Vulnerabilities and Impact Inequities
Agrochemicals in Brazil: The Consequences of the Flexibility of New Legislation, and Impacts to the Environment and Food Safety
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Cristina Vidotte Tárrega, Maria Goretti Dal Bosco
The paper proposes to discuss food sovereignty in Brazil and its relation to the right to adequate food and the indiscriminate use of pesticides. This is an area lacking regulation to contain excesses and protect human health and environmental balance. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, the Brazilian agrochemicals market grew 190% in ten years, from 2000 to 2010, more than double the world indexes, which reached 93%. In 2013, among the ten best-selling pesticides in Brazil, on an active principle, glyphosate was the first in a total of 411 billion kilograms, a product considered in 2015 as a probable cause of cancer in humans, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (2015) of the World Health Organization, and the agency raised the risk of the product to Group 2A. The announcement provoked great apprehension among Brazilian scientists and public organizations. The Brazilian Parliament intends to modify the current Law of Agrochemicals in Brazil (Law 7.802 / 89), called "Poison Package", to modify and make flexible devices of the current Law that regulates the production, registration, marketing, transportation, packaging and labeling of these products in the country. The proposed changes have been subject to strong opposing pressures from sectors of organized society and even from public agencies, given the seriousness of the planned changes and their impact on the human right to adequate food. The research applies the deductive method and uses bibliographic sources, official documents and Jurisprudence.
Decomposition of Regional Net Income Share and Poverty Distribution
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Md. Shah Alamgir, Jun Furuya, Shintaro Kobayashi, Rubaiya Binte Mostafiz
Climate change and its impact is the reality and made Bangladesh as a most vulnerable country in the world due to its topographical acquaintance. Poverty remains the major development challenges for the country where major income earns by the farmers (about 80% people of the country engaged in farming) from crop production, which literally depends on climate. Due to climate change effect on agriculture are adversely affected and threatened for net farm income which intensify the level of poverty. Northern part of Bangladesh are the important areas for agricultural production that influences the total countries production. Regional climate change variability of farm production is an important challenge to food production as well as net income share for the farmers of Bangladesh. This study used the primary data to check the regional income share and poverty under two scenarios (baseline and projected yield loss) by variance decomposition analysis, cluster analysis, and lognormal distribution, and Gini coefficient. The analytical results show that variance of rice income significantly contributes to agricultural income differences and the reduction of the farm income appears to increase the poverty rates in Dinajpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari, and Panchagar districts. This study may help to create the relation between the farm income distribution and poverty under the potential impact of climate change. Thus, this study has to evaluate and predict the potential implications and recommend that location appropriate technology interventions could substantially reduce losses of farm income in Rangpur division and elsewhere, where similar conditions prevail.
Flood Vulnerability of Dhaka Slums: An Extended Review of Adaptation Barriers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Annabel Cryan
Dhaka, Bangladesh has failed to develop adequate flood adaptation for its slum settlements, due to poor governance practices. This work provides examples of government-led protects, accommodations, and retreat efforts in varying geopolitical contexts juxtaposed against Dhaka’s failed efforts to implement comprehensive flooding adaptation, following the disastrous 1998 floods. An analysis of Foucault’s power theories provides a deeper understanding of the underlying power relations between the urban government “state” and slum settlements that manifest as an absence of effective flood adaptation. A combination of critical theory and problem-solving theory constructs a framework for conceptualizing inclusive flood adaptation in Dhaka.
