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The study was carried out to assess the diversity of the farming system and the associated development needs of Bedouin communities in the rural area of the hot dry Coastal Zone of Western Desert (CZWD), Egypt with the objective of improving surveillance of the Bedouin communities to the harsh desert conditions. The area has low irritated rainfall (60–140 mm/yr.) and frequent incidences of drought. Specially designed questionnaires were adopted on 151 householders and 51 women groups in 4 locations. More than 50% of the householders are fully engaged in agriculture activities, whereas 31% of them are partially engaged in other businesses. The householders are extended families of 12.2 members on average. Gender differences in education are recognizable; 20% of boys ≥15 years of age are illiterate vs. 60% of girls. Dominant agricultural activities of the householders are sheep raising (98.7%), goat raising (89.4%), olive and figs cultivation (84%), and rain-fed barley (78%). Land tenure averages 31.3 acres/ household. Crop cultivation relies on rainfall, 29% of the householders apply supplement irrigation for fruit trees and vegetables. Natural pasture is an important asset for livestock, where small householders do not hold pastureland. Females do not contribute to field cropping, while 53% of them participate in animal husbandry, especially at the house. The typology of the studied stakeholders showed clear diversification in farming systems. They are clustered into four groups; depending mainly on the livestock assets, followed by the land/crop and human assets. Number of species and flock size are the most important variables for the diversity of stakeholders. The cultivated area is the main variable within land/crop assets, family members in livestock and family size are the main variables from human assets. Most of the householders (95%) give their top need for water cisterns, water reservoirs ranked second (78.6%), followed by raising and improving goats. Pasture development got the lowest priority. Goat and poultry rearing, followed by dairy processing got the top needs of women.

A large proportion of rural households, particularly in the dry land areas, representative for more than 10% of the world's land surface and up to 80% in Morocco, depend for their livelihoods on livestock. They exploit livestock's capacity to live in very harsh environments using herd-mobility at multiple scale level. Understanding the multiple contributions of livestock to the household and national economy raises complex research issues and challenges linked with the multitude of goods and services derived from livestock, their interactions with other family activities, and the local and national context. The objective of our research was therefore to analyse the diversity and assess the resilience of livelihood strategies of farming households oriented to livestock using a set of data collected in the dry land areas (oases and mountainous zones) of Morocco and discuss the livelihood outcome indicators. To achieve this, we have realized a cross-sectional analysis of livelihoods and adaptive capacity, to select a set of pertinent indicators. These indicators have been developed using an adapted version of the Rural Household Multi-Indicator Survey (RHoMIS) toolkit for pastoral and agropastoral household systems. Our results highlight the critical importance of livelihood diversification (off-farm diversification, livestock diversification, and crop diversification) in building household resilience and the livelihood outcomes. While livelihood strategies undoubtedly contribute to livelihood outcomes, there is also a critical iterative process, i.e., livelihood outcomes also influence the livelihood strategies at the farming households. The present work proposes an aggregated indicator of livelihood outcomes allowing us to capture the heterogeneity of living conditions of agropastoral systems by considering the main drivers of this system, i.e., mobility, livestock species, and physiological stage composition of the herd. This approach could constitute a valuable contribution to help fill the knowledge gaps that do not allow policy makers in developing contextualized rural development policies and instruments in these very harsh environments.

Agricultural development through settlement schemes on desert lands has always raised acute debates, especially over environmental issues due to cultivation based on intensive additions of water and fertilizers. However, nutrient cycling approaches at the farm level are generally based on apparent N flows, i.e., purchased inputs and sold products, without considering nutrient flows driven by mobile herds crossing the arable lands of sedentary farmers. Through a territory level approach, the present study aimed to assess the contribution of mobile pastoral herds located in the newly reclaimed land on the western desert edge of the Nile Delta on the supply of the manure for local sedentary farms. Based on a survey of 175 farmers, we calculated the partial farm nitrogen balances. Supplemental interviews were conducted with the pastoral community to assess the additional manure coming from grazing practices in the research area. The results show that the sedentary mixed crop-livestock systems based on the planting of Trifolium alexandrinum and a manure supply make a useful contribution toward converting poor, marginal soil into fertile soil. Moreover, grazing of crop residue by pastoral herds on the reclaimed land contributes to social sustainability by maintaining social links between the first occupants, the Bedouins, and the new settlers. Grazing accounts for 9% to 34% of farm-level N input and 25% to 64% of farm-level N output depending on the village and the cropping system. This contribution calls for different rural policies that consider the complementarity between pastoral herders and sedentary farmers that supports both systems' social and environmental sustainability.