Modeling how and why aquatic vegetation removal can free rural households from poverty-disease traps.

ABSTRACT: Infectious disease can reduce labor productivity and incomes, trapping subpopulations in a vicious cycle of ill health and poverty. Efforts to boost African farmers' agricultural production through fertilizer use can inadvertently promote the growth of aquatic vegetation that hosts disease vectors. Recent trials established that removing aquatic vegetation habitat for snail intermediate hosts reduces schistosomiasis infection rates in children, while converting the harvested vegetation into compost boosts agricultural productivity and incomes. We develop a bioeconomic model that interacts an analytical microeconomic model of agricultural households' behavior, health status, and incomes over time with a dynamic model of schistosomiasis disease ecology. We calibrate the model with field data

SUBMITTER: Doruska MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11670121 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature