Impact of Livestock Biodiversity in Poverty Reduction and Welfare Change in Rural Sudan

Abstract

The livestock production offers many benefits to millions of farmers in the developing world. These animals are integral to rural livelihoods and culture, providing food, materials (wool, hide, horns, etc.), income, and mechanical power for pulling carts or plowing fields. This study attempts to investigate the role of agro-biodiversity concentrating on livestock production in poverty reduction in rural Sudan and to evaluate the biodiversity of livestock species and its effects on ecological sustainability. The study focuses on the problem of rural farmers from a broader perspective, among agricultural farming systems in rural Sudan, named as traditional rainfed, irrigated and mechanized rainfed farming system. The results show that livestock biodiversity of the all farming systems is differed and concentrated in types of livestock practices, no aquatic fisheries was practices in all farms. Majority of the livestock species is in the hands of the rural farmers that are residence in the northern parts of the selected regions. A few percentages of the farmers grow the forage legumes. Livestock keeping is practice as it is prestigious to own some and it also serves as source of income and family consumption. Results also proved a significant correlation between livestock biodiversity indicators with ecological sustainability in the livestock species. Livestock reduction is associated with low income and low manure which respectively; affects the improvement of farmer’s welfare and farm agro-biodiversity through nutrient recycling, particularly in the irrigated farms.