Community farmer field school animal health facilitators: hybridizing private animal health care and capacity building in remote pastoralist areas

This study is conducted to evaluate the inherent capacity of the Livestock Farmer Field Schools (LFFS) approach to contribute to the development goals of VSF-Belgium in Turkana, Kenya; to evaluate current strengths and weaknesses of the community-based primary animal health care system in Turkana; to evaluate the appropriateness, and the likely success, of combining the role of Community Animal Health Worker (CAHW) and LFFS facilitator; and to assess the initial performance of Community Farmer Field School Animal Health Facilitators in 10 pilot LFFS sites and evaluate opportunities for scaling-up of the LFFS model. The report is divided into nine sections. Section 1 provides an overview of traditional pastoralism in Turkana. Section 2 examines the acute livelihood challenges faced by pastoralists. Section 3 summarizes the history of key livelihood interventions in Turkana. Section 4 is divided into two subsections: (a) evaluates the role of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) in catalysing the re-establishment of a primary animal health care system in Turkana and in promoting Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) as the cornerstone of this system, and (b) provides an overview of the Farmer Field Schools (FFS) approach. Section 5 explores the possibility of combining the CAHWs and FFS approach in the form of Community Farmer Field School Animal Health facilitators. Section 6 provides an initial assessment of the CAHWs/LFFS Facilitator approach in Turkana. Section 7 provides a conclusion to the report, and Sections 8 and 9 suggest recommendations on the way forward and future research needs, respectively. The report also includes recommendations and future research needs

Structural Design using Cellular Automata

Traditional parallel methods for structural design do not scale well. This paper discusses the application of massively scalable cellular automata (CA) techniques to structural design. There are two sets of CA rules, one used to propagate stresses and strains, and one to perform design analysis. These rules can be applied serially,periodically,or concurrently, and Jacobi or Gauss- Seidel style updating can be done. These options are compared with respect to convergence,speed, and stability

Review of VSF-Belgium's 'Turkana emergency livestock off-take' intervention 2005

The 2005 'Turkana Emergency Livestock Off-take' (TELO) intervention contributed to VSFBelgium's overall goal to 'improve the socio-economic status of the pastoral communities living in arid areas of Kenya by creating markets for their livestock and improving the nutritional status of identified target populations'. The six outputs/objectives of the intervention are to increase household income (cash economy) among pastoralists; reduce pressure on water and pasture resources; increase food security for vulnerable school children; improve utilization of assets with livestock owners gaining benefit from vulnerable livestock before the condition of the livestock deteriorates beyond the point of selling; increase access to funds made available to livestock owners for future restocking and; use money saved from the school feeding program for school fees and/or other relevant projects for the pastoralists' school children. Viewed as a significant success, and used as a model for subsequent destocking interventions, it is the aim of this report to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of this destocking intervention to highlight both strengths and weaknesses of the approach used and to suggest improvements for future destocking interventions

Livelihood diversification opportunities for pastoralists in Turkana, Kenya

The main purpose of this report is to characterize the extent of livelihood diversification in Turkana and, through the application of a case study approach, illustrate some of the existing activities and identify their associated strengths and weaknesses. The report also highlights both constraints and opportunities associated with the future expansion of these activities. This section is comprised of two parts. The first part, based on a literature review and two extremely knowledgeable key informants (Ann Kirya and Margret Nabuin-both belong to the Turkana District Chamber of Commerce), briefly outlines the range of diversification opportunities currently being exploited in Turkana. The second part, using insights gained through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), highlights some of the most promising and widespread commercial diversifi cation activities in Turkana

Life beyond pastoralism: livelihood diversification opportunities for pastoralists in Turkana District, Kenya

This report characterises the extent of livelihood diversification in Turkana District, briefly surveys a range of options, identifies their relative strengths and weaknesses, and makes recommendations for supportive interventions by development actors. It relies on three main sources of information: a literature review, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. A case study approach was used to gain further insights into selected diversification opportunities. The study team, however, noted that, when applying an agreed selection criteria (i.e. showcase the most important livelihood diversification opportunities in operation in Turkana), the case studies had a distinct gender and geographical bias: they were biased towards women's groups and urban centres, Turkwel and Kerio rivers and Lake Turkana. The report discusses drivers for diversification, the main being drought. Then it examines impact of gender and wealth and outlines some potential livelihood diversification options for Turkana District which includes poultry and egg production; trading of small-stock by women's groups; fresh milk, dried milk and dried meat sales; forage trees; collection and sale of wild fruits; aloe production; gum arabic production; charcoal production; ecotourism; gold mining; and casual and waged labour. The brief then presents diversification case studies including honey production and marketing; fishing in Lake Turkana; irrigated agriculture; handicrafts; hides and skins; and small-scale business

