Household-Level Livestock Marketing Behavior Among Northern Kenyan and Southern Ethiopian Pastoralists

Pastoralists in East Africa's arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) regularly confront climatic shocks triggering massive herd die-offs and loss of scarce wealth. On the surface, it appears puzzling that pastoralists do not make extensive use of livestock markets to offload animals when climatic shocks temporarily reduce the carrying capacity of local rangelands, and then use markets to restock their herds when local conditions recover. In recent years, donors and policy makers have begun to hypothesize that investments in livestock marketing systems might quickly pay for themselves through reduced demand for relief aid,by increasing pastoralist marketing responsiveness to temporal variation in range conditions.Marketing,

Perceptions of Risk within Pastoralist Households in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia

Perceptions of risk may vary within households as well as across households and communities. In this paper, we take advantage of panel survey data collected quarterly over a period of 2 ½ years to see how perceptions of risk vary across individuals over time. The surveyed households are in pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia and the survey period coincides with a severe drought in this region and the beginning of the recovery. We identify the structural heterogeneity of the perceptions of risk of these individuals. Because of the nature of panel data, we can also test how the perceptions of risk are affected by shocks in previous periods. In particular, we ask how an individual's risk perceptions change when shocks happen to him or herself, to other members of his or her, family, or to members of his or her community. This allows us to ask how expectations adapt based on the things that are happening to others and allows us to look at issues of social networks and learning.Risk and Uncertainty,

FOOD AID TARGETING, SHOCKS AND PRIVATE TRANSFERS AMONG EAST AFRICAN PASTORALISTS

Public transfers of food aid are intended largely to support vulnerable populations in times of stress. We use high frequency panel data among Ethiopian and Kenyan pastoralists to test the efficacy of food aid targeting under three different targeting modalities, food aid's responsiveness to different types of shocks, and its relationship to private transfers. We find that self-targeting food-for-work or indicator-targeted free food distribution more effectively reach the poor than does food aid distributed according to community-based targeting. Food aid flows do not respond significantly to either covariate, community-level income or asset shocks, nor to idiosyncratic, household-level income or asset shocks. Rather, food aid flows appear to respond mainly to more readily observable rainfall measures. Finally, food aid does not appear to affect private transfers in any meaningful way, either by crowding out private gifts to recipient households nor by stimulating increased gifts by food aid recipients.Food Security and Poverty,

Synthesis of FMSP Experience and Lessons Learned for Fisheries Co-Management, Final Technical Report

In November 2012, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) set the terms of reference for a commissioned assessment of fisheries and aquaculture science. The task was to complete a "scoping review", consisting of an in-depth assessment of the existing evidence related to fisheries and aquaculture activities in developing countries and their contribution to economic growth, food security and nutrition. For this the assessment was expected to identify the existing evidence and 'evidence in the pipeline' (i.e. to be published imminently) from the existing literature, compile it, and provide an assessment of the strength (in the sense, scientific rigor) of that evidence, and identify knowledge or evidence gaps. In addition the assessment was to be complemented by a mapping of existing relevant interventions in fisheries and aquaculture. In order to conduct this assessment, the team of consultants adopted a six step methodological protocol that allowed them to assess in a consistent manner the scientific quality of the documents included in the assessment, based on quality, size and consistency of the evidence. After scanning, 202 documents were retained. The main evidences from these 202 documents were organised under two main threads: (i) Developmental outcomes, including food security; nutrition; health; economic growth and (ii) Mediating factors focusing on governance; and gender

Pemupukan N, P, K, Dolomit, dan Pupuk Kandang pada Budidaya Kedelai di Lahan Kering Masam

