scholarly journals Typology and Characteristics of Indigenous Goats and Production Systems in Different Agro-Ecological Zones of Tanzania

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athumani Shabani Nguluma ◽  
Martina Kyalo ◽  
Getinet Mekuriaw Tarekegn ◽  
Rose Loina ◽  
Zabron Nziku ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Coat Color ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Coat Colour ◽  
Meat Production ◽  
Source Population ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Morphological Variations ◽  
Natural Pasture ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

Abstract A study was conducted in all agro-ecological zones in Tanzania to characterize the indigenous goat populations. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 688 randomly selected adult female goats. A total of 220 households were interviewed for description of production system. Income generation and meat production were the primary objectives of rearing goats across all the study areas. More than 55% of respondents grazed their animals freely in communal lands where natural pasture was the chief feed resource. Mating was mainly uncontrolled with apron and castration being used by goat keepers as mating control methods. Common diseases were contagious caprine pleural pneumonia and helminthiasis but majority had access to veterinary services and vaccinated their animals regularly. Feed shortage, prevalence of diseases, and water scarcity were the major constraints to goat production. There were morphological variations between and within these goat populations and discriminant analysis clustered the goats into two groups based on quantitative data. Most individuals from Ujiji, Newala, and Tanga goats were correctly classified into their source population, while misassignment was high for other populations. High twinning was observed in Ujiji and Lindi goats and low for Sukuma. The dominant coat color was plain white in Pare, Gogo, Maasai and Tanga. Other coat colour patterns were mixed black and white for Sukuma, reddish-brown for Lindi, black and reddish-brown for Ujiji, white and reddish-brown for Pwani and Maasai. Within and between variation observed is important as it can be used as a basis for genetic improvement through selection and/or crossbreeding.

scholarly journals Drought-tolerant Varieties as an Adaptation Strategy in the Context of Climate Change: Insight from Maize Production Systems in Benin

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Mohamed Nasser Baco
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Drought Tolerant ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

Previous studies suggested that maize is set to become a cash crop while ensuring food security better than any other crop. However, climate change has become one of the key production constraints that are now hampering and threatening the sustainability of maize production systems. We conducted a study to better understand changes here defined as adaptations made by smallholder farmers to ensure food security and improve income through maize production in a climate change context. Our results show that maize farmers in northern Benin mainly rely on traditional seeds. Drought as abiotic stress is perceived by farmers in many agro-ecological zones as a disruptive factor for crop production, including maize. When drought is associated with pest damages, both the quantity (i.e. yield) and the quality (i.e. attributes) of products/harvests are negatively affected. The adverse effects of drought continue to reduce production in different agro-ecological zones of the country, because of the lack of widespread adoption of tolerant varieties. The study suggests actions towards the production of drought-tolerant maize seeds, a promotion of seed companies, the organization of actors and value chains. Apart from climate change, the promotion of value chains is also emerging as one of the important aspects to take into account to sustain maize production in Benin.

Variation in village chicken production systems among agro-ecological zones of Zimbabwe

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 453-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. C. Muchadeyi ◽  
C. B. A. Wollny ◽  
H. Eding ◽  
S. Weigend ◽  
S. M. Makuza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Village Chicken ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

scholarly journals A retrospective study of Newcastle disease in Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 699-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Auleria A. Apopo ◽  
Henry M. Kariithi ◽  
Leonard O. Ateya ◽  
Yatinder S. Binepal ◽  
Jane H. Sirya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Newcastle Disease ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Natural Infection ◽  
Diagnostic System ◽  
Poultry Production ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Ambient Temperatures ◽  
Free Range ◽  
Intensive System ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

Abstract Newcastle disease (ND) is a major constraint to Kenya’s poultry production, which is comprised of approximately 80% indigenous chickens (ICs; caged and free-range system) and 20% exotic chickens (intensive system). This study analyzed cases reported as suspected ND in Kenya between 2005 and 2015. Of the suspected 332 ND reported cases from the three production systems in 27 locations within six Kenyan Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZs), 140 diagnosed as infected with avian orthoavulavirus 1 (AOaV-1; formerly Newcastle disease virus) were present in every year in all AEZs. The numbers of AOaV-1-positive cases differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the production systems across the years depending on the season, climate, and location. In the free-range system, both ambient temperatures and season associated significantly (p = 0.001 and 0.02, respectively) with the number of cases, while in the intensive and caged systems, the positive cases correlated significantly with season and relative humidity, respectively (p = 0.05). Regardless of the production systems, the numbers of clinically sick birds positively correlated with the ambient temperatures (r = 0.6; p < 0.05). Failure to detect AOaV-1 in 58% of the ND cases reported, and mortalities exceeding the observed numbers of clinically sick birds suggest deficiencies in the current ND reporting and diagnostic system. Intensive farmers were the slowest in reporting the cases and diagnostic deficiencies were most evident by failure to test the exposure of ICs to natural infection with AOaV-1 and for the AOaV-1-negative cases lack of testing for other pathogens and/or AOaV-1 variants. This study indicates a need for improved surveillance and diagnostics in Kenyan domestic poultry.

