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Showing items 1 through 9 of 70.
  1. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    April, 2017
    Burkina Faso, Africa, Western Africa

    The fire severity of the 2013–2014 fire season within Sudanian ecosystems in Burkina Faso was evaluated from Landsat 8 images using derivatives of the Normalized Burn Ratio algorithm (NBR). The relationship between the image-derived severity and the field observed severity i.e. Composite Burn Index (CBI) was best described by a nonlinear model of the form y = a + b*EXP(CBI *c) (R2 = 0.66). Classification of the image-derived burned area into burn severity classes achieved a classification Kappa accuracy statistic of 0.56.

  2. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    March, 2017
    Sub-Saharan Africa

    Sustainable intensification (SI) is at the forefront of food security discussions as a means to meet the growing demand for agricultural production while conserving land and other resources. A broader definition of SI is emerging that takes into account the human condition, nutrition and social equity. Next steps require identification of indicators and associated metrics, to track progress, assess tradeoffs and identify synergies. Through a systematic, qualitative review of the literature we identified SI indicators, with a primary focus on African smallholder farming systems.

  3. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    May, 2017

    African farmers are poorly resourced, highly diverse and aground by poverty traps making them rather impervious to change. As a consequence R4D efforts usually result in benefits but also trade-offs that constraint adoption and change. A typical case is the use of crop residues as mulches or as feedstock. Here we linked a database of household surveys with a dynamic whole farm simulation model, to quantify the diversity of trade-offs from the alternative use of crop residues.

  4. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2017
    China, Eastern Asia, Asia

    China has a rich resource of native sheep (Ovis aries) breeds associated with historical movements of several nomadic societies. However, the history of sheep and the associated nomadic societies in ancient China remains poorly understood. Here, we studied the genomic diversity of Chinese sheep using genome-wide SNPs, mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal variations in > 1,000 modern samples.

  5. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    October, 2017
    Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa

    The objective of this study was to determine the practicality of using linear body measurement traits to predict live weight of goats and sheep under communal grazing in three districts of Botswana, namely Central, Kweneng, and Kgalagadi. Pairwise (Pearson) correlations were estimated using bodyweight (BW) and morphological trait measurements, namely heart girth (HG), shoulder height (SH), and body condition score (BCS) for a sample of 1447 goats and 588 sheep. These ranged from 0.19 to 0.94 for goats and 0.44 to 0.94 for sheep, and were statistically significant.

  6. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    August, 2017

    Landscape approaches can be subjected to mistakenly targeting a single “best” level of governance, and paying too little attention to the role that cross-scale and cross-level interactions play in governance. In rangeland settings, resources, patterns of use of those resources, and the institutions for managing the resources exist at multiple levels and scales.

  7. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2017
    Ethiopia

    Controlled grazing management is considered as an effective strategy to enhance soil carbon sequestration, but empirical evidences are scarce. Particularly, the role of livestock exclusion related to soil carbon sequestration is not well understood in arid and semiarid savannas of Africa. We investigated the effectiveness of long-term (14–36 years old) exclosures in enhancing soil carbon in the semiarid savanna, southern Ethiopia.

  8. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    June, 2017
    Africa

    Humans have never been healthier, wealthier or more numerous. Yet, present success may be at the cost of future prosperity and in some places, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, poverty persists. Livestock keepers, especially pastoralists, are over-represented among the poor. Poverty has been mainly attributed to a lack of access, whether to goods, education or enabling institutions. More recent insights suggest ecosystems may influence poverty and the self-reinforcing mechanisms that constitute poverty traps in more subtle ways.

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