Marketing of sheep in Horro-Guduru Wollega zone of Oromia: Price and supply analysis

Sheep production is an integral part of the subsistence crop-livestock systems of Ethiopian highlands and plays crucial role in economic development and poverty reduction. So far, there have been very limited efforts exerted to introduce and promote market oriented sheep production and hence the current income generating capacity of the sector is not at all encouraging. Therefore, reorientation of sheep production systems towards consumer preferences and demands through timely and comprehensive transformation need to be given due emphasis. With the intent of contributing in this line, this study analyzed whether prices of indigenous sheep breed are influenced by their own traits as well as other market and temporal factors. The level and intensity of market participation was also investigated as the willingness and level of market participation by the sheep keepers determines the effectiveness of interventions to reorient the production system. Determinants of the decision to participate in sheep production were also identified and analyzed in this study. Data were generated both from the rural households in their villages and from sheep sellers and buyers in four rural markets in Horro-Guduruu Wollega Zone of Oromia. Hedonic pricing model was fitted for the analysis of determinants of indigenous sheep price. The empirical result indicates that phenotypic traits of traded sheep (age, color, body size, and tail condition) are major determinants of price implying the need for development of comprehensive breeding program. Season and market locations are also very important determinants of price suggesting the need to target season and market place in breeding program so that sheep keepers benefit from the intervention and hence the program become sustainable. To investigate production participation decision, Probit model was employed and the result show that livestock asset base, access to extension service, access to market information and educational background of the household head are significant determinants of production participation decision. Thus, the implications are that improving farmers’ access to extension service including livestock market information, improving access to credit service to develop farmers’ asset base, and expanding educational opportunity in the rural area would result in farm households’ ability to diversify their livelihood strategy. Poisson and Negative Binomial models were employed to examine factors determining the level of market participation by sheep keepers. The empirical results of both types of models consistently show that flock size, family size, educational background, experience, access to market information, and access to veterinary service were decisive determinants of level of market participation for sheep keeping farm households. The implications of these empirical results indicate the need to expand and capacitate service providing institutions, like veterinary services and livestock market information services, to improve access to the services and hence enhance market participation and advance producers income. As educational background and production experience are also the vital determinants, provision of training to farm household is important to increase market participation by sheep keepers

Purification and Activity Testing of the Full-Length YycFGHI Proteins of Staphylococcus aureus

Background: The YycFG two-component regulatory system (TCS) of Staphylococcus aureus represents the only essential TCS that is almost ubiquitously distributed in Gram-positive bacteria with a low G+C-content. YycG (WalK/VicK) is a sensor histidine-kinase and YycF (WalR/VicR) is the cognate response regulator. Both proteins play an important role in the biosynthesis of the cell envelope and mutations in these proteins have been involved in development of vancomycin and daptomycin resistance. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we present high yield expression and purification of the full-length YycG and YycF proteins as well as of the auxiliary proteins YycH and YycI of Staphylococcus aureus. Activity tests of the YycG kinase and a mutated version, that harbours an Y306N exchange in its cytoplasmic PAS domain, in a detergent-micelle-model and a phosholipid-liposome-model showed kinase activity (autophosphorylation and phosphoryl group transfer to YycF) only in the presence of elevated concentrations of alkali salts. A direct comparison of the activity of the kinases in the liposomemodel indicated a higher activity of the mutated YycG kinase. Further experiments indicated that YycG responds to fluidity changes in its microenvironment. Conclusions/Significance: The combination of high yield expression, purification and activity testing of membrane and membrane-associated proteins provides an excellent experimental basis for further protein-protein interaction studies an

Valuation of traits of indigenous sheep using hedonic pricing in Central Ethiopia

This study estimates the implicit prices of indigenous sheep traits based on revealed preferences. A hedonic pricing model is fitted to examine the determinants of observed sheep prices. Transaction data were generated from rural markets of Horro-Guduru Wollega Zone of Ethiopia. Both OLS and heteroscedasticity consistent estimations were made. The empirical results consistently indicate that phenotypic traits of traded indigenous sheep (age, color, body size, and tail condition) are major determinants of price implying the importance of trait preferences in determining the price of sheep in local markets. Season and market locations are also very important price determinants suggesting the need to target season and market place in sheep improvement programmes. Therefore, the development of a comprehensive breeding program that has marketing element is crucial to make sheep improvement sustainable and sheep keepers benefit from the intervention

Sheep market participation of rural households in western Ethiopia

Sheep production is an integral part of the subsistence crop-livestock based livelihoods of the Ethiopian highlands and plays a crucial role in economic development and poverty reduction. This study analyzed determinants of intensity of market participation of smallholder sheep keepers in Western Ethiopia. Data were generated from the rural households in their villages in Horro Guduru locality, Western Ethiopia. Poisson model was employed to examine factors determining the level of sheep keepers’ market participation. The results of the empirical analysis show that flock size, family size, educational background, experience, access to market information and access to veterinary service are decisive factors determining the household’s level of market participation. This study highlights the need to expand market information and veterinary services to sheep producers and capacity for their delivery. It also magnifies essential changes that need to happen in the management and marketing of sheep at farm level in order to generate higher and sustainable income for sheep producers in the region. Keywords: VBDC, NBDC, CPWF, communication, R4D, research, knowledge sharing, engagement, collaboration, knowledge management, learning, information management, sense-making, critical thinking, networks, behaviour change