Towards resilient and profitable farming systems in Central Mozambique using an open innovation platform approach

Farmers in Central Mozambique do not benefit adequately from growing markets for crops and livestock. Ecological, economic and social barriers are intertwined: • Absence of functional markets restricting farmers from investing in agriculture; • Lack of incentives to improve agricultural practices resulting in unavailability of biomass limiting surplus; • Lack of motivation to engage in social organization; As a consequence, farmers lose the ability to respond to market opportunities and to adapt to different forms of shocks that threaten their livelihoods. Innovation platforms (IPs) help to address some of the barriers and underlying dynamics, but do not tackle the root causes impeding transition from subsistence to sustainable, market-oriented farming..

Sustainable intensification of smallholder farming in central Mozambique: Benefits from better integration of crops and livestock

The Government of Mozambique gives particular importance to strategies for sustainable intensification of agriculture in the smallholder-farming sector, accounting for more than 95% of the total agricultural land. Better integration of crops and livestock is key to sustaining vital smallholder farming, rewarding higher agricultural production and improving the overall wellbeing of smallholder farms, especially in provinces like Tete and Manica, with high potential for crops and livestock. Farmers with animal draft power can cultivate larger parts of their land in time and are thereby able to also produce more feed, critical for improving animal performance. Better-managed and fed animals reproduce more, provide better draft services and avail manure as important source of locally available organic fertilizer. Farmers thereby increase production at reduced costs and risk, overall farm net returns increase more than through single technologies. These benefits can be harvested over large areas, and with different agro-ecological potential. Farmers with cattle cultivated more land than those without cattle: in Dororo, Manica province, with high agro-ecological potential, 4.4 ha as compared to 2.9 ha cropland; in drought prone Marara, Tete province, 3.1 ha of as compared to 2.1 ha. On average farmers with cattle made 20% higher cereal yields in Dororo, and 30% higher cereal yields in Marara. Yet 52% and 45 % of the households don’t have cattle in Dororo and Marara respectively. This leaflet illustrates the benefits from better integration of crops and livestock. We describe forage production and draft power animal management as two complementary technologies critical for sustainable intensification of smallholder farms, demonstrated in the MOREP project. These technologies are useful for farmers in similar environments like in Tete and Manica provinces

Sustainability transitions for smallholder farmers: How can government, research and development programs support profitable goat markets in Tete?

For Mozambique the goat sector provides huge opportunities for reducing rural poverty levels, improving food security and contributing to the national economy. Mozambique has a huge demand for goat meat and products. Large and medium size buyers fail to source enough goats of the right quality and supply consistently to feed the growing demand in urban markets. Despite its potential, the goat sector is not fully developed. Improved goat production can provide an additional annual income of US$50 million at the national level. In the short term farmers can double their income from goats. Though farmers realize the critical role of goats as source of saving and possible source of investment, they do not invest much in goats and are not able to make an adequate profit from selling their goats. Mortality rates of around 15%, poor quality of goats being sold to markets, and livestock theft are losses to entire rural economies. There are many causes for the low productivity, the primary reasons being: a) Lack of a market structure through which farmers and the private sector can interact; b) Absence of a grading system that rewards farmers for their investments in quality production; and c) Livestock theft that destroys community trust, and eventually hampers collective action among farmers..

African swine fever virus serodiagnosis: A general review with a focus on the analyses of African serum samples

African swine fever (ASF) is an infectious disease that causes heavy mortality in domestic pigs. At present there is no vaccine against ASF, and eradication in countries where the disease is endemic is based only on competent diagnosis programs and the sacrifice of infected animals. Due to the presence of natural attenuated strains, certain infection conditions may result in reduced mortality. In these situations, the disease can be diagnosed by detection of specific antibodies. The use of classical and validated diagnosis assays, such as ELISA and Indirect Immunofluorescence or Immunoblotting, allowed the eradication of ASF in the Iberian Peninsula in the 1990s. However, given that conventional tests include the use of antigens obtained from ASF virus (ASFV)-infected cells, they have several disadvantages, such as difficulties to achieve standardization and also the risks associated with the manipulation of live virus. Such drawbacks have led to the development of alternative and more robust systems for the production of ASFV antigens for use in anti-ASFV antibody detection systems. In the present review, we provide an update on current knowledge about antigen targets for ASFV serodiagnosis, the significant progress made in recombinant antigen production, and the refinement of ASF serological diagnostic assays. Moreover, we describe the accuracy of an ELISA developed for the serodiagnosis of ASFV in Africa. This assay is based on a novel p30 recombinant protein (p30r) obtained from an Eastern African viral isolate (Morara strain), which shares 100% amino acid sequence identity with the Georgia virus isolate. That study included the analyses of 587 field sera collected from domestic pigs and warthogs in Senegal (West Africa), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Central Africa), Mozambique (South-East Africa), and South Africa. The results revealed that the novel p30r-based ELISA allows the accurate detection of antibodies against ASFV, independently of the geographical origin of the sera. (Résumé d'auteur