sectors, the farmers most important need was credit from the Govt. source in mitigating COVID-19 like crisis in future. © D. Hait.

Victims of Educator-Targeted Bullying: A Qualitative Study on Teacher Harmful Experience

Bullying in school has become an international concern in recent years, and the issue became urgent after school closure during COVID Pandemic. International studies have identified teacher-targeted bullying by students as a real and harmful issue for teacher wellbeing. Our paper sets out discursive issues surrounding bullying against teachers as targets of intentional bullying. It reports on the findings of a small-scale, extant, qualitative research study on commenters' understanding of the antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. The aim was to gain insights into the teachers´ targeted bullying from the perspective of teacher victims. We conducted a qualitative descriptive research design stemming from semi-structured interviews with victims of teacher-targeted bullying. A thematic content analysis of the data was generated from interviews with seventeen victimized teachers as a snowball sampling. The sample consisted of male (n = 7) and female (n = 10) participants from urban school locations in the capital of Czech Republic. The focus of our study was to determine how the teachers who had been experiencing bullying by their students described and perceived the nature and consequences attributed to such bullying. The findings indicate that the victims of teacher-targeted bullying were exposed repeatedly over long time verbal and nonverbal bullying, ignoring the teaching activities and other threats directed against teachers. Our results suggest bullying had a negative influence on the victims' private lives (family, colleagues), physical and mental health and self-esteem. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Leveraging Chinese economic presence in the post-lockdown Ghanaian market space and the growth of China's public relations and diplomacy

Recent research indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the socioeconomic life of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, the paper's purpose is to explore how the economically bottom-class citizens in Ghana - small-scale vendors - are navigating themselves out of their predicaments. Using a mixed method, I combined a structured questionnaire with unstructured interviews to collect data and examined 384 small-scale vendors in four urban centres with content analysis and SPSS descriptive statistics. I find that Ghanaian small-scale vendors are leveraging the Chinese economic presence in the Ghanaian market space to navigate themselves from the negative impacts the pandemic brought on their socioeconomic life. I argue that China's international image-building effort is growing and achieving desired outcomes in Ghana as a result of pegging economic engagement as a soft power resource. The economic engagements may further Chinese public relations and diplomacy - transforming Chinese cultural assets into soft power. I base the theoretical argument on the new public diplomacy framework. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Small Scale Aerial Monitoring for Human Body Temperature Measurement Using Rotary Wing Drone

— In Indonesia, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on a variety of sectors. Using all available technology for disaster mitigation is critical for pandemic prevention and control. Recent studies have uncovered the advantage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drones, particularly those with rotary wings, in dealing with the pandemic. Much effort has been devoted to developing a rotary-wing drone system as a flying platform for aerial monitoring. However, several factors must be considered when visually observing a specific region, i.e., the area's size, topographic contours, locations of special interest inside the area, approach points to the area, and the observation timeframe. Since fever is a common symptom of COVID-19, human body temperature monitoring is highlighted for fever screening, with the objective of minimizing people with high body temperatures going to the crowd. A major challenge is creating a system that can provide accurate body temperature data, which is critical for fighting the pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to present a rotary wing drone application for aerial human body temperature measurements. The paper also proposed an alternative solution based on using a portable, low-cost, Forward-looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal imaging camera. The FLIR thermal camera is incorporated into the drone's electronic system. Furthermore, thermal image data are transmitted into the ground station via a radio telemetry transceiver to allow flexible surveillance by the operator. Indoor and outdoor experiments reveal that the system has been effectively installed and provide data collection for further research. The results show that the system can be used for small-scale area aerial monitoring. © 2023, Politeknik Negeri Padang. All rights reserved.