How do carbon emissions, economic growth, population growth, trade openness and employment influence food security? Recent evidence from the East Africa.

East Africa has a substantially greater rate of food insecurity than other regions of the world. Scenarios of climate change and other macroeconomic variables are important contributors to food insecurity in East Africa. Using data spanning from 1990 to 2020, this study looked into the influence of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, economic growth, population growth, trade openness, and agricultural employment on food security in the East Africa. The fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) models were used in this study. The heterogeneous panel cointegration test's findings indicated that the study variables have an equilibrium long-term connections. The estimation findings from the FMOLS and DOLS models showed that an increase in CO2 emissions increases food security in the East Africa over the long term. According to other findings, long-term food security is positively impacted by economic expansion, population growth, trade openness, and employment in agriculture. However, trade openness has a detrimental long-lasting effect on food security. Future research directions, research limitations, and policy implications are discussed.

Design of a cryogen-free high field dual EPR and DNP probe.

We present the design and construction of a cryogen free, dual electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probe for novel dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) experiments and concurrent "in situ" analysis of DNP mechanisms. We focus on the probe design that meets the balance between EPR, NMR, and low temperature performance, while maintaining a high degree of versatility: allowing multi-nuclear NMR detection as well as broadband DNP/EPR excitation/detection. To accomplish high NMR/EPR performance, we implement a novel inductively coupled double resonance NMR circuit (1H-13C) in a solid state probe operating at cryogenic temperatures. The components of the circuit were custom built to provide maximum NMR performance, and the physical layout of this circuit was numerically optimized via magnetic field simulations to allow maximum microwave transmission to the sample for optimal EPR performance. Furthermore this probe is based around a cryogen free gas exchange cryostat and has been designed to allow unlimited experiment times down to 8.5 Kelvin with minimal cost. The affordability of EPR/DNP experiment is an extremely important aspect for broader impact with magnetic resonance measurements. The purpose of this article is to provide as complete information as we have available for others with interest in building a dual DNP/EPR instrument based around a cryogen-free cryostat.

Does the Adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices Impact Farmers' Income? Evidence from Ghana.

People's lives, particularly farmers', have been affected by extreme weather conditions that have reduced the yield of numerous crops due to climate change. Climate-smart agriculture practices can reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and have the propensity to increase farm income and productivity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to ascertain whether CSA practices impact farmers' income. This study includes all cocoa farmers in the selected districts in the Ashanti Region. The population includes those who live in the six cocoa production villages. The multistage sampling procedure was considered based on the dominants of literature. The study used an endogenous switching regression framework to examine the effects of the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) on farmers' income. While estimating treatment effects, telasso uses lasso techniques to select the appropriate variable sets. The results revealed that gender, farm experience, age, household size, and farm size do not significantly influence the adoption of irrigation and crop insurance. The study revealed a significant positive impact of access to credit on adopting irrigation and crop insurance. The adoption of climate-smart practices has a positive coefficient. This indicates that if all respondents in each region adopts these practices, their income would increase significantly. This study shows that adopting irrigation practices leads to an increase in household income of 8.6% and 11.1%, respectively, for cocoa farmers. Crop insurance has a positive coefficient and is statistically significant on household income, on-farm, and off-farm. This paper shows that climate-smart practices such as crop insurance can positively influence farmers' income in Ghana. We also conjecture that crop insurance is the most effective and efficient climate-smart practice among the various agricultural practices. The study suggests that access to credit and mass awareness should be compulsory modules coupled with the consistent training of farmers on new technologies for effective policy implementation. Expanding access to extension officers could enhance farmers' adaptive capacity and warrant the efficiency of implemented practices.