The imbalanced supply-demand of soybean is the main reason of soybean import in Indonesia. One of the efforts to increase of soybean production was expanding the planting area to acid soil with a low pH, high content of Aluminum, and low nutrient availability, through giving ameliorant, such as liming organic materials, and mineral fertilization.This study was aimed to obtain the best combination of fertilizer and amelioran for soybean production in acid soil. The study was conducted in experimental station of Tenjo, Bogor from November 2015 to March 2016. The experiment used a randomized complete block design with two factors. The first factor was combinations of fertilizer and amelioran, i.e., P0 (without fertilization); P1 {25 kg urea + 75 kg SP-36 + 50 kg KCl + dolomite ¼ x Aldd (805 kg) ha-1}; P2 {25 kg urea + 75 kg SP-36 + 50 kg KCl + dolomite ¼ x Aldd (805 kg) + 1,250 kg of manure ha-1}; P3 {50 kg urea + 75 kg SP-36 + 50 kg KCl + dolomite ¼ x Aldd (805 kg) + 2,500 kg of manure ha-1}; P4 {75 kg urea + 150 kg SP-36 + 100 kg KCl + dolomite ¼ x Aldd (805 kg) + 2,500 kg of manure ha-1}; P5 {75 kg urea + 150 kg SP-36 + 100 kg KCl + dolomite ½ x Aldd (1,610 kg) ha-1}; P6 {75 kg urea + 150 kg SP-36 + 100 kg KCl + dolomites 1 x Aldd (3,220 kg) ha-1}. The second factor was soybean varieties of Tanggamus and Anjasmoro. The results showed that application of 75 kg urea + 150 kg SP-36 + 100 kg KCl + dolomite ½ x Aldd (1,610 kg) produced the highest productivity (2.91 ton ha-1), but it was not different from reducing the dose of dolomite into ¼ x Aldd (805 kg) with the addition of 2,500 kg of manure

CCAFS site atlas – Borana / Yabero

CCAFS site atlas for Borana / Yabero, Ethiopia

Rice pathogens intercepted on seeds originating from 11 African countries and from the USA

1,916 rice seed samples from 11 African countries and the USA were tested for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms or those affecting seed quality. Bacillus spp., Pantoea spp., Sphingomonas sp. and the fungi Acremoniella sp., Alternaria sp., Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Chaetomium sp., Curvularia sp., Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, Fusarium sp., Helminthosporium sp., Microdochium oryzae, Nigrospora oryzae, Penicillium sp., Pestalotia sp., Phoma sp., Magnaporthe oryzae, Rhizopus sp., Sarocladium sp. and Tilletia barclayana were isolated. The highest incidence values were obtained with Curvularia sp., Microdochium oryzae, A. flavus, F. solani and Nigropora sp. In contrast, these fungi were not isolated from seeds of many countries with Togo having the least affected seeds (nine out of the 24 potential organisms diagnosed). The highest frequencies of these organisms were found on seed samples from Benin (20/22), Burundi and Tanzania (19/24), and Senegal (18/24). Across countries, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, Curvularia sp., F. solani, Nigropora sp., Rhizopus sp. and Microdochium oryzae were the most frequently isolated organisms. Concerning the major diseases, blast was diagnosed only once despite the high number of samples tested

‘I Don’t Trust the Phone; It Always Lies’:Trust and Information and Communication Technologies in Tanzanian Micro- and Small Enterprises

Despite its importance in African enterprise, the issue of ¿trust¿ is absent in information and communication technology for development scholarship. This article examines three case study subsectors of the Tanzanian economy to shed light on some of the complexities surrounding the sudden interface between traditional, established communication, and the increasing use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). It seems from the case studies that, whereas mobile phones are indeed creating new forms of network in the twenty-first century, they are still far from being Africa's dominant form of network as Støvring (2004, 22) contends. The case studies reveal the overlap between social interaction and business in an African economy. Trust emerges as a common theme, and I discuss how important an issue it is in relation to the new form of communication that ICT provides for entrepreneurs in Africa. I suggest that, in relation to ICT in developing countries, trust might at this stage be separated from the more slippery concept of social capital that it is frequently associated with elsewhere. I then reflect on the implications of this for future research into ICT and its business and nonbusiness applications in developing countries. I conclude by suggesting that the need for direct, personal interaction through face-to-face contact¿a traditional pre-ICT aspect of African business culture¿is unlikely to change for some tim