Predictors of early cessation of dairy farming in the French Doubs province: 12-year follow-up.

International audienceBACKGROUND: A healthy worker effect due to respiratory disability has been noted in the farming population, but other factors may also interfere. Little has been published about factors influencing the early cessation of work in self-employed dairy farmers. METHODS: Two hundred and nineteen dairy farmers were included from a cohort constituted in eastern France in 1993-1994 with a 12-year follow-up. Spirometric data, personal, and farm characteristics were registered. Cox models with delayed entry in which age was the time-scale were applied to identify the baseline predictive factors of the early cessation of dairy farming. RESULTS: Working in a modern farm was protective against early cessation of dairy farming (hazard ratio: 0.36 [95% CI: 0.16-0.81]), especially in men. Having asthma was a predictive factor of early cessation, especially in women (hazard ratio: 16.12 [95% CI: 3.28-79.12]). CONCLUSIONS: The most predictive factors of early cessation of dairy farming were health related in women and farm related in men

Designing a process of co-management of crop residues for forage and soil conservation in Sudano-Sahel

Over the past 30 years, a large number of farmers and herders have moved into the southern part of the Sudano-Sahelian region in search of arable land and pastures. Today, human population pressure is restricting the amount and quality of pastures available to herds and is forcing farmers to continually cultivate their fields without setting aside fallow areas, leading to decreased soil fertility. The traditional use of crop residues by herders (free grazing) and farmers (organic manure) as well as crop-livestock integration models promoted to date have proved ineffective in halting the degradation of resources and in increasing production. This situation is particularly critical in north Cameroon where various socioeconomic, technical, and organizational factors strongly constrain innovation in comparison with western Burkina Faso and southern Mali. This article proposes novel models (technical and organizational) of producing and managing crop residues (processing/recycling, sharing between groups of actors) that are adapted to the specific features of different types of farms in the region. (Résumé d'auteur

Who owns the plant biomass? Designing a process of co‐management of crop residues for cattle and soils in Sudano‐Sahelian Africa

Communication du workshop WS2.4 – Family farming under pressure. Reassessing options for liveability and permanenceOver the past 30 years, the southern part of the Sudano‐Sahelian Africa, hosted a large population of farmers and Fulani herders in search of arable land and pastures. They have developed agricultural practices that maintain soil fertility through long fallow periods, and pastoral practices that allow the best exploitation of the feed distributed along the space during the time. But today, the high human pressure on resources and the global climatic change disturb this balance. The natural grazing land is cultivated by farmers in order to extend crop production; while the historical free grazing right of farmer’s crop residues by herds is now challenged. Competition, tensions and conflicts have become common for the utilization of crop residues in their natural state (cattle feeding or cropping systems based on mulch), or when they are recycled in manure. The challenge is to insure simultaneously the forage supply for herds, and the preservation of soil fertility. Participatory analysis of practices (approach of local knowledge and follow‐up of cropping and livestock systems), experiments and discussions with stakeholders have been carried out in the northern Cameroon (NC), south of Mali (SM) and west of Burkina Faso (WBF). The indicators of practices helped to design two innovative models of management of plant biomass. The first model explains the present and innovative process of production and of utilization of biomass according to the diversity of family farms. The second one focuses on the way the needs of stakeholders can be took into account to build the “win‐win” mechanisms of management and of sharing the biomass between farmers and herders on the territory

Herding territories in Northern Cameroon and Western BurkinaFaso : spatial arrangements and herd management

In Sudano-Sahelian Africa, Fulani pastoralists who settled down massively in less densely populated zones during the 1970s and 1980s have recently increased the mobility of their herds in response to an extension of cropping areas, a shortage of pasture and problems resulting from crop damage by cattle. Today, they annually exploit a set of areas located both near to and far from their dwellings that constitutes their 'herding territory'. This article aims to clarify how Fulani pastoralists conceive, organize and manage their herding territory and to discuss the future of pastoralism within the local and regional legal framework. The study was carried out in northern Cameroon and western Burkina Faso over three years following a participatory research approach. The results show that the herding territory is mainly composed of three sub-elements endowed with different access rights: the 'attachment territory' and 'peripheral territory', with rangelands that are exploited by 'house herds' on a daily basis, and the 'territories distant from the residential area' that serve for transhumance and the relocation of a second group of herds known as the 'bush herd'. These territories and herds are managed by mobilizing local knowledge and juggling a combination of factors, including the availability of plant biomass on different pastoral units, access rights and agreements with local stakeholders regarding resources, the date the rains arrive and the progress of sowing and harvesting in the fields. If pastoral systems are to be maintained in a sustainable manner in this region, any change to existing spatial arrangements must take into account the knowledge, expectations and needs of pastoralists on one hand and the evolving legal and institutional framework in western Africa on the other

Lambertellin from Pycnoporus sanguineus MUCL 51321 and its anti-inflammatory effect via modulation of MAPK and NF-kappa B signaling pathways

Lambertellin (1) and ergosta-5,7,22-trien-3-ol (2) were isolated from the solid rice fermentation of the plant pathogenic fungus Pycnoporus sanguineus MUCL 51321. Their structures were elucidated using comprehensive spectroscopic methods. The isolated compounds were tested on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. Lambertellin (1) exhibited promising inhibitory activity against nitric oxide (NO) production with IC50 value of 3.19 mu M, and it significantly inhibited the expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2). Lambertellin (1) also decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1 beta. The study of the mechanistic pathways revealed that lambertellin (1) exerts its anti-inflammatory effect in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells by modulating the activation of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) signaling pathways. Therefore, lambertellin (1) could be a promising lead compound for the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs