ABSTRACT Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a contagious viral disease to which dairy cattle are highly susceptible. An outbreak of FMD in a dairy herd can cause drop in milk yield, increase mastitis infections, force culling, and impair fertility. These production losses can be substantial, but farmers undervalue the magnitude of the loss that they incur. To fill this knowledge gap, the study quantified the association of FMD outbreak with milk yield, mastitis incidences, culling rates and fer...
Abstract There are indications that the domestic demand for cassava particularly as staple food may in no time outweigh that of the industrial sector, except contract and non-contract farming entrepreneurs operate within the framework of sustainable agriculture. The study thus examines the effects of contract farming scheme on cassava production in Oyo State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used. Oyo and Ibadan/Ibarapa zones were randomly selected from the four Agricultura...
ABSTRACT Dairy commercialization is constrained by several factors including lack of funds. Access to financial services such as credit and savings were identified as important instruments to curb these financial challenges. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been found to play a critical role amongst smallholder farmers in enhancing their access to finance. This study sought to investigate factors influencing credit access and the extent of credit access and how microfinance participatio...
ABSTRACT While number of studies focusing on the effect of technology adoption on alleviating rural poverty is increasing, much remains unclear about effects of shocks and Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Practices (SAIPs) on household vulnerability to poverty. Furthermore, most literature focuses on household food security without adequately capturing determinants of gender perceptions of food insecurity. Therefore, the study estimated the effects of shocks and SAIPs on household vu...
ABSTRACT Chicken production faces unsustainable supply of quality and affordable feeds. Prosopis pods could be used as an alternative livestock feed ingredient. A study was designed to evaluate the inclusion of prosopis pods in improved grower indigenous chickens diets in Kenya. The objectives were to determine effects of prosopis pods-based diets in indigenous chicken on performance and meat quality. In experiment 1, diets were formulated by substituting growers‟ rations with prosopis at ...
ABSTRACT Finger millet is one of the important traditional, nutritious and drought tolerant food crop grown by small scale farmers in most arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of the world. In the ASALs of Kenya, finger millet is grown by small scale farmers who mainly grow low yielding unimproved varieties. Improved high yielding and recommended varieties are available but the farmers’ adoption is very low contributing to persistent food insecurity in these areas. The purpose of this study wa...
ABSTRACT There is potential in Kenya to utilize forage sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam) cultivars as livestock feed. There are many cultivars of forage sweet potato in Kenya whose feeding values have not been evaluated. The objectives of the current study were: 1) evaluate forage sweet potato cultivars for crude protein (CP) yield and digestibility at different harvesting ages, 2) evaluate their conservation potential as silage or hay and 3) determine sheep growth performance and goat ...
ABSTRACT Efforts to integrate rural people into biodiversity conservation through community-based conservation programs is an old tradition. These efforts were largely based on economic incentives, with little or no attention given to the role of culture and traditions in building support for conservation. Although these strategies are useful in promoting conservation and local empowerment, they are still fragile. Scholars suggest that incorporation of traditional values which reflect locall...
ABSTRACT Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a popular and economically important tropical fruit throughout the world due to its excellent visual and eating qualities and nutritional composition. But the fruit is highly perishable and utmost care is required in handling to reduce postharvest losses. Trade in mangoes has been limited because of its highly perishable nature and its susceptibility to low temperature injury, physical injury and post-harvest diseases. Approaches to extending fresh fru...
ABSTRACT Makueni County in Kenya is one of the leading producers of mango fruits. The County experiences surplus mango production that ends up being wasted or sold at throw away prices due to imperfect marketing. The marketing of fruits is liberalized giving rise to multiple channels. Given the freedom to select a channel, different transaction costs such as information cost, negotiation and contract enforcement have not been evaluated in relation to farmer‟s choice of marketing channel. T...
Abstract Wild brood-stock is a major genetic reservoir for sustainable culture of Clarias gariepinus. This has been observed to be declining in major freshwater dams in Nigeria. There is inadequate information on factors responsible for this decline and their effects on genetic structuring of the fish resources in these dams. This study therefore investigated genetic structure of C. gariepinus in relation to environmental condition of Asejire Dam. The Dam was spatially divided into Oyo...
ABSTRACT The agriculture sector is the backbone of Rwandan economy with tea and coffee as the major source of export earnings. However, between years 2001 and 2016, the share of agriculture exports to the GDP has been fluctuating considerably, and yet it has not been established if this is due to exchange rate volatility. The overall effects of these fluctuations are not obvious and empirical literature is not conclusive on the overall impact of real exchange rate fluctuations on agriculture...
ABSTRACT East Coast fever (ECF) is a current threat to smallholder cattle keepers in the eastern, central, and southern Africa regions; as it causes substantial economic losses. Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) is considered to be the best method for ECF control. ITM has potential benefits of improving the livelihood of cattle keepers; through improving cattle productivity and reducing cost of production. However, since its commercialization in 2010, not all the cattle keepers in the tar...
ABSTRACT Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a major vegetable crops, and is ranked second at 14% of total value of exotic vegetables produced in Kenya after potato with a value of 55%. It is predominantly grown by small to medium scale growers in open fields. However, open field tomato production faces many challenges including weather extremes, diseases and insect pests. The whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius), is one of the major pests of tomato capable of causing up to 80% loss in yield....
ABSTRACT The feeding value of five browse forages (Balanites aegyptiaca, Maerua angolensis, Acacia brevispica, Grewia hostii and Berchemia discolor) from semi-arid area were evaluated to check their potential as feed supplements. Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay ad-libitum was used as control. The objectives of the study were to determine the feeding value of selected browses, their palatability and performance when growing goats (Small East African x Toggenburg) were offered the browse for...