Resources endowment, income distribution and needs for techno-logies among peri-urban smallholders in the Gambia

One reason of the modest adoption of improved technologies by smallholder farmers is that the majority of them are resource constrained. Structural constraints at the households level and institutional weaknesses have often prevented most of the farmers from joining the economic development process. This study analyses the production resources in relation with the income and the needs for improved technologies of the peri-urban farm households in The Gambia. The results are compelling. The majority of the production resources are owned by small fraction of the smallholders. As a consequence, their income is higher and mostly derived from agriculture, while the poor-resource households rely on a relatively wide variety of activities to compensate their low income. The poor-resource households have also the greatest need for improved technologies, although many would also need some kind of subsidies to uptake them. There is a clear need for more agricultural research, expertise and policy-making to transcend the traditional global understanding of smallholder farmers, and consider their heterogeneity in terms of production resources

Restricted Application of Insecticides: A Promising Tsetse Control Technique, but What Do the Farmers Think of It?

Restricted application of insecticides to cattle is a cheap and safe farmer-based method to control tsetse and the diseases they transmit, i.e. human and animal African trypanosomoses. The efficiency of this new control method has been demonstrated earlier but no data is available on its perception and adoption intensity by farmers. We studied these two features in Burkina Faso, where the method has diffused thanks to two development projects. The study allowed identifying three groups of farmers with various adoption intensities, of which one was modern and two traditional. The economic benefit and the farmers' knowledge of the epidemiological system appeared to have a low impact on the early adoption process whereas some modern practices, as well as social factors appeared critical. The quality of technical support provided to the farmers had also a great influence on the adoption rate. The study highlighted individual variations in risk perceptions and benefits, as well as the prominent role of the socio-technical network of cattle farmers. The results of the study are discussed to highlight the factors that should be taken into consideration, to move discoveries from bench to field for an improved control of trypanosomoses vectors

Prospects for the development of odour baits to control the tsetse flies Glossina tachinoides and G. palpalis s.l.

Field studies were done of the responses of Glossina palpalis palpalis in Côte d'Ivoire, and G. p. gambiensis and G. tachinoides in Burkina Faso, to odours from humans, cattle and pigs. Responses were measured either by baiting (1.) biconical traps or (2.) electrocuting black targets with natural host odours. The catch of G. tachinoides from traps was significantly enhanced (~5×) by odour from cattle but not humans. In contrast, catches from electric targets showed inconsistent results. For G. p. gambiensis both human and cattle odour increased (>2×) the trap catch significantly but not the catch from electric targets. For G. p. palpalis, odours from pigs and humans increased (~5×) the numbers of tsetse attracted to the vicinity of the odour source but had little effect on landing or trap-entry. For G. tachinoides a blend of POCA (P = 3-n-propylphenol; O = 1-octen-3-ol; C = 4-methylphenol; A = acetone) alone or synthetic cattle odour (acetone, 1-octen-3-ol, 4-methylphenol and 3-n-propylphenol with carbon dioxide) consistently caught more tsetse than natural cattle odour. For G. p. gambiensis, POCA consistently increased catches from both traps and targets. For G. p. palpalis, doses of carbon dioxide similar to those produced by a host resulted in similar increases in attraction. Baiting traps with super-normal (~500 mg/h) doses of acetone also consistently produced significant but slight (~1.6×) increases in catches of male flies. The results suggest that odour-baited traps and insecticide-treated targets could assist the AU-Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) in its current efforts to monitor and control Palpalis group tsetse in West Africa. For all three species, only ~50% of the flies attracted to the vicinity of the trap were actually caught by it, suggesting that better traps might be developed by an analysis of the visual responses and identification of any semiochemicals involved in short-range interaction

Factors Associated with Acquisition of Human Infective and Animal Infective Trypanosome Infections in Domestic Livestock in Western Kenya

Trypanosomiasis is regarded as a constraint on livestock production in Western Kenya where the responsibility for tsetse and trypanosomiasis control has increasingly shifted from the state to the individual livestock owner. To assess the sustainability of these localised control efforts, this study investigates biological and management risk factors associated with trypanosome infections detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in a range of domestic livestock at the local scale in Busia, Kenya. Busia District also remains endemic for human sleeping sickness with sporadic cases of sleeping sickness reported.In total, trypanosome infections were detected in 11.9% (329) out of the 2773 livestock sampled in Busia District. Multivariable logistic regression revealed that host species and cattle age affected overall trypanosome infection, with significantly increased odds of infection for cattle older than 18 months, and significantly lower odds of infection in pigs and small ruminants. Different grazing and watering management practices did not affect the odds of trypanosome infection, adjusted by host species. Neither anaemia nor condition score significantly affected the odds of trypanosome infection in cattle. Human infective Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense were detected in 21.5% of animals infected with T. brucei s.l. (29/135) amounting to 1% (29/2773) of all sampled livestock, with significantly higher odds of T. brucei rhodesiense infections in T. brucei s.l. infected pigs (OR =  4.3, 95%CI 1.5-12.0) than in T. brucei s.l. infected cattle or small ruminants.Although cattle are the dominant reservoir of trypanosome infection it is unlikely that targeted treatment of only visibly diseased cattle will achieve sustainable interruption of transmission for either animal infective or zoonotic human infective trypanosomiasis, since most infections were detected in cattle that did not exhibit classical clinical signs of trypanosomiasis. Pigs were also found to be reservoirs of infection for T. b. rhodesiense and present a risk to local communities

Role of farmers in the evaluation of an improved variety: The case of S35 sorghum in northern Cameroon

Efforts to develop high-yielding, stable, early-maturing sorghum varieties in northern Cameroon produced an apparently resounding success with on-farm tests of the variety S35 from 1983-85. This caused great excitement and led to the recommendation of S35 to the regional extension agency in 1986. In subsequent years, under more favourable rainfall conditions, farmers reported serious agronomic problems with the variety. However, informal surveys revealed some farmer-initiated strategies for incorporating S35 into their traditional cropping systems. In 1990 an adoption survey to measure research impact revealed that 13% of farmers had adopted the new variety. Results of regression models suggest that farmers tend to adopt S35 more on its own merit than as part of a package of recommendations. Adoption rate is higher among farmers who planted improved sorghum three to five years ago, and location in drought-prone zones is determinant. Reasons for non-adoption, together with these results, now form the basis of revising breeding objectives in order to respond better to farmers' needs

La lutte contre les glossines dans la zone agropastorale de Yalé (Burkina Faso): résultats d'enquêtes socioéconomiques

Tsetse Control in the Yalé Agropastoral Zone (Burkina Faso): Results of Socio-economic Surveys. The study examines the impact of a tsetse campaign (1994-1997) in southern Burkina Faso. In the absence of health - productivity monitoring, data were collected in cross sectional surveys to generate quantitative estimates of relevant productivity traits for cattle. The results indicate the following: 25% increase in herd size; reduction in mortality from 63.1% to 7.1% and increase in live births of 57.6%. Milk yield rose from 0.2 to 2.2 litres/cow/day in the dry season. These results show the impacts trypanosomosis control can have on zebu cattle exposed to a high tsetse challenge. The study underscores the importance of well designed surveys as a cost-effective way of generating estimates of productivity impacts. These estimates can be a useful alternative to subjective assessments in modelling the economic benefits