The maize commodity is of strategic significance to the South African economy as it is a stable commodity and therefore a key factor for food security. In recent times climate change has impacted on the productivity of this commodity and this has impacted trade negatively. This paper explores the intricate relationship between climatic factors and trade performance for the South African maize. Secondary annual time series data spanning 2001 to 2023, was sourced from an abstract from Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) and World Bank’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration technique was used as an empirical model to assess the long-term and short-term relationships between explanatory variables and the dependent variable. Results of the ARDL model show that, average annual rainfall (β = 2.184, p = 0.056), fertilizer consumption (β = 1.919, p = 0.036), gross value of production (β = 1.279 , p = 0.006) and average annual surface temperature (β = −0.650, p = 0.991) and change in temperature for previous years, (β = −0.650, p = 0.991) and the effects towards coefficient change for export volumes, (β = 0.669, p = 0.0007). In overall, as a recommendation, South African policymakers should consider these findings when developing strategies to mitigate the impacts of some of these climatic factors and implementing adaptive strategies for maize producers.

In recent years, with the wide application of English picture books as children's English enlightenment reading material, it has become an effective auxiliary teaching material for primary students to learn a second foreign language. This paper mainly introduces the concept and characteristics of English picture books so that readers can clearly understand the research object. Secondly, it gives an explanation of the current situation of the application of English picture books in reading education in our country, and demonstrates the importance of English picture books in the field of education. Finally, based on the reading teaching model of PWP and combined with relevant theories of education, specific strategies are proposed for teaching English picture books. I hope this paper will be helpful to the teaching of picture books.

As an important type of knowledge, standards are key factors in economic development and technological innovation. To analyze the impact of participation in standards development on enterprise performance, this study takes China’s high-tech industry as an example. We use the operating data of listed enterprises in the industry in 2019 and conduct the propensity score matching method matching analysis on the entire sample and the classification. The conclusion shows: From an overall point of view, the participation of enterprises in the development of standards has a positive impact on the enterprise’s return on total assets. Specifically, participating in the development of over three standards can also improve the return on total assets. Large enterprises can increase the return on total assets of the enterprise and the return on invested capital. The state-owned enterprises have a positive effect on the return on total assets of the enterprise. Enterprises in the western, central, and eastern region enterprises can increase their net profit, enterprise value and net profit, return on total assets and enterprise value respectively. The enterprises in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can improve their return on invested capital and enterprise value, average rate of return respectively. The participation in the development of national standards, industry standards and local standards can help increase their return on total assets, the return on total assets and enterprise value, enterprise value respectively. Finally, we suggestions are put forward to enhance enterprises’ enthusiasm to take part in standards development.

This study explores the application of the co-design approach in participatory planning for the development of Kambo Tourism Village, located at the intersection of urban and rural areas in Indonesia. By combining the Delphi Consensus Method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the study successfully identified and prioritized key aspects in the planning process, with a primary focus on local community participation. The results indicate that the co-design approach is effective in creating a masterplan that not only aligns with the needs and aspirations of the community but also supports the sustainability and inclusiveness of tourism village development. AHP results reveal that local community participation was assigned the highest priority with a weight of 0.35, followed by stakeholder collaboration with a weight of 0.27. Community participation not only contributed to the creation of a well-structured tourism village masterplan but also enhanced human resource quality and strengthened stakeholder collaboration. The impact of this participatory planning process includes increased national recognition for Kambo Village, the village’s success in receiving awards, and local economic growth. Moreover, the study identified a gap between the calculated and expected weights in the AHP process, highlighting the complexity of aligning diverse stakeholder perspectives. These findings offer both practical and theoretical contributions and open opportunities for further research to address the challenges of participatory planning in the context of tourism villages.

The need for forest products, agricultural expansion, and dependency on biomass for the household energy source has largely influenced Ethiopia’s forest resources. Consequently, the country lost its forest resources to less than 6% until the millennium. In this study, quantitative and qualitative historical data analysis was employed to understand the socioeconomic benefits of large dam construction to Ethiopia and downstream countries. Moreover, remotely sensed data was also used to analyze the trends of vegetation cover change in the Nile catchment since the commencement of the dam; focusing on areas where there are high settlement and urban areas. It was identified that Ethiopia has one of the lowest electricity consumption per capita in Africa; about 91% of the source of household energy supply depends on fuelwood today and more than 55.7% of the population does not have access to electricity. The normalized difference vegetation index result shows an increment of vegetation area in the Nile catchment and a reduction of no vegetation area from 2011–2021 by 37.1%; which is directly related to the protection of the dam catchment for its sustainability in the last decade. The hydroelectric dam construction has prospects of multi-benefit to Ethiopia and downstream countries either through the direct benefit of hydropower energy production, related socioeconomic values, and reducing risks of destructive flood from Ethiopian highlands. Generally, it explains the reason why to not say ‘No’ to the reservoir as it is an ever more vital tool for fulfilling growing energy demand and supporting ecological stability.