Anthropogenic Land Use Change and Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Compelling evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) shows that Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has a positive impact on agricultural productivity. However, the uptake of CSA remains low, which is related to anthropogenic, or human-related, decisions about CSA and agricultural land use. This paper assesses households’ decisions to allocate agricultural land to CSA technologies across space and over time. We use the state-contingent theory, mixed methods, and mixed data sources. While agricultural land is increasing, forest land is decreasing across countries in SSA. The results show that household decisions to use CSA and the extent of agricultural land allocation to CSA remain low with a negative trend over time in SSA. Owned land and accessing land through rental markets are positively associated with allocating land to CSA technologies, particularly where land pressure is high. Regarding adaptation, experiencing rainfall shocks is significantly associated with anthropogenic land allocation to CSA technologies. The country policy assessment further supports the need to scale up CSA practices for adaptation, food security, and mitigation. Therefore, scaling up CSA in SSA will require that agriculture-related policies promote land tenure security and land markets while promoting climate-smart farming for food security, adaptation, and mitigation

An inventory of ethnoveterinary knowledge for chicken disease control in Soroti district, Uganda

Background: Knowledge regarding the use of ethnoveterinary products in the control of chicken diseases in Uganda is hardly documented. Aim: The study documented the ideas of controlling chicken diseases using herbal remedies as shared by chicken owners. Setting: The study was conducted among backyard and free-ranging chicken owners. Methods: Mixed methods of focus group discussions (FGDs) and farmer questionnaires were used. Results: Most respondents, 91% (71/78), were using ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) and 96.2% (75/78) knew others who were also using them. Of the respondents, 82% (64/78) were convinced that EVMs are effective alternative to conventional treatments. Ethnoveterinary medicines are acceptable and promoted during informal and formal training. The sources of EVM were home gardens, wild sources and markets. Most respondents had their planted EVM materials and acquired knowledge from neighbours and friends. About 37.2% (29/78) of the respondents affirmed that they could not freely share their EVM knowledge with others. Conclusion: The participants of the FGDs and the respondents of the questionnaires knew the acceptable opportunities of alternative drugs of unproven efficacy and safety. The practices pose risks to chickens and the possible development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in chickens and humans. The study shows the need for claim validations to guide the safe use of EVM in chicken. Contribution: The study documents plant materials for treating various chicken diseases. The information is essential in the era of AMR and among communities that cannot afford drugs

Interpreting ambiguous ‘trace’ results in Schistosoma mansoni CCA Tests: Estimating sensitivity and specificity of ambiguous results with no gold standard

Background The development of new diagnostics is an important tool in the fight against disease. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) is used to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of tests in the absence of a gold standard. The main field diagnostic for Schistosoma mansoni infection, Kato-Katz (KK), is not very sensitive at low infection intensities. A point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) test has been shown to be more sensitive than KK. However, CCA can return an ambiguous ‘trace’ result between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’, and much debate has focused on interpretation of traces results. Methodology/Principle findings We show how LCA can be extended to include ambiguous trace results and analyse S. mansoni studies from both Côte d’Ivoire (CdI) and Uganda. We compare the diagnostic performance of KK and CCA and the observed results by each test to the estimated infection prevalence in the population. Prevalence by KK was higher in CdI (13.4%) than in Uganda (6.1%), but prevalence by CCA was similar between countries, both when trace was assumed to be negative (CCAtn: 11.7% in CdI and 9.7% in Uganda) and positive (CCAtp: 20.1% in CdI and 22.5% in Uganda). The estimated sensitivity of CCA was more consistent between countries than the estimated sensitivity of KK, and estimated infection prevalence did not significantly differ between CdI (20.5%) and Uganda (19.1%). The prevalence by CCA with trace as positive did not differ significantly from estimates of infection prevalence in either country, whereas both KK and CCA with trace as negative significantly underestimated infection prevalence in both countries. Conclusions Incorporation of ambiguous results into an LCA enables the effect of different treatment thresholds to be directly assessed and is applicable in many fields. Our results showed that CCA with trace as positive most accurately estimated infection prevalence

Emerging Anthelmintic Resistance in Poultry: Can ethnopharmacological approaches offer a solution?

Limited pharmacological studies have been conducted on plant species used against poultry helminths. The objective of this study was to provide a basis for plant based anthelmintics as possible alternatives against poultry anthelmintic resistance. The study justified the need for alternative anthelmintics. The study places emphasis on the increasing anthelmintic resistance, mechanism of resistance, and preparational protocols for plant anthelmintics and their associated mechanism of action. Pharmaceutical studies on plants as alternative therapies for the control of helminth parasites have not been fully explored especially in several developing countries. Plants from a broad range of species produce a wide variety of compounds that are potential anthelmintics candidates. Important phenolic acids have been found in Brassica rapa L. and Terminalia avicenniodes Guill. and Perri that affect the cell signaling pathways and gene expression. Benzo (c) phenanthridine and isoquinoline alkaloids are neurotoxic to helminths. Steroidal saponins (polyphyllin D and dioscin) interact with helminthic mitochondrial activity, alter cell membrane permeability, vacuolation and membrane damage. Benzyl isothiocyanate glucosinolates interfere with DNA replication and protein expression, while isoflavones from Acacia oxyphylla cause helminth flaccid paralysis, inhibit energy generation, and affect calcium utilization. Condensed tannins have been shown to cause the death of nematodes and paralysis leading to expulsion from the gastro-intestinal tract. Flavonoids from Chenopodium album L and Mangifera indica L act through the action of phosphodiesterase and Ca(2+)-ATPase, and flavonoids and tannins have been shown to act synergistically and are complementary to praziquantel. Artemisinins from Artemisia cina O. Berg are known to disrupt mitochondrial ATP production. Terpenoids from Cucurbita moschata L disrupt neurotransmission leading to paralysis as well as disruption of egg hatching. Yeast particle encapsulated terpenes are effective for the control of albendazole-resistant helminths

Anthropogenic Land Use Change and Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Compelling evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) shows that Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has a positive impact on agricultural productivity. However, the uptake of CSA remains low, which is related to anthropogenic, or human-related, decisions about CSA and agricultural land use. This paper assesses households’ decisions to allocate agricultural land to CSA technologies across space and over time. We use the state-contingent theory, mixed methods, and mixed data sources. While agricultural land is increasing, forest land is decreasing across countries in SSA. The results show that household decisions to use CSA and the extent of agricultural land allocation to CSA remain low with a negative trend over time in SSA. Owned land and accessing land through rental markets are positively associated with allocating land to CSA technologies, particularly where land pressure is high. Regarding adaptation, experiencing rainfall shocks is significantly associated with anthropogenic land allocation to CSA technologies. The country policy assessment further supports the need to scale up CSA practices for adaptation, food security, and mitigation. Therefore, scaling up CSA in SSA will require that agriculture-related policies promote land tenure security and land markets while promoting climate-smart farming for food security, adaptation, and mitigation

Bar chart showing the proportion of children tested in each country with specified test results.

<p>For example, ‘pos/pos’ denotes the proportion of children in each country testing positive for both tests, and ‘pos/tr’ denotes the proportion of children in each country testing positive by Kato-Katz and trace by CCA. Note that the bar showing the proportion of children negative on both tests (75% in Côte d’Ivoire and 76% in Uganda) has been removed from the graph to enable easier comparison of non-negative results.</p

Bar chart showing the proportion of children tested in each country with specified test results.

<p>For example, ‘pos/pos’ denotes the proportion of children in each country testing positive for both tests, and ‘pos/tr’ denotes the proportion of children in each country testing positive by Kato-Katz and trace by CCA. Note that the bar showing the proportion of children negative on both tests (75% in Côte d’Ivoire and 76% in Uganda) has been removed from the graph to enable easier comparison of non-negative results.</p

Output from Bayesian LCA showing mean estimate and the 95% Bayesian credible interval.

<p>Sensitivity and specificity and infection prevalence were estimated from the model while all other parameters were estimated from these posterior distributions using the equations described in the methods. The column on the right shows the estimate of the difference between the Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda estimates.</p

Summary statistics for Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda.

<p>KK denotes Kato-Katz.</p

Plots showing the posterior distributions of sensitivity (left) and specificity (right) of each test in Côte d’Ivoire (blue) and Uganda (green) estimated from a Bayesian Latent Class Analysis.

<p>Note that the x-axis for the specificity has been truncated to begin at 80% to enable easier comparison between tests.</p