Motivations behind farmers’ pesticide use in Bangladesh rice farming

This paper addresses the motivations behind farmers’ pesticide use in two regions of Bangladesh. The paper considers farmers’ knowledge of arthropods and their perceptions about pests and pest damage, and identifies why many farmers do not use recommended pest management practices. We propose that using the novel approach of classifying farmers according to their motivations and constraints rather than observed pesticide use can improve training approaches and increase farmers’ uptake and retention of more appropriate integrated pest management technologies. Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson divides her time between Tanzania and the UK and is a research associate with the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford in the UK. She is an economist specializing in agriculture, natural resources, and the environment. She has over ten years of experience undertaking applied research in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as a fellow and lecturer in the Economics Department at the University of Oxford; at the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich in the UK; and with the World Bank and Rockefeller Foundation in the US. Sumona Rani Das is an agriculture economist who has been working for eight years with a non-government organization in Bangladesh named PROSHIKA. She is involved with monitoring and evaluation of PROSHIKA’s ongoing activities in agriculture, and is working as a team leader with an agriculture network to promote sustainable agriculture. She has special responsibility for motivation, training, project management, and documentation of different programs. Tim B. C. Chancellor is a crop protection specialist and currently is the leader of the Natural Resources Institute’s Plant, Animal and Human Health Group at the University of Greenwich in the UK. He has 17 years research and consultancy experience in vector ecology and in pest and disease management. Other skills include project management, monitoring and evaluation, and public-private partnerships. He is also Adviser to the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) Crop Protection Programme. His commodity experience includes rice, banana, groundnut and vegetables.     

Mapping the economic benefits to livestock keepers from intervening against bovine trypanosomosis in Eastern Africa

Endemic animal diseases such as tsetse-transmitted trypanosomosis are a constant drain on the financial resources of African livestock keepers and on the productivity of their livestock. Knowing where the potential benefits of removing animal trypanosomosis are distributed geographically would provide crucial evidence for prioritising and targeting cost-effective interventions as well as a powerful tool for advocacy. To this end, a study was conducted on six tsetse-infested countries in Eastern Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. First, a map of cattle production systems was generated, with particular attention to the presence of draught and dairy animals. Second, herd models for each production system were developed for two scenarios: with or without trypanosomosis. The herd models were based on publications and reports on cattle productivity (fertility, mortality, yields, sales), from which the income from, and growth of cattle populations were estimated over a twenty-year period. Third, a step-wise spatial expansion model was used to estimate how cattle populations might migrate to new areas when maximum stocking rates are exceeded. Last, differences in income between the two scenarios were mapped, thus providing a measure of the maximum benefits that could be obtained from intervening against tsetse and trypanosomosis. For this information to be readily mappable, benefits were calculated per bovine and converted to US$ per square kilometre. Results indicate that the potential benefits from dealing with trypanosomosis in Eastern Africa are both very high and geographically highly variable. The estimated total maximum benefit to livestock keepers for the whole of the study area amounts to nearly US$ 2.5 billion, discounted at 10% over twenty years – an average of approximately US$ 3300 per square kilometre of tsetse-infested area – but with great regional variation from less than US$ 500 per square kilometre to well over US$ 10,000. The greatest potential benefits accrue to Ethiopia, because of its very high livestock densities and the importance of animal traction, but also to parts of Kenya and Uganda. In general, the highest benefit levels occur on the fringes of the tsetse infestations. The implications of the models’ assumptions and generalisations are discussed.     

Estimation of the Dietary Lipid Requirement Level of the White Crayfish Procambarus acutus acutus

Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets containing graded levels of lipid (menhaden fish oil) were fed to juvenile white crayfish ( Procambarus acutus acutus ) over a 10 week period. A significant depression in weight gain was observed in crayfish fed diets containing 9% or more lipid. There were no significant differences in growth of crayfish fed diets containing 0 to 6% lipid. Whole-body percentages of lipid and dry matter decreased, and protein increased in crayfish fed high-lipid diets. Dietary lipid did not appear to influence survival or molting frequency. Whole-body lipids generally reflected dietary fatty acid composition.     

Effects of feeding glandless or glanded cottonseed products and gossypol to Tilapia aurea

Seven isocaloric and isonitrogenous practical diets in which either glanded or glandless cottonseed products were substituted for soybean and/or peanut meals, and three purified diets containing graded levels of gossypol were fed to fingerling Tilapia aurea for a period of 10 weeks. Growth, feed conversion and survival data indicated that glanded and glandless cottonseed products were not as high in nutritive value for tilapia as are soybean and peanut meals. The inferior performance of fish fed cottonseed protein did not appear to be related to dietary gossypol. Carcass fatty acids generally reflected dietary fatty acids. An increase in palmitic and linoleic fatty acids was observed in fish fed fullfat, glandless cottonseed flour.     

Tick burden and prevalence of Theileria parva infection in Tarime zebu cattle in the lake zone of Tanzania

This study was carried out to assess the distribution, abundance of different tick genera and prevalence of Theileria parva infection in Tarime zebu cattle kept in selected wards of Serengeti and Tarime districts in Mara region. Adult ticks were identified and counted from half body parts of 360 animals which were extensively managed in communal land with natural pastures. Concurrently, blood samples were collected and thereafter DNA extracted and a nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) was done using primers specific for p104 gene to detect the presence of T. parva DNA. Ticks were identified into four groups: Amblyomma genus, Boophilus sub-genus of Rhipicephalus genus, other species of Rhipicephalus, and Hyalomma genus. Rhipicephalus genus accounted for 71.8 % of the total ticks, whereas Amblyomma, Boophilus sub-genus of Rhipicephalus genus and Hyalomma constituted 14.1, 14.0 and 0.1 %, respectively. There were more animals (p?p?T. parva was 27.7 % and was higher (p?T. parva did not show any clinical signs of East Coast fever (ECF), suggesting the existence of subclinical infection in Tarime zebu. These results suggest that Tarime cattle can tolerate ECF infection and are likely to serve as potential carriers of T. parva to other less-tolerant cattle breeds in mixed herds. Since Tarime cattle are preferred by most farmers with mixed herds, routine screening for T. parva is highly recommended to minimize introduction of infected cattle into an immunologically naive population.     

Characterization of small-scale dairy farms and its relation to water use efficiency in the Mexicali Valley,Mexico

A survey was completed to determine water use by small-scale dairy farms in Mexicali Valley of Mexico and to associate it with dairy production parameters. Mexicali Valley surrounds the capital city of the state Baja California, Mexicali. Sixty-one smallholders were interviewed in person in this rural area of northwestern Mexico. On average, small dairy holders had more than 20 years of experience and were ~ 55 years of age; people working on their farms are especially relatives. A low percentage was literate (20%), and they belong to a local dairy association. Milk yield/cow/year does not reach 4000 kg of milk and 75% of producers do not follow a defined management program for their cattle. Hand-milking is still practiced by 27% of the producers, and there is a general lack of infrastructure to maintain milk in a refrigerated state so that there is a very high risk of zoonotic diseases. Water use efficiency (WUE) was linearly correlated (P < 0.05) with total irrigated area, but not with animal production parameters. Regression equations constructed to explain WUE exhibited low adjustment, and WUE was not associated (P > 0.05) with milk yield. Small dairy producers in Mexicali Valley are in a generally poor situation with low water use practices; however, required more government support to increase their benefits from this livestock activity.