Online Tutoring on Locust Swarms Impact on the Food Supply

Introduction

Analysis of different approaches through there definition and emphasizes on their advantages and disadvantages to give away the path on how to utilize them to solve a problem. Locusts swarm has been a major problem for many countries especially agricultural sector in those nations. This issue needs a permanent solution because it has been impacting the food supply of different developing countries. The report will discuss three approaches that are system thinking approach, the first principle of economics and evaluation concepts. The approaches would be analysed along with their pros/cons and would be implemented on the case study regarding how to solve the locusts issue permanently.

 

System Thinking Approach:

The systems thinking approach has been described as “systems thinking as the art and science of making reliable inferences about behaviour by developing an increasingly deep understanding of underlying structure” (Agresti, 2006). In other words, system thinking is the procedure of considering how different components impact each other. Systems thinking has been a new approach to help individuals in every sector to solve a problem observing different components to work as one.

 

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The First Principle of Economics:

The first principles in economics includes Scarcity forces trade-offs, Opportunity Costs, Rational people make choices at the margin and People respond to incentives. Trade-off is a circumstance that includes the loss of one aspect of some product in return of attaining some other quality product (Fischer, 2017). Scarcity means limited resources which forces the individuals to give up a quality aspect for another. Opportunity costs refers to the attainment of the next best alternative and the third principle refers to minor incremental alterations to a plan. The last principle is described as the comparison of cost and benefits while making a decision about something that is that people respond to incentives (Quddus & Horton, 2002).

 

Evaluation Concept:

The evaluation concept includes to place a worth on tangible things, it also entails to motivate the reallocation of resources along with cost benefit analysis (Sage Publications, 2019). Evaluation concepts includes:

  1. Scale: this refers to the established level upon which the issue is investigated.
  2. Scope: this refers to the degree of multiple problems that should be addressed by the analysis.
  3. Time: this includes the specific time (beginning of the event, during the event, ex-ante and ex-post review) of the analysis
  4. Geography: this refers to the location (Micro-economic, macro-economic and current time) upon which the analysis will happen

 

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Pros and Cons:

System Thinking Approach:

Pros:

  • Analysis of problem from simple to the most difficult.
  • The approach encourages to reduce combined factors into distinct factors (Schiuma, Carlucci & Sole, 2012).
  • System thinking can be useful in projects where the relationship between the project with its ecological system is evaluated (Stewart & Fortune, 1995).

Cons:

  • The idea of reducing components into distinct ones isn’t ideal for every project. Moreover, this approach tries to solve the problems of a project one by one that can lead to the issue of backing up that is much worse (Morgan, 2005).
  • The use of system thinking approach can threaten the already established systems, processes and policies.
  • The approach also demands intelligent resources as it requires extraordinary strategies to tackle numerous issues. This is not possible every where because to employ the approach it requires investment (skills, money etc.) which every one doesn’t possess.

 

Principles of Economics:

Pros:

  • Through trade-off people could be satisfied with their choice.
  • Opportunity costs helps businesses in decision making process.

Cons:

  • Trade-offs can motivate budget constraints for individuals (Kool & Botvinick, 2012).
  • Opportunity Costs is a badly understood issue.

Evaluation Concept:

Pros:

  • Evaluation helps in decision making
  • Structured information obtained through evaluation

Cons:

  • Limited resources in terms of time, talents and resources.
  • The information attained through evaluation isn’t enough for decision making.

 

Case Study:

Locusts swarm has been a greater issue since years now, locusts belong to the grasshoppers family and mostly persist in Asia, Africa and Middle East. Locusts swarms are not good for the agricultural sector, the locusts can impact the crops and livestock production that can have a major impact on the food supply of a country. As the locusts consume crops, it can be difficult for the families to run their houses as well as there is not enough food for the livestock which can pressure them to sell it to make ends meet (World Bank, 2020). The three approaches that can be applied to impact of locust problem on food supply. The systems thinking approach can help the stakeholders to prioritize the steps to tackle the locust problem, the approach can be helpful when the stakeholders examine the relationship between the environment and the locust. However, resources to tackle the calamity in the developing country could be insufficient and it can be impossible to handle the catastrophe. The principles of economics that includes trade-offs, the locusts can destroy the crops and the country having competitive advantage cannot trade with another country. Moreover, it can also dampen the budget as money will be spent to tackle the locust. The country would then have to choose the best next alternate to trade that will be the country’s opportunity cost. Evaluation concepts can help the country to decide which approach to employ in tackling issue, scale can provide the stakeholders with the previously established issue. Scope can help the stakeholders to discover multiple problems within the actual issue, Time can help the government to evaluate the analysis of a given issue. Moreover, Geography can help the stakeholders to plan the specific place to analyze the problem. However, the information attained through the evaluation concept isn’t enough for the government to tackle the issue of locusts as it is a natural catastrophe.

 

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