rangelands
AGROVOC URI: http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6448
The role of contracts in improving access to credit in the smallholder livestock sector of Swaziland
The study investigates the role of contract farming in improving access to credit for smallholder cattle producers, cattle finishers and traders in Swaziland. The contracts are verbal or informal and involve smallholder cattle producers, cattle finishers and traders on the one hand and other stakeholders in the value chain on the other.
The linkages between land use change, land degradation and biodiversity across East Africa
The potential and uptake of remote sensing in insurance: A review
Global insurance markets are vast and diverse, and may offer many opportunities for remote sensing. To date, however, few operational applications of remote sensing for insurance exist. Papers claiming potential application of remote sensing typically stress the technical possibilities, without considering its contribution to customer value for the insured or to the profitability of the insurance industry. Based on a systematic search of available literature, this review investigates the potential and actual support of remote sensing to the insurance industry.
The interactive effects of rainfall, nutrient supply and defoliation on the herbage yields of Sahelian rangelands in north-east Mali
In the Sahelian rangelands biomass production is constrained by soil moisture in the drier (100-250 mm) parts and by soil nutrients in the wetter parts. Similarly, for a given Sahelian range, nutrient deficiency would be more prominent in good than in poor rainfall years. To test this hypothesis, fertiliser trials were carried out at sites distributed along the bioclimatic gradient in the Gourma (Mali) over contrasting rainfall years between 1988 and 1992.
The performance of index based livestock insurance: ex ante assessment in the presence of a poverty trap
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a new index-based livestock insurance (IBLI)
product designed to compensate for area average predicted livestock mortality loss in
northern Kenya, where previous work has established the presence of poverty traps. We
simulate household-specific wealth dynamics based on a model parameterized using rich
panel and experimental data from the region. The simulations allow us to investigate
patterns of willingness to pay for asset index insurance that is imperfectly correlated with
The inter-linkages between rapid growth in livestock production, climate change, and the impacts on water resources, land use, and deforestation
Livestock systems globally are changing rapidly in response to human population growth, urbanization, and growing incomes. This paper discusses the linkages between burgeoning demand for livestock products, growth in livestock production, and the impacts this may have on natural resources, and how these may both affect and be affected by climate change in the coming decades. Water and land scarcity will increasingly have the potential to constrain food production growth, with adverse impacts on food security and human well-being.