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The Fulani of West Africa have increasingly migrated to humid West Africa since the Sahelian droughts of the 1970s, drawing opposition from indigenous groups that are concerned about the deprivation of their livelihood and monopolization of resources for herders’ livestock. This research, which involved farmers, shepherds, and Fulani herders, addressed three issues: the nature of indigenous grazing and watering regimes, shepherd–herder relations, and herders’ impact on resource access for indigenes’ livestock. The research indicates that in-community and off-community platforms for resource access exist. The former has not been impacted by the herders; the latter has experienced changes insufficient to constitute an overhaul of resource access at the expense of indigenes’ livestock. Instead, a “shepherd–herder” category of resource access has emerged that is characterized by negotiation for resource space, opening avenues for addressing broader resource access issues, and typically tense indigene–herder relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghana is predominantly an agricultural country with a clear majority of its population depending partly or fully on agriculture for their livelihoods. Pork consumption in Ghana is on the increase and the livestock industry is a key sector of alternative agri-business for farmers looking for profitable business ventures and household income. The growth of Ghana's domestic piggery industry has been impeded by several constraints such as inadequate information, lack of improved breeding stock, land limitations, rising feed cost and water availability. In this research, systems models provide an understanding of the interconnectedness and relationships present within the piggery industry of Ghana. The Industry's problems were pooled together and key factors identified, whose behavior over time causes problems by developing various individual two-loop system archetypes coupled with a list of sustainable management strategies. Also, the individual variables affecting the industry were consolidated to obtain a causal loop structure and behavior-over-time graph of the piggery industry. The system archetype developed here is generic enough to explain any productivity decline and business rivalry behavior of any agribusiness industry. The proposed archetype can also help farm managers and producers to make various decisions. The system archetypes contribute effectively to understanding the root cause of challenges rather than providing quick fixes 'now' which gives rise to a much bigger problem to fix 'later'. Application of CLDs models and system archetypes can help farmers and policy makers understand the behaviour of the entire complex piggery systems that will aid in more clarity and consistency in decisions and policy objectives. This will close the gap of inadequate information both to farmers and policy makers and governance. Through the archetypes and the CLDs, it has been identified that using a systemic approach in addressing the problems could lead to the provision of adequate data and management strategies for effective decision making for improving the piggery/livestock industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]