Mohammad A. Jabbar

Supply and Demand for Livestock Credit in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons for Designing New Credit Schemes

Abstract Based on analysis of credit supply in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, it is shown that public credit institutions do not have sufficient funds to meet the demand for livestock credit and cannot mobilize savings from their clients or other commercial sources for one reason or another. In addition, available credit does not reach those who need it the most and with whom it could have the greatest impact due to the application of inappropriate screening procedures and criteria to determine creditworthiness. The analysis of demand based on borrowing and nonborrowing sample households using improved dairy technology, it is shown that not all borrowers borrowed due to liquidity constraint while some borrowers and some nonborrowers had liquidity constraint but did not have access to adequate credit. Logistic regression analysis show that sex and education of the household head, training in dairy, prevalence of outstanding loan and the number of improved cattle on the farm had significant influence on both borrowing and liquidity status of a household, though the degree and direction of influence were not always the same in each study country. Based on the findings it is suggested that combining public and commercial finance could solve the problem of inadequate credit supply while inventory finance to community level input suppliers and service providers might help in getting credit to worthy and needy smallholders at lower cost than providing credit to smallholders directly.

Does Breed Matter to Cattle Farmers and Buyers? Evidence from West Africa

World agriculture is based on a small number of animal species and a decreasing number of breeds within each species. Several breeds of West African shorthorn cattle (Bos taurus brachyceros) are now at high risk of extinction due to interbreeding. The West African shorthorn breeds are particularly important resources because of their superior abilities to resist diseases, particularly trypanosomosis, and be productive under high humidity, heat stress, water restriction and with poor quality feed. An analysis of farmers’ breeding practices and breed preferences in a sample area in southwest Nigeria confirmed a strong trend away from trypanotolerant breeds, especially Muturu, and identified the traits farmers find least desirable in these breeds relative to zebu (Bos indicus ) breeds. An analysis of cattle market prices found that buyers have preferences for specific breeds for specific purposes and that though in general price differences due to breed are small, in some cases, buyers pay significantly different prices for certain breeds consistent with their preferences. The best hopes for increased utilization of breeds at risk such as Muturu is likely in other areas of West Africa, for example in southeast Nigeria, where the Muturu is better suited to the farming systems and there is a large market for this breed to provide incentives

Crop-livestock competition in the West African derived savanna: Application of a multi-objective programming model

Abstract In West Africa, crop-livestock mixed farming is emerging from the currently predominant nomadic pastoralism and agropastoralism. It is hypothesized that competitiveness between crop and livestock enterprises may be an important determinant of the pace of this evolution. A field study in the derived savanna of southwest Nigeria shows that at the current stage of evolution, as a crop farmer adds livestock to his business, there is a small gain in the beginning, then an increasing rate of substitution between crop and livestock follow. As a livestock rearer engages in crop production, there is a decreasing rate of substitution between livestock and crop. This situation derives from the fact that crop production is more intensive than livestock production, which depends principally on grazing natural pastures. Results indicate that if increased population pressure and cropping intensity severely limit access to grazing land, farm and herd sizes will become smaller, then the degree of integration between crop and livestock will increase significantly.

Participatory conservation tillage research: an experience with minimum tillage on an Ethiopian highland Vertisol

Farmer participatory tillage trials were conducted in a highland Vertisol area of Ethiopia during the 1999 and 2000 cropping seasons. This participatory initiative clearly demonstrated that incorporating farmers’ knowledge, ideas and preferences could improve the wheat production package. A traditional practice of Chefe Donsa farmers—applying ash from their homesteads to their fields to enable early-sown crops to withstand frost—led to the verification of the yield-enhancing effect of inorganic potassium fertilizer on wheat. Farmer adoption of a minimum tillage production system increased the gross margin of wheat production by US

Alchornea cordifolia, a promising indigenous browse species adapted to acid soils in southeastern Nigeria for integrated crop-livestock agroforestry production systems

132 per hectare—based on 1999 prices—relative to the traditional flat seedbed system. The minimum tillage system was characterized by a much lower level of soil manipulation relative to the traditional flat seedbed system, and, as a consequence, markedly reduced the total human labor and draft oxen requirements for wheat production. Thus, the minimum tillage system could be an effective intervention for soil conservation due to early-season vegetative cover of the soil surface. Also, the early crop harvest associated with the minimum tillage system was highly beneficial for small-holder farmers—since the early harvest coincided with the cyclical period of severe household food deficits and high grain prices in local markets.