Livestock marketing in Turkana District, Kenya: opportunities and constraints

This report focuses on the issues surrounding livestock marketing in Turkana District. The report 's authors undertook an extensive literature review and conducted field work in Turkana in early 2006. They characterized and described the livestock marketing systems operating in the district, identified problems and constraints, and made a series of recommendations intended to increase the number of pastoralists profitably accessing livestock markets. Finally, they identified researchable issues which would enable a better understanding of livestock marketing in Turkana District. Topics of discussion include pastoralism in Turkana: then and now; failed livestock interventions; is Turkana District overstocked? How many people and livestock? Reluctance to sell or slaughter; livestock marketing and consumption in Turkana; problems associated with livestock marketing in Turkana including subsistence orientation, marketing infrastructure, transport, trader cartels and brokers, insecurity, taxes and bribes, lack of cash, quarantine restrictions, and information

Livestock market access and opportunities in Turkana, Kenya

This study assesses the livestock market access and opportunities in Turkana, Kenya. Section one is introduction and it characterises traditional nomadic pastoralism in Turkana and discusses the changing character of nomadic pastoralism in the contemporary period. Section two characterizes people and livestock in Turkana. It determines the human and livestock populations and estimates the spread of both human and livestock populations as well as livestock numbers per household. This is followed by a section that estimates the livestock carrying capacity of distinct bio-physical zones (rangeland units). This is followed by a section that introduces the traditional livestock marketing systems in Turkana. The livestock marketing systems were characterized through an extensive literature review and field research during the first quarter of 2006. Then the report focuses specifically on the problems associated with livestock marketing in Turkana, including the subsistence of pastoralists, weak market infrastructure, structural inefficiencies and high transaction costs, low and variable producer prices, and the lack of political capital amongst both livestock producers and livestock traders. Then it characterizes contemporary livestock marketing in Turkana. It begins by outlining a relational typology of livestock markets and then goes on to characterize the main markets and local demand focusing on a detailed characterization of livestock flows, both within and outside the district. A range of options/recommendations that have the potential to increase the number of pastoralists profitably accessing livestock markets in Turkana are presented. This section stresses the need for quality research to underpin rational and sustainable interventions in livestock marketing in Turkana. It addresses the need to fill key knowledge gaps

Destocking as an emergency drought mitigation measure: lessons learned from the 2005 'Turkana emergency livestock off-take' intervention

This report describes an emergency drought mitigation program executed by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium (VSF-Belgium) in Turkana District, northwestern Kenya, in early 2005. It consisted of purchasing drought-affected goats from pastoralists in the worse affected parts of the district and donating them to local schools and health centres, where the resulting meat was to be used to supplement the diet of students and in-patients. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) was invited by VSF-Belgium to carry out an independent evaluation study of the intervention and to make recommendations for the improvement of future destocking programs. The evaluation study forms the core of this report. The brief starts with a discussion on previous destocking initiatives and the current intervention: the drought of 2005 of Turkana District. Then it continues with the evaluation of TELO: The Actor Network Theory. The TELO intervention had six specific objectives and the results are presented in relation to each in turn - to increase household cash income among pastoralists; to reduce pressure on water and pasture resources; to increase food security for vulnerable school children; to improve utilisation of assets with livestock owners gaining benefit from vulnerable livestock before the condition of the livestock deteriorates beyond the point of selling; to increase access to funds made available to livestock owners for future restocking; to use the money saved from school feeding program for school fees and/or other relevant projects for pastoralists' schools children. In addition the results are also considered in relation to the four stages of ANT, namely identification of problems and driving forces; identification of each agent's interests; enrolment of the actors and actants; and mobilization. The report ends with summaries of other issues and constraints, and recommendations for improvement of future destocking programs

Scattering and delay time for 1D asymmetric potentials: the step-linear and the step-exponential cases

We analyze the quantum-mechanical behavior of a system described by a one-dimensional asymmetric potential constituted by a step plus (i) a linear barrier or (ii) an exponential barrier. We solve the energy eigenvalue equation by means of the integral representation method, classifying the independent solutions as equivalence classes of homotopic paths in the complex plane. We discuss the structure of the bound states as function of the height U_0 of the step and we study the propagation of a sharp-peaked wave packet reflected by the barrier. For both the linear and the exponential barrier we provide an explicit formula for the delay time \tau(E) as a function of the peak energy E. We display the resonant behavior of \tau(E) at energies close to U_0. By analyzing the asymptotic behavior for large energies of the eigenfunctions of the continuous spectrum we also show that, as expected, \tau(E) approaches the classical value for E -> \infty, thus diverging for the step-linear case and vanishing for the step-exponential one.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure