Village chicken production holds much potential for the alleviation of malnutrition and poverty in rural communities in Africa. Owing to their subsistence nature, however, such systems are rife with infectious poultry diseases such as Newcastle disease (ND). Strategies common for the management of ND and other poultry diseases in intensive production systems, including vaccination and biosecurity measures, have seen limited success in the village production systems. New approaches are needed that can successfully deliver animal health inputs and services for the effective management of poultry health challenges in low-input systems. Our study utilized focus group discussions with men and women farmers as well as other poultry value chain actors such as input suppliers, live bird traders and processed poultry meat retailers, to investigate potential options for delivery of animal health care to village poultry systems in northern Ghana and central Tanzania. ND was commonly reported as a major disease constraint in the study sites of the two countries, with resulting fatalities particularly impactful on men and women producers and on traders. We therefore also conducted interviews that focused specifically on the gender component of village chicken production. The key health related challenges prioritized by women and men participants included limited access to, and poor quality of, vaccines and veterinary drugs, a shortage of veterinary officers, and insufficient knowledge and training of farmers on flock management practices. Women, more than men, emphasized the difficulties of accessing poultry health services. Our assessments suggest that for poultry health care delivery in the studied communities to be effective, there is need to improve the supply of good quality drugs and vaccines in rural areas, respond to the needs of both men and women, and recognize the different incentives for farmers, traders and other value chain actors. Community-based approaches and increased use of ICT technology such as mobile phones have much to offer in this regard.
Purpose: Urban farmers make effi cient utilization of resources by integrating crop-livestockfi sh subsectors to maximize accrued benefi ts. However, types of integration practices adopted and associated income outcome are still undocumented. Thus this study specifi cally assessed the types of integrated urban agriculture (IUA) mostly practiced by farmers, types of livelihood strategies adopted simultaneously with IUA and its contribution to total household income. Research Method: The study adopted cross-sectional research design. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 132 respondents. Descriptive statistics employed to assess livelihood strategies prioritised by integrated urban farmers. Multiple linear regression technique was adopted to model factors infl uencing IUA annual income. Findings: The results show that integrated urban agriculture is the most prioritised livelihood strategy to urban farmers. Majority of urban farmers (98.5%) practising integrated farming concentrated on crop-livestock, while fi sh-livestock and crop livestock-fi sh integration adopted only by 0.75% each. This implies that, majority of urban farmers did not practice fi sh sub-sector. Integrated urban agriculture gives average annual income of 2 295 288 TSH (equivalent to 1093$); which was suffi cient for household of six members being above monetary food poverty line per year. Research Limitation: This study focuses on income livelihood indicator; however, farmers can also, benefi t from integrated agriculture through food security, social inclusion and ecology to mention some.
Sustainability of water projects is increasingly becoming an area of concern for researchers and development practitioners given the increased scarcity of water resources and the continued failure of many water projects in developing countries. The cited unsustainability of water projects indicates the lack of strong local institutions that would create an enabling environment. The argument put forward by this paper is that, for water resource projects to be sustainable there must be a well embedded local institution to facilitate effective supervision and management. This study was conducted in three villages of Iringa District to establish the role played by local institutions in creating an enabling environment for water project sustainability. The establishment of the roles played by various institutions was done through institutional mapping and focussed on the types and roles of each institution in ensuring sustainability of water projects. The findings show that the present institutional framework for the management of water supply and sanitation services in the study area is complex and has overlapping roles coupled with inadequate coordination and communication mechanisms. The binary regression model reveals that institutional related factors namely, project maintenance per annum and meetings conducted per annum, to be leading factors for sustainability. The study concludes that the coordination of various institutions is an important aspect for the sustainability of water projects. Therefore, local governments, donors and communities should make sure that technical aspects and regular follow-ups, as well as capacity building among members of the community and water user associations become an integral part of any water project for the realisation of sustainability.
Aims: Despite notable success in reducing gender disparity in some sectors, the problem still persists in many higher learning institutions in Tanzania. Using fifteen years data of staff employment from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), this study assessed gender disparity in employment and career advancement among academic staff. Study Design: The study adopted the descriptive research design by describing the current situation using SUA as a case study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture between March and May 2017 using data of academic staff. Methodology: The Publish or Perish software was used to retrieve data on scholarly publications of individual academic staff between 1985 to 2017 for cohorts employed between 1985 and 2011. Descriptive analysis was employed to establish gender disparity in staffing and publication productivity. Results: The findings show female academic staff increased from 5.3% to 20.78% only between the academic year 2000/2001 to 2015/2016. Likewise, gender gaps are observed across all academic ranks since the majority of staff are at the lower academic ranks where women were less in each aspect. Age-wise, the university is composed of aging senior academic staff where among 33.22% of all professors almost 15% (13.5% M & 1.1%F) were above 60 years old. On scientific publications, findings reveal female staff to be below the cohort/ group average for almost all years against their counterparts. Conclusion: There is a clear disparity between male and female staff based on age, academic qualifications, ranks and publication productivity that implies the existence of some obstacles.
Efficient governments do encourage, support and promote innovations. Such realisation has necessitated some governments to establish strategic organisations to facilitate some of its innovation mandates. Some innovations have been developed by government cooperative supporting organisations (GCSOs) in Tanzania but only a few have been disseminated to end users. This has prompted questioning of the appropriateness of the innovations dissemination approaches used by such GCSOs. Research Method: The case study research design was used whereby five cases were picked. Primary data were collected using key informants" (KIs) interviews, focus groups discussion (FGDs) and documentary review. A qualitative research approach was adopted. Data were analysed using content analysis. The Atlas.ti computer software facilitated analysis of the data. The results show that albeit the existence of several innovations dissemination approaches, there were no mechanisms to institutionalise the effective ones. Concurrently, the approaches applied largely left out the primary cooperative societies (PCSos) treating them as submissive receivers of innovations. Moreover, numerous setbacks including perceived unwillingness by GCSOs executives to prioritise and allocate available resources for innovations, inadequate incentives and resources deficit were constraining inclusive innovations dissemination efforts. The study covered GCSOs only as they have been receiving direct government resources to support among other things innovation activities unlike other member-based and private organisations operating in Tanzania. Contribution/Originality: This study documents on the importance of inclusive innovations dissemination approaches among GCSOs and the need for its successful intervention and implementation to enable more innovations dissemination to end users (PCSos).
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