Responding To An Income Shock Through Increasing Forest Extraction: Survey Evidence From Ethiopian Coffee Farmers

The worldwide turndown in coffee revenue to the majority of resource poor primary producers has become a serious threat to sustainable development. There is however inadequate knowledge with respect to mechanisms used by resource poor coffee farmers to stave off situations of economic hardship. Using cross-sectional household survey data from southwest Ethiopia, the present study investigates whether or not farmers use forests to even out variability associated with risky coffee income. A zero-inflated negative binomial model was used to explain farmer frequency of firewood collection trips as a response to income shock and risk in coffee farming. The empirical results indicate that a rise in household forest extraction effort for firewood is strongly associated with shortfalls in current coffee income and with income uncertainties prevailing in the coffee sector. The study draws policy implication from the perspectives of development and environment.Keywords: Income shock; coffee farming; forest extraction; Ethiopia, Afric

Constraints to the use of artificial insemination service and possible solutions

The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is aregional industry development program implemented by a consortium of partners led by Heifer International. It is currently being piloted in 18 sites in Kenya, 8 in Rwanda and 27 in Uganda. The overall goal of the project is to transform the lives of 179,000 families, or about 1 million people, by doubling household dairy income in 10 years through integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application. This brief highlights key results of a baseline survey that was carried out with the objective of analyzing the level of preference for and use of artificial insemination (AI) in different project sites, and identifying constraints or problems hindering the optimal use of the service and possible solutions. Details are available in the baseline survey report No. 2

Mycotoxin hazards in the Kenyan food and feed market - A retrospective study

Mycotoxins are toxic fungal metabolites naturally found in food and feed as contaminants. Animal feed and human food samples (n=1818) from three major Kenyan laboratories were categorized as compliant and non-compliant according to Kenya, America (USA) and Europe (EU) mycotoxin regulatory limits. Quantitative risk assessment of dietary aflatoxin intake in maize, wheat, peanut and dairy products in relation to human hepatocellular carcinoma was carried out employing deterministic approach. Non-compliant samples’ proportions were calculated, and logistic regression and chi-square test used to compare different commodities. Animal feed were least compliant, with 64% and 39% having total aflatoxin (AFT) levels above Kenya and USA standards, respectively. Peanuts were the most non-compliant food, with 61% and 47% samples failing Kenya and USA AFT standards respectively, while wheat was least compliant (84%) according to EU threshold for AFT. Half of baby food sampled had AFT level above Kenya and EU standards. High non-compliance rate with Kenya, USA and EU regulatory thresholds with respect to seven different mycotoxins (summarized as “mycotoxins”), and also AFT and aflatoxin M1 alone in edible materials is reported. Significant non-compliance is reported for compound animal feed, peanuts, wheat, baby food, feed ingredients, herbal healthy drink, maize and fodder feed in that order. High levels of aflatoxin residues in animal feed and human food was also observed. Lifetime human consumption of wheat and maize leads to high additional risk for primary liver cancer, human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with dietary aflatoxin, wheat and its products causing the highest disease burden. Subsequent implications and limitations of current food safety standards are discussed. Humans and animals in Kenya appear to be chronically exposed to mycotoxin hazards: this calls for surveillance and risk management. There is urgent need for enhanced and consistent surveillance of the dietary mycotoxin hazards observed in this study employing representative sampling plans. Regulation and future research need to focus on reliable analysis techniques, collection of data on toxicological effects of mycotoxins and food consumption pattern, and regulatory limits accordingly set and compliance enforced to protect vulnerable groups such as paediatric, geriatric and sick members of the society to reduce cancer burden in Kenya

The effects of maize planting density and weeding regimes on light and water use

Light and water are among essential resources required for production of photosynthates in plants. A study on the effects of weeding regimes and maize planting density on light and water use was conducted during the 2001/2 short and 2002 long rain seasons at Muguga in - the central highlands of Kenya. Weeding regimes were: weed free (W1), weedy (W2), herbicide (W3) and hand weeding twice (W4). Maize planting densities were 9 (D1) and 18 plants m-2 (D2) intercropped with Phaseolus vulgaris (beans). The experiment was laid as randomized complete block design replicated four times and repeated twice. All plots were thinned to 4 plants m-2 at tasseling stage (96 DAE) and thinnings quantified as forage. Soil moisture content (SMC), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) interception, evapo-transpiration (ET crop), water use efficiency (WUE), and harvest index (HI), were determined. Percent PAR was higher in D2 than in D1 before thinning but higher in D1 than in D2 after thinning in both seasons. PAR interception was highest in W2 but similar in W1, W3 and W4 in both seasons. SMC was significantly lower in W2 but similar in W1, W3 and W4. D2 had lower SMC than D1 in season two. Weeding regime significantly influenced ET crop, while planting density and weeding regime significantly influenced WUE and HI. D2 maximizes water and light use for forage production but results to increased intra-specific plant competition for water and light severely before thinning (96 DAE) that reduce grain yield in dual purpose maize, relative to D1