Survey of smallholder beef cattle production systems in different agro-ecological zones of Cambodia

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1299-1306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pok Samkol ◽  
Keo Sath ◽  
Mikaela Patel ◽  
Peter Andrew Windsor ◽  
Kjell Holtenius
Keyword(s):  
Beef Cattle ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Cattle Production ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Beef Cattle Production ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

scholarly journals Evaluating the Environmental-Technology Gaps of Rice Farms in Distinct Agro-Ecological Zones of Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Asravor ◽  
Alexander Wiredu ◽  
Khalid Siddig ◽  
Edward Onumah
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Environmental Technology ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Production Environments ◽  
Technology Gaps ◽  
Production Technologies ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

Rice (Oryza sativa) is an important food staple and a cash crop, which is cultivated in all the ten regions of Ghana under varying agro-ecological conditions. These conditions also reflect the production technologies used and the total farm output. In an attempt to determine the potential sources of production shortfalls on rice farms in Ghana, this paper estimates the production efficiency and the environmental-technology gaps of rice-producing households in the forest-savannah transition and guinea savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana. The paper adopts the stochastic metafrontier framework, which permits technology-related inefficiency effects to be extricated from managerial inefficiency effects for appropriate policy formulation. In contrast to past studies, the empirical findings reveal that farms in the two agro-ecological zones adopt heterogeneous production technologies due to differences in their production environments. This is indicated by the estimated mean environmental-technology gap ratios of 0.95 and 0.50, and mean metafrontier technical efficiencies of 0.56 and 0.42 for farms in the forest-savannah transition and guinea savannah zones, respectively. These findings call for agricultural policy formulation in Ghana to be targeted at the prevailing environmental conditions of the various agro-ecological zones rather than being all-inclusive in addressing the extant inefficiencies in the rice production systems of Ghana.

scholarly journals Landrace Diversity and Production Systems of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) in Southern Chad

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-186
Author(s):  
Nadjiam Djirabaye
Keyword(s):  
Vigna Unguiculata ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Ethnobotanical Survey ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Vernacular Names ◽  
Landrace Diversity ◽  
Main Production ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

In Chad, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), is increasingly becoming a cash crop. The objective of this work is to assess the varietal diversity, analyze the traditional management of landraces and the production systems of cowpea in southern part of Chad. An inventory and an ethnobotanical survey was conducted through a participatory approach in 17 villages corresponding to two agro ecological zones. Thirty-four vernacular names and 45 landraces are inventoried. On average, 2 names are assigned per village. The number of landraces varies from 4 to 13 with an average of 9.00 per region and 2.70 per village. The highest diversity is observed in Mayo Kebbi. Sixteen morphotypes have been identified and their distribution varies according to the agro ecological zones. Productivity (31.10 %), taste (25.92 %) and grain size (18.34 %) are the farmer main preferred criteria. Farmers use leaves (47 %), pods (29.50 %) and seeds (14.75 %) to identify landraces. Cowpea cultivation is practiced on small areas and in intercropping system (78.60 %). Conservation of seeds (36.07 %), low fertility of the soils (27.85 %) and drought (17.77 %) were the main production constraints. Cowpea is stored mainly in traditional granaries (34.96 %) and on racks (22.93 %). For seeds treatment, farmers use mainly traditional means (32.37 %) and chemical products (6.67 %). Several cowpea-based dishes are identified. Cowpea has also therapeutic virtues. To improve cowpea production, appropriate actions must be considered against the constraints inventoried. The interesting landraces should also be used in a breeding program. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 9(3): 176-186.

scholarly journals The impact of climatic changes on total horticultural production and food security in agro-ecological zones of Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1712-1723
Author(s):  
Nader Barani ◽  
Ayatollah Karami ◽  
Mahmoud Ahmadpour Borazjani
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Agro Ecological Zones

Abstract Arid and semi-arid climates, including that of Iran, are more susceptible to environmental changes due to their special ecological structure than other climates. Therefore, climate change in these areas appears to have significant effects on agricultural and food production systems. The present study explores the effect of climatic changes on total horticultural production and food security in agro-ecological zones of Iran. The study was conducted in two steps. In the first step, the effects of climatic parameters on total horticultural production were investigated using time series data (1985–2017) and a regression model. In the second step, due to the important role of horticultural products in per capita food consumption in Iran, the effect of climate parameters on food security was also examined. Results revealed that total horticultural production was influenced by temperature, evapotranspiration, and wind speed at the 0.05 level. With the increase in temperature (at a rate of one unit), total horticultural production is reduced to 0.01 million tons. Evapotranspiration and wind speed have had a negative effect on total horticultural production, and with increasing evapotranspiration and wind speed, total horticultural production was 0.029 and 0.008 million, respectively, tons decreased. Also, food security was influenced by temperature, precipitation, and wind speed.

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