The dynamic nexus of crop production and population growth: housing market sustainability pathway

Algal Bio-Stimulants Enhance Salt Tolerance in Common Bean: Dissecting Morphological, Physiological, and Genetic Mechanisms for Stress Adaptation

Salinity adversely affects the plant's morphological characteristics, but the utilization of aqueous algal extracts (AE) ameliorates this negative impact. In this study, the application of AE derived from Chlorella vulgaris and Dunaliella salina strains effectively reversed the decline in biomass allocation and water relations, both in normal and salt-stressed conditions. The simultaneous application of both extracts in salt-affected soil notably enhanced key parameters, such as chlorophyll content (15%), carotene content (1%), photosynthesis (25%), stomatal conductance (7%), and transpiration rate (23%), surpassing those observed in the application of both AE in salt-affected as compared to salinity stress control. Moreover, the AE treatments effectively mitigated lipid peroxidation and electrolyte leakage induced by salinity stress. The application of AE led to an increase in GB (6%) and the total concentration of free amino acids (47%) by comparing with salt-affected control. Additionally, salinity stress resulted in an elevation of antioxidant enzyme activities, including superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, and glutathione reductase. Notably, the AE treatments significantly boosted the activity of these antioxidant enzymes under salinity conditions. Furthermore, salinity reduced mineral contents, but the application of AE effectively counteracted this decline, leading to increased mineral levels. In conclusion, the application of aqueous algal extracts, specifically those obtained from Chlorella vulgaris and Dunaliella salina strains, demonstrated significant efficacy in alleviating salinity-induced stress in Phaseolus vulgaris plants.

Environmental Services: A New Approach Toward Addressing Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa

The physical environment provides resources and specific types of environmental services relevant to the maintenance of human livelihoods globally and with specific reference to sub-Saharan Africa, including soils, food, and water systems. Previous studies on the shared nexus of such resources commonly view these as self-contained systems operating independent of their physical contexts provided by landscape-scale geomorphology and its related processes. This study critically examines the viewpoints adopted by such nexus studies with specific reference to sub-Saharan Africa, arguing that these studies are reductive, considering only the shared disciplinary overlap (nexus) and not their wider contexts, and are based on only a limited understanding of the workings of physical systems. This study argues that considering the attributes of the physical landscape and its provision of environmental services provides a broader and scientifically-informed context for understanding of interlinked issues such as relationships between soil–food–water systems. Framing such “nexus” studies in this wider context can derive a better understanding of the connections between different elements such as soil, food, and water, amongst others, and with respect to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The concept of environmental services is therefore a more powerful tool to examine both the connections between physical and human environmental processes and properties in sub-Saharan Africa, and to address overarching environmental issues such as land degradation, soil erosion loss, water scarcity, and impacts of climate change.

Agro-financing and food production in Nigeria

This study examines how agro-financing impacts on food production in Nigeria supporting Goal 2 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aims to “end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”. The study covers the period 1981–2018 using annual data sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin. The Johansen and the Canonical Cointegration approaches are employed and findings reveal that agro-financing is statistically significant in explaining the level of food production in Nigeria.

The result implies that a 1% increase in farmers' access to agricultural finance is associated with an increase in food production by 0.002%–0.006% depending on the model specification. This result aligns with the ‘a priori’ expectations as it is expected that more agro-funding at low-interest rates motivates farmers to secure high-yield seedlings, machinery and other farm implements, organic inputs that positively impact on total agricultural yield, leading to more food production. Therefore, the study recommends that more funding be allocated to the agrarian sector with less stringent credit conditions, and more arable land be allotted for farming purposes amongst others.

New insight into the causal linkage between economic expansion, FDI, coal consumption, pollutant emissions and urbanization in South Africa

This study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment inflows and economic growth in a carbon function, by incorporating the role of urbanization, and coal consumption as additional variables to avoid omitted variable bias. The different order of integration from the unit root test suggested the adoption of a dynamic autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure. The results confirmed the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between the outlined series within the period under investigation, with a high speed of convergence. The ARDL equilibrium relationship shows that coal consumption is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions in both short- (0.77%) and long-run (0.86%). Economic growth was found to escalate CO₂ emission by approximately 0.27% (in the short-run) and 0.19% (in the long-run). The Granger causality test indicates a non-causal effect between FDI inflow and economic expansion in South Africa, which implies that FDI is not a driver of economic advancement. The empirical study shows a bidirectional causal effect between urbanization and foreign direct investment. This suggests that urban development stimulates foreign direct investment in South Africa. The findings reveal a one-way link from GDP to coal consumption, suggesting economic prosperity promotes coal consumption. The study underscores that economic development and the attraction of more economic investments is in part dependent on the conservative policy, development of urban centers through infrastructural improvement, and establishing industrial zones.

Modeling the nexus between coal consumption, FDI inflow and economic expansion: does industrialization matter in South Africa?

This study examines the role of industrialization in the energy-growth-FDI nexus for the case of South Africa using data over the period 1970 to 2018. The empirical exercise was conducted using Pesaran Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. To accomplish our study objective, we analyze stationarity properties of the series using the unit root test after which we applied Bayer-Hanck (B-H) combined technique to cointegration to assess whether a long-run relationship exists among the series. Empirical results show that a 1% change in FDI account for 0.002% and 0.013% increase in economic expansion in the short- and long- run respectively. Also, a 1% increase in coal consumption influence GDP negatively by 0.083% and 0.207% in the short and long run respectively. Furthermore, a 1% increase in total natural resource rent positively affects GDP by 0.02% and 0.05% respectively in the short and long run. Industrialization, on the other hand, demonstrates a positive and significant impact on the economic growth process both in the short and long run. Industrialization contributes 0.506% and 1.274% to economic expansion both in the short and long run respectively. The causality tests suggest that a one-way causal link running from FDI to industrialization and from industrialization to coal consumption exists. Finally, FDI inflow drives total natural resource rents in South Africa. This study also gives reliable growth and energy policy proposals to policymakers applicable to countries around the globe.

Renewables, food (in)security, and inflation regimes in the coastline Mediterranean countries (CMCs): the environmental pros and cons

In the present (twenty-first) century, the pertinent challenge of attaining the regime of food security with low pollution amidst the drive for sustainable economy and energy efficiency is core to governance and intergovernmental agencies. Therefore, in an attempt to investigate environmental issues among the coastline Mediterranean countries (CMCs) for the first time, the current study examines the dynamic long-run nexus of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with food production and inflation rate over the annual period 1995-2014. Using a dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the consumption of renewable energy in the panel of sixteen (16) CMCs is empirically observed to be an efficient policy vehicle for mitigating CO₂ emissions. Also, in all the examined CMCs, consumption of renewables is observed to cause significant decline in CO₂ emissions, thus securing a sustainable environment. However, in the long run and in the panel of CMCs, the study reveals that increase in food production (a drive toward food security) increases environmental risk. Additionally, the study found that high inflation regime in the panel CMCs is associated with low CO₂ emissions especially in the long-run, thus necessitating efficient policy mechanism. In adopting the genetic resources of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, as well as employing price control policy, the members of the CMCs might have unearthed a suitable policy directive in effectively sustaining environmental quality.