Livestock In Developing Countries Research Articles

Bush Encroachment Mapping for Africa: Multi-Scale Analysis with Remote Sensing and GIS

Bush encroachment (BE) describes a global problem severely affecting savanna ecosystems in Africa. Invasive species and woody vegetation spread out in areas where they are not naturally occurring and suppress endemic vegetation, mainly grasses. Livestock is directly affected by decreasing grasslands and inedible invasive species which are a result of the process of BE. For many small scale farmers in developing countries livestock represents a type of insurance particular in times of crop failure and droughts. Among that, BE is also becoming an increasing problem for crop production. Studies on the mapping of BE have so far only focused on smaller regions using high-resolution data and aerial photography. But they rarely provide information that goes beyond the local or national level. In our project, we aimed at a continental-wide assessment of BE. For this, we developed a process chain using a multi-scale approach to detect woody vegetation for the African continent. The resulted map was calibrated with field data provided by field surveys and experts in Southern and Eastern Africa. Supervised classification linked field data of woody vegetation, known as BE, to the respective pixel of multi-scale remote sensing data. The regression technique was based on random forests, a machine learning classification and regression approach programmed in R. Hotpots of woody vegetation were further overlaid with significant increasing Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) trends which can refer to BE. Secondly, the probability of BE occurrence based on possible identified causes such as fire occurrence, mean annual precipitation rates, soil moisture, cattle density and CO2 emissions was analyzed. By this, possible areas for BE occurrence based on their pre-conditions and risk factors were identified. This approach includes multiple datasets derived from earth observation data to detect BE – a severe and ongoing global problem – at the continental level. Within the study´s duration of seven months, a method to upscale field data to a larger level could be developed. Nevertheless, improvement is needed to provide a reliable continental map on BE. Especially the integration of more field data will be needed which is currently under consideration. The identification of woody vegetation and the probability of its occurrence can help to prevent further ecosystem degradation. Moreover, sustainable land management strategies in these areas can be focused to support pastoralists and their livelihoods in rural areas.

Bush Encroachment Mapping for Africa: Multi-scale analysis with remote sensing and GIS

Bush encroachment (BE) describes a global problem severely affecting savanna ecosystems in Africa. Invasive species and woody vegetation spread out in areas where they are not naturally occurring and suppress endemic vegetation, mainly grasses. Livestock is directly affected by decreasing grasslands and inedible invasive species which are a result of the process of BE. For many small scale farmers in developing countries livestock represents a type of insurance particular in times of crop failure and droughts. Among that, BE is also becoming an increasing problem for crop production. Studies on the mapping of BE have so far only focused on smaller regions using high-resolution data and aerial photography. But they rarely provide information that goes beyond the local or national level. In our project, we aimed at a continental-wide assessment of BE. For this, we developed a process chain using a multi-scale approach to detect woody vegetation for the African continent. The resulted map was calibrated with field data provided by field surveys and experts in Southern and Eastern Africa. Supervised classification linked field data of woody vegetation, known as BE, to the respective pixel of multi-scale remote sensing data. The regression technique was based on random forests, a machine learning classification and regression approach programmed in R. Hotpots of woody vegetation were further overlaid with significant increasing Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) trends which can refer to BE. Secondly, the probability of BE occurrence based on possible identified causes such as fire occurrence, mean annual precipitation rates, soil moisture, cattle density and CO2 emissions was analyzed. By this, possible areas for BE occurrence based on their pre-conditions and risk factors were identified. This approach includes multiple datasets derived from earth observation data to detect BE – a severe and ongoing global problem – at the continental level. Within the study´s duration of seven months, a method to upscale field data to a larger level could be developed. Nevertheless, improvement is needed to provide a reliable continental map on BE. Especially the integration of more field data will be needed which is currently under consideration. The identification of woody vegetation and the probability of its occurrence can help to prevent further ecosystem degradation. Moreover, sustainable land management strategies in these areas can be focused to support pastoralists and their livelihoods in rural areas.