Mycotoxin hazards in the Kenyan food and feed market-a retrospective study

Mycotoxins are toxic fungal metabolites naturally found in food and feed as contaminants. Animal feed and human food samples (n=1818) from three major Kenyan laboratories were categorized as compliant and non-compliant according to Kenya, America (USA) and Europe (EU) mycotoxin regulatory limits. Quantitative risk assessment of dietary aflatoxin intake in maize, wheat, peanut and dairy products in relation to human hepatocellular carcinoma was carried out employing deterministic approach. Non-compliant samples’ proportions were calculated, and logistic regression and chi-square test used to compare different commodities. Animal feed were least compliant, with 64% and 39% having total aflatoxin (AFT) levels above Kenya and USA standards, respectively. Peanuts were the most non-compliant food, with 61% and 47% samples failing Kenya and USA AFT standards respectively, while wheat was least compliant (84%) according to EU threshold for AFT. Half of baby food sampled had AFT level above Kenya and EU standards. High non-compliance rate with Kenya, USA and EU regulatory thresholds with respect to seven different mycotoxins (summarized as “mycotoxins”), and also AFT and aflatoxin M1 alone in edible materials is reported. Significant non-compliance is reported for compound animal feed, peanuts, wheat, baby food, feed ingredients, herbal healthy drink, maize and fodder feed in that order. High levels of aflatoxin residues in animal feed and human food was also observed. Lifetime human consumption of wheat and maize leads to high additional risk for primary liver cancer, human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with dietary aflatoxin, wheat and its products causing the highest disease burden. Subsequent implications and limitations of current food safety standards are discussed. Humans and animals in Kenya appear to be chronically exposed to mycotoxin hazards: this calls for surveillance and risk management. There is urgent need for enhanced and consistent surveillance of the dietary mycotoxin hazards observed in this study employing representative sampling plans. Regulation and future research need to focus on reliable analysis techniques, collection of data on toxicological effects of mycotoxins and food consumption pattern, and regulatory limits accordingly set and compliance enforced to protect vulnerable groups such as paediatric, geriatric and sick members of the society to reduce cancer burden in Keny

Gender Roles and Constraints in Beekeeping: A Case from Kitui County, Kenya

Beekeeping is a form of agriculture that involves management of wild or domesticated bee colonies for production of honey and wax. Generally, in Kenya, women perform most of the agricultural activities (GOK, 2005; Oduol et al., 2013). Even though they play a major role in these activities, they end up receiving a fraction of the income generated. In most of the African countries, beekeeping has often been a male-dominated enterprise (Nel & Illgner, 2004; Ogaba & Akongo, 2001; Shackleton, Paumgarten, Kassa, Husselman, & Zida, 2011). However, with intervention from rural development agencies, a change in this practice could occur..

Gender, livestock and livelihood indicators

This guide is a reference point for some of the important indicators that ILRI can use to monitor the changing role of livestock in livelihoods in different production systems and the impact of livestock-related interventions. While this list of indicators is not comprehensive in covering all the areas in which ILRI works, it provides a starting point for the common objectives which most of our projects, be they in markets, biotechnology or the environment, hope to achieve. Some of these indicators are already commonly used in different surveys but their application has not always been consistent or comparable. With time, we expect to develop further common indicators around other areas of research in ILRI. This document should therefore be considered as a living document to which we will add core indicators around the thematic areas covered by ILRI’s research including such areas as partnerships, capacity building and the key thematic areas of markets, biotechnology and environment. This document should be used to guide your data collection within projects. These may include baseline data, evaluation (both internal and external), impact assessments, project appraisals and any other data collection within the projects and programmes across the institute, including surveys conducted by students where possible. Currently, the indicators are designed for data collection at household level and for integration into household surveys. Project teams should ask for assistance in adapting these indicators for use in other types of surveys such as community surveys, focus group discussions, market agent surveys and key informant interviews. Livestock play multiple roles in livelihoods. In deriving these indicators, we have used both the sustainable livelihoods framework, placing livestock within an assets and capital framework, and as a pathway out of poverty. The latter recognizes that for livestock to translate into poverty reduction the necessary conditions i.e. technologies and services to generate productive, sustainable and profitable markets are a pre-requisite. Section 2 of this document identifies 6 categories of indicators and gives a rationale for each of the indicators and how to measure them covering both the tools for data collection on the indicator and its calculation. Section 3 provides the initial basic survey data to capture in ILRI surveys, Section 4 focuses on study meta-data to document and Section 5 on household sampling