Optimum fodder-mulch allocation of tree foliage under alley farming in southwest Nigeria

Dry matter (DM) production, crude protein, phosphorus fibre contents and goat preference for eight indigenous browse species,Alchornea cordifolia, Diallum guineense, Ficus capensis, Baphia nitida, Manniophytum fulvum, Homalium aylmeri, Glyphaea brevis andRauwolfia vomitoria, and for two exotics,Leucaena leucocephala andGliricidia sepium, in cultivated plots were compared on acid soil in southeastern Nigeria. Total DM production was higher (P<0.05) forAlchornea cordifolia than for the other browse species.Glyphaea brevis andL. leucocephala were the most preferred species, whileA. cordifolia, G. sepium andR. vomitoria were the least. Mean crude protein content of browse species in this study was higher, whileP and neutral detergent fibre were lower than reported for other browse species in Nigeria. It is argued that the ultimate goal of a crop-livestock agroforestry system such as alley farming, could be better achieved through the complementary use of browse species.

The Role of Alley Farming in African Livestock Production

In alley farming, crop response to mulching is the most important determinant of whether or not the use of prunings for feeding animals is economic. At low crop yields, and low crop response to mulching, feeding part of the tree foliage to small ruminants is economically gainful but at high crop yield levels and higher crop response to mulching, the use of pruning for feeding animals is uneconomic at current market prices.

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF ANIMAL-DRAWN IMPLEMENTS FOR MINIMUM TILLAGE: EXPERIENCE ON VERTISOLS IN ETHIOPIA

The incorporation of livestock into alley farming systems, in which food or forage crops are grown between hedges of multipurpose trees that are regularly pruned for mulch and/or forage, has been studied for over 10 years in Africa. Prunings from leguminous trees such as Leucaena and Gliricidia can be used for mulch, increasing crop yields, but the trees may also be pruned for fodder, especially during fallow periods. The major benefit from supplementing the diet of free-roaming small ruminants in West Africa with the foliage of leguminous trees is increased survival, and the forage is best directed at late pregnant and lactating females. In East Africa crossbred dairy cows show a significant response in milk production to supplementation with Leucaena. Economic analyses of livestock production show that continuous alley farming is more profitable than alley farming with fallow, or conventional no-tree farming, even when the cost of clearing trees at the end of their useful life is included.

Energy and the evolution of farming systems : The potential of mixed farming in the moist savannah of sub-Saharan Africa

SUMMARY Land degradation is one of the major problems related to low productivity in Ethiopia. Vertisols are potential agricultural lands but are underutilized due to water-logging during the rainy season and are prone to soil erosion due to the traditional practices of planting crops at the end of the rainy season exposing bare land to heavy rains. An animal-drawn implement, the broad-bed maker (BBM), was tested to facilitate drainage of the vertisols. Improved drainage enables earlier planting of crops to use the resultant prolonged growing period for attaining higher yields. In order to further improve the BBM package, the frame of the BBM was used for attachment of other implements to minimize tillage practices and reduce seed and fertilizer rates, labour and animal power requirements and soil erosion. The attachments were tested both on-station and on-farm with positive results. INTRODUCTION In most crop-livestock mixed farming systems in developing countries, different kinds of animal-drawn simple and mould-board ploughs are used for tillage. The number of cultivations or passes needed to achieve a good tilth depends on soil type, moisture level, crop to be grown and adequacy of draught animals. On some kinds of soils extensive tillage damages soil structure and contributes to soil erosion. Zero-and minimum-tillage practices are often recommended to avoid such problems. In Ethiopia, 90% of land preparation for crop production by smallholder farmers is done with the traditional ‘maresha’ plough pulled by a pair of local zebu oxen. Three to five cultivation passes, each pass perpendicular to the previous one, with the maresha are required for all types of soils before a field is ready for planting. The first pass reaches a soil depth of 8 cm while with the last pass up to 20 cm depth can be attained (Astatke and Ferew, 1993). Land is usually prepared before the main rainy season and some crops, for example the principal cereal tef (

Incorporation of farmer knowledge and preferences in designing breeding policy and conservation strategy for domestic animals

The moist savannah zone in sub-Saharan Africa is regarded as a high potential area for crop and livestock production. Currently, human labour is the principal source of power for crop production and the level of commercial energy use is very low. Agropastoralism and pastoralism are the principal methods of livestock production. Crop-livestock mixed farming, in which manure and animal power are important energy sources in the production process, is only now emerging. The integration of crops and livestock and the implications for agricultural energy sources are related to population pressure and labour intensity, the intensification of crop production with and without livestock, the role of traction in general and in specific niches, the contribution of livestock to the development process in terms of food or other inputs, and the role of public policy and intervention in development.