Methane mitigation from ruminants using tannins and saponins

MethanereductionontrulydegradedsubstratebasisOMD Organic matter digestibilityPSM Plant secondary metabolitesQSE Quillaja saponaria extractSCFAs Short-chain fatty acidsTP Total phenolsTT Total tanninsIntroductionThe ruminal methane production is a by-product of themicrobial digestive process and represents a loss of 2–12%of the feed energy. Furthermore, emission of methane isconsidered as one of the most important global environ-mental issues (IPCC 2001). Therefore, decreasing methaneproduction is desirable for reducing the greenhouse gasemission with improved efficiency of the digested energyutilization (Johnson and Johnson 1995). A previous reportby Kurihara et al. (1999) indicated that methane energy lossin cattle fed on tropical forage diets was higher than inthose fed on temperate forage diets, due to relative highlevels of fibre and lignin and a low level of non-fibrecarbohydrate in tropical forages. Also, the livestock indeveloping countries are predominantly maintained on ahigh-roughage diet with little or no concentrate resulting inincreased ruminal methanogenesis. Therefore, the use ofbrowse species containing secondary compounds as feedsupplement rich in plant secondary metabolites (PSM) forruminants in many parts of the tropics is increasing in orderto improve animal performance and reduce methane(Abdulrazak et al. 2000). Tannins and saponins constitutethe major classes of PSM that are currently under researchin a number of laboratories. The antimicrobial action andeffects on rumen fermentation of these compounds dependon their nature, activity and concentration in a plant or plant

Costs and benefits of livestock systems and the role of market and nonmarket relationships

AbstractIn developing countries livestock are kept not only for their physical products, but also for insurance, financing, and to display status. Though this range of purposes is acknowledged, livestock policies nevertheless often emphasize physical production: a limited perspective that hampers the formulation and implementation of effective livestock policies. This article presents a comprehensive appraisal of costs and benefits of livestock systems that takes into account the institutional environment of livestock keepers. Indicators are developed that capture, quantify, and organize not only the benefits resulting from the physical production, but also those from the intangible functions. The method is illustrated by an analysis of cattle in the Western Province of Zambia. The results indicate that the perspective on livestock systems developed more closely reflects the observed decisions of the livestock keepers.

Milk Production Response in Pakistan

In third world countries, where the level of mechanization in agriculture is low, livestock rearing is mainly for draught purpose. On the other hand, the use of animals for draught purpose is low in developed countries owing to the high level of farm mechanization and the animals are mainly reared for the consumption of meat and milk. Milk production in Pakistan is an important enterprise for over five million households owning buffaloes and cattle. Supply response of livestock has been undertaken mostly in developed countries. In developing countries livestock farming is not done on a large scale basis. This study is an attempt to obtain the best estimates of the response of milk producers while making a decision about production allocation of milk in Pakistan. The main objectives of the study are: (1) to test whether Pakistani milk producers respond to price movements (2) to estimate the elasticities of production with respect to milk producers: (a) relative price (b) credit and lagged production (c) to make a comparison of short-run and long-run price elasticities with that of developed and underdeveloped countries (d) to identify policy measures. The study is based on secondary data at the Pakistan level and covers a period of 31 years, starting from 1971-72 to 2002-03. Marc Nerlove’s (1958) partial adjustment lagged model is used for the study. The result of the analysis reveals that in the process of making the production decisions for milk production, all the variables (relative price, credit availability and lagged milk production) are equally important.

Animal genetic resources — the perspective for developing countries

AbstractIn developed and developing countries livestock are very important contributors to total agricultural output. Many breeds of different species have become either extinct or nearly so. With the spread of more advanced agricultural systems to many parts of the world, specialized strains of livestock, from a greatly reduced number of breeds within a species, have been bred for specific, but widely different, environmental conditions. This has led to a dilemma in the context of the balance to be effected between conservation of the present variety of genetic resources on the one hand and the need to concentrate increasingly on a narrow range of genotypes in the interests of improved efficiency on the other hand. The paper addresses this dilemma and discusses the FAO-instigated global programme—Animal Genetic Resources — which was designed to monitor changes in animal genetic resources on a global scale with the development of legal and regulatory instruments where necessary.