Search

Livestock plays a significant role in food production, income generation, soil quality, transportation and the overall welfare of communities, especially in developing nations. Sheep and goats are vital sources of food, livelihood and urgent financial needs. Researching livestock practices can help optimize production, enhance productivity, and improve market access, ultimately boosting the economic well-being of developing communities. Research is needed to identify climate-resilient livestock practices, develop drought-resistant breeds, and optimize feed management strategies. By enhancing the resilience of livestock systems, research can help safeguard food security and livelihoods in the face of climate change. Climate change, evidenced by temperature changes and increased extreme weather events, negatively impacts traditional farming systems and livestock production by affecting pastures, feeds, water quality and livestock diseases. Breeds of the Coastal Zone of Western Desert (CZWD) such as the Barki sheep and goat as well as the Saidi breed in Upper Egypt (UE), have adapted to these harsh conditions and are crucial for smallholders. However, there's an information gap regarding these breeds' productivity in smallholder systems. This study utilizes the Twelve Month Monitoring (12MO) survey to estimate the productivity and demographic parameters of these breeds from 2018 to 2020.

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.

In Africa, camel herding is often viewed as a subsistence or ancient activity restricted to marginal drylands and arid or desert zones. However, camel products are increasingly sold in many cities, and camels are more and more used for tourist purposes. We can also see various public or private interventions in the arid zones aiming to develop processing units for milk or meat based on a business model. This present research aimed to evaluate the multiple economic and non-economic contributions of camel activities in North African drylands through analysis at the household and territorial levels using a multifunctional approach. Based on a study in five provinces of East and South Morocco, this article proposes a framework based on rural livelihoods and ecosystemic services for assessing the contribution of camel rearing to the rural economy and territorial development. It highlighted the multiple economic and non-economic functions of this activity, including domestic, trade, and services, as well as cultural attachment and local knowledge. We conclude by discussing current changes in camel herding, between supporting specialization for value chain participation and maintaining the overall sustainability of the camel systems in dryland areas.

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.

The Mediterranean agriculture is constrained by high competition for land and water utilization. One of the challenges for farmers is to increase land productivity through a better use of livestock in mixed crop-livestock farming systems. To assess the opportunities and challenges of integrating crop and livestock activities in irrigated areas, a survey was conducted among 175 small-scale farms in the West Delta desert land of Egypt in 2013/2014. Five regions were investigated and comprised the old reclaimed lands where settlers came in the 1960s, the intermediate reclaimed lands where farmers settled down in the 1980s, and the new reclaimed lands that were attributed to new farmers in the 1990s. The study highlighted two types of farmers’ strategies: 1) diversification and specialization with focus on fruit tree plantation by university graduates, who had benefited from the attribution of around two hectares of land in the settlement program since the end of the 1970s; and 2) diversification with emphasis on livestock by common beneficiary settlers from the Nile Valley, who had benefited from the attribution of one hectare of land since the 1990s. Graduates focusing on fruit trees corresponded to a strategy of developing new business activity, whereas common beneficiaries diversifying their farming systems through livestock corresponded to the need to secure a stable source of family income all year round. Whereas diversification appeared to be a driving force for agricultural development in this context, specialization could be a social and economic risk as graduates became more dependent on national and international markets. This was reflected in the perception of farmers who underlined the need to integrate technical, ecological, economic and social constraints in their decisions.

The CLIMED household farm dataset comes from a data collection conducted from 2013 to 2014 in five zones of the New Reclaimed Lands in the western part of the Nile Delta (Egypt). The main objective was to describe the diversity of household farms’ assets and activities, the degree of crop and livestock integration at the farm level to assess the link between integration, diversification, efficiency, and livelihoods. This data set permitted to compare the diversity of farming systems of 175 household farms and to assess the economic and technical performances of crop-livestock systems along a geographical transect of reclaimed desert lands in Egypt. This dataset was the primary material in the research paper on “Multi-criteria assessment of the sustainability of farming systems in the reclaimed desert lands of Egypt” (See the related research article.). Data described the three main components of the family farm system, i.e., the land, livestock, and household systems, respectively. The description of each activity (mainly crop, animal, or off-farm) by detailing all the incoming and outgoing flows of inputs and outputs allowed investigating the economic and financial contribution of each activity and the degree of dependence or complementarity between them. The dataset provided two tables of analyzed data related to, respectively, ‘diversification and integration’ and ‘efficiency and wellbeing.’ Moreover, this dataset constitutes an original material regarding the living conditions and farm functioning in the new lands reclaimed over the last 50 years in Egypt. The survey data were entered into an Access database, checked with statistical cross-checking variables, and completed by field return for missed or non-coherent data.

Les systèmes de production agricole en zones oasiennes sont soumis à d’intenses pressions sur les ressources, notamment hydriques et foncières. Dans ces régions où règne une aridité marquée et où l’irrigation est primordiale pour la pratique des activités agricoles, deux études complémentaires ont été menées. La première a visé à déterminer une typologie des élevages, sur la base de leurs paramètres structurels et fonctionnels. La deuxième phase de l’analyse a visé à préciser plus exactement les rôles des productions animales dans ces systèmes en caractérisant l’importance de l’élevage, des cultures et des activités extra-agricoles dans les revenus totaux des exploitations agricoles. Quatre systèmes ont été distingués, selon l’autonomie fourragère et les contributions des différentes espèces (bovins, camelins et petits ruminants - caprins et ovins -). Les résultats ont aussi montré que les systèmes avec une autonomie fourragère limitée et donc un maximum d’usage d’intrants externes (élevage bovin et élevage intensifié de la race ovine D’man) concourent aux meilleurs rendements et revenus des cultures. Ceci est particulièrement marqué pour les revenus du palmier dattier qui bénéficie de doses d’irrigation plus intenses apportée à la luzerne qui lui est associée. En parallèle, dans les exploitations avec des capitaux limités ou des eaux souterraines inaccessibles, l’élevage pastoral (dromadaires et caprins) constitue la principale source de revenus, permettant des efficiences de valorisation des eaux et des capitaux remarquables en recourant aux vastes parcours limitrophes et aux coproduits des cultures (déchets de dattes, pailles et son de céréales, etc.).

Egypt, where the mean temperature is expected to increase by 1−1.5°C over the next two decades, is particularly concerned with climate change in the Mediterranean. Most of the research works on adaptive animal traits have focused on sheep and goats in non-irrigated areas, with little interest in livestock systems in irrigated areas. However, meat and dairy products in Egypt are mainly supplied by large ruminants − cattle and buffaloes. In addition, research on genetic improvement to increase production has neglected local cattle breeds such as the Baladi, which appears to be endangered. Based on individual and collective interviews conducted in two governorates of Egypt, this study aimed to describe the situation of this local breed based on the perceptions and practices of the actors in the sector (including farmers, traders and service suppliers), and to draw perspectives for its future. From the interviews, the Baladi appeared adapted and more resistant to harsh conditions, especially to extreme warm temperatures, feed shortage periods, and some diseases, in particular foot-and-mouth disease. However, there is no organization or collective action to preserve or promote this breed because of its low level of dairy production, although its meat is highly valued in rural areas and could be the source of a potential niche market.

L’étude est centrée sur l’évaluation de la contribution de l’éle­vage de petits ruminants dans la réduction de la pauvreté et de la vulnérabilité des systèmes agricoles de trois zones agro­écologiques en Egypte : la zone pastorale du littoral Nord- Ouest (région de Matrouh), les zones irriguées de la vallée du Nil (région de Sohag) et les oasis du désert Ouest (région de la Nouvelle Vallée). Une étude empirique sur 90 exploitations dans les trois zones agroécologiques portant sur différents indicateurs économiques et sociaux liés à la pauvreté a donné des indications sur le rôle des ovins et des caprins dans dif­férents types d’exploitation, selon les dotations en ressources (en particulier terre, bétail, capital) et les ressources humaines. Les résultats ont montré que les petits ruminants constituaient la principale source de revenus des ménages pour échapper à la pauvreté, notamment pour les sans terre et les très petits propriétaires terriens. En outre, l’élevage était un capital qui générait d’autres richesses qui n’ont pas été prises en compte dans l’approche de la pauvreté monétaire.