High food prices in urban Cameroon: coping strategies and suggested policy actions

Governments tend to focus on short-term policies to address the immediate effects of high food prices when spikes occur, while in the long term, urban residents are left to their own devices struggling to ensure adequate household food consumption. Using data collected in three cities in Cameroon among 300 households, this article documents participants’ opinions on appropriate policies to address high food prices as well as how households cope with chronic high food prices. It emphasises the importance of long-term government strategies such as improved farm-to-market roads and agricultural sector supports as means to improve food security.     

我国自然资源德用权流转的法律规制及完善

自然资源是物,自然资源使用权是用益物权,其流转可实现对其的永续利用。我国自然资源使用权流转在可交易的权利类型,流转的主体资格和法律条件,审批登记制度,价值评估制度,监督管理等方面存在不足。我国法律应在扩大可交易的自然资源使用权类型的范围,严格主体的市场准入条件,完善权属登记制度,全面实行开发利用规划,建立与之相适应的司法制度,采取环保激励措施等方面予以完善。     

Participatory visual research with subsistence farmers in Papua New Guinea

This article discusses the trial of visual research methods in a socio-economic research and development project with women subsistence farmers and their families in two regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It reports on the benefits and challenges of three visual research methods (drawing, participatory photography, and picture elicitation) to explore the agricultural practice of women subsistence farmers and their families. The paper discusses the potential of these methods for enhancing community engagement, reducing the power imbalance between researchers and participants, and promoting dialogue and reflection to better understand the needs and practices of subsistence farmers.     

Empowering farmers? Collaborative research at Sokoine University of Agriculture,Tanzania

This article presents experiences with collaborative and on-farm research based on the implementation of a four-year Programme for Agricultural and Natural Resources Transformation for Improved Livelihoods (PANTIL) at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro, Tanzania. It outlines the basic elements in the implementation of a programme aimed to be demand-based, and discusses the challenges encountered in combining collaborative research with the empowerment of farmers. Finally, the article draws out some lessons with implications for the future organisation of collaborative and on-farm agricultural research.     

Twenty reasons why local knowledge will remain relevant to development

Local knowledge has continued to gain popularity among development practitioners in the last four decades. However, the future of local knowledge seems hazy to some academics and researchers, perhaps due to the methodological challenges in operationalising local knowledge in development research. Rather than appropriate its full potential for sustainable (global) progress, renditions on the relevance of local knowledge in development research agenda have largely become rhetoric. Nonetheless, this viewpoint outlines 20 pertinent reasons in support of the relevance of local knowledge and why it has a future in development theory and practice.     

Dating of Iron Gall Ink Using the Dissolution‐Diffusion Method

In many criminal and civil cases, some questioned documents are written with iron gall ink. Determining the date when an iron gall ink entry was written can be important to assess the authenticity of a document. A dissolution‐diffusion method was successfully employed to draw aging curves of iron gall ink entries stored in controlled conditions over 40 months. Calibration curves were created to indicate the relationship between the average dissolution‐diffusion rate of ink components and the age of ink entries stored under natural aging conditions. As preliminary findings of this study, the mixed solution of dimethyl formamide (DMF) and anhydrous ethanol was suitable to dissolve the dye of iron gall ink strokes made at different time. It was also determined that brands of iron gall inks, types of paper, and thickness of iron gall ink strokes had varying impacts on estimating the dates of iron gall ink strokes.     

Offshore gas intermediary companies in Eurasia

Gazprom's utilization of offshore registration – or the moving of money across national boundaries for reasons other than of direct business benefit – has resulted in the creation of a web of subsidiary companies with opaque leadership and financial arrangements. Some of these subsidiary companies operate as intermediaries in the natural gas trade among the former Soviet states. Given that the gas trade within Eurasia has a long history of fixed contracts that move gas through a network of pipelines, why were intermediaries created, and why register them offshore? Using a critical reading of stateness as a space for transnational networks, and supported by mind-mapping software, we analysed the structure and operations of offshore gas intermediary companies between Russia and Central Asia dating from the break-up of the Soviet Union. We conclude that there were several purposes for using intermediary gas companies, from navigating trade among the newly independent states, to asset stripping, monopolizing markets, and obfuscating finance and ownership. However, the usefulness of intermediary companies to Gazprom may have expired, as a confluence of increased competition among suppliers, diversification of export routes, and economic stagnation has led to exporters and importers calling for their end.     

自然人民事责任能力理论的重新检讨--兼论被监护人致人损害民事责任归属的立法选择

一切自然人都具有民事权利能力和民事责任能力。民事责任能力与民事行为能力无关,而取决于民事权利能力。被监护人致人损害的,应适用过错责任的归责原则。无民事行为能力人因为不存在过错,不承担民事责任。限制民事行为能力人致人损害时,被监护人自己如果有过错,应当承担民事责任。监护人在其履行监护义务时有过错的,应对被监护人致人的损害承担民事责任。我国关于被监护人致人损害民事责任归属的立法有修改的必要。     

当前泰国的能源问题

本文对泰国的电力能源的供应和需求状况进行了分析汇总，同时对该国电力能源发展的一些可能性障碍进行了分析，透过泰国电力能源发展的道路可以体现泰国经济发展的道路。