Sustainable rural food systems for poor and vulnerable people need to be locally adapted to enhance food security. This requires participatory action research that considers the entire food value chain (FVC). This paper presents an assessment of the feasibility and potential success of upgrading strategies (UPS) for enhancing food security based on a study that was part of a larger participatory research project in two regions of Tanzania. The authors present the results relating to natural resource management and crop production. The results for natural resources show that enhanced soil water management was rated as high for the semi-arid Dodoma region. For the Morogoro region, the experts favoured soil fertility-improving UPS, such as conservation agriculture and agroforestry. Assessments of food production for both regions indicated the importance of intercropping, manure input, pest and disease control and cover crops. Assessments differed greatly between the two different climatic regions, and to a lesser extent between the nationality of the experts and their gender. This highlights the importance of including different South-North and female-male awareness in assessments. Implementation feasibility assessments of UPS indicated that the most suitable approaches were rainwater harvesting for semi-arid and conservation agriculture for subhumid regions respectively. Local and/or regional stakeholders and experts should be involved in developing and assessing site-adapted UPS for enhancing Tanzanian FVCs.

No abstract

Facing climate change implications on feeds unavailability, unconventional resources are being considered with a growing interest such as aromatic plant distillation residues with a two-fold object, enhancing meat quality by increasing the antioxidant properties and reducing feed prices which are often imported though expensive. Hence, this study aims to assess the effects of rosemary distillation residues (RR) incorporation in concentrate associated to two nitrogen sources as a substitute for standard concentrate on lamb’s growth, carcass traits and meat quality. For this, 24 Barbarine male lambs (3 months old, 17.83 ± 2.6 kg body weight) were divided into three groups. All lambs received individually 600 g of oat hay as roughage and 600 g of standard concentrate for control group, 600 g of concentrate based on RR and soybean meal for RRS group and 600 g of concentrate based on RR and faba bean for RRF group. After 65 days of experiment, all lambs were slaughtered. Phenolic and tocopherol intakes were significantly higher for both RR groups compared to control (p < 0.05). Growth, carcass weights, dressing percentages and non-carcass component weights were unaffected by the diet (p > 0.05). Moreover, regional and tissular compositions and meat physical properties were similar irrespective of the diet (p > 0.05). All color parameters were similar among groups (p > 0.05). However, meat produced by lambs receiving RR-based concentrate was richer on vitamin E and polyphenol contents than control lambs (p < 0.05). Rosemary by-products may substitute the standard concentrate resulting in similar lamb’s growth and carcass traits, while improving meat quality by increasing vitamin E content, which could improve its antioxidant power.

In order to deal with the effects of globalization, urbanization, increase in world population, global warming, and climate change; and according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 targets, which aim to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, it is urgently needed to transform our agriculture and livestock farming systems by taking into account the environmental considerations. The Breeding and management practices of indigenous bovine breeds: Solutions towards a sustainable future (BOVISOL) project is a scientific cooperation between three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Tunisia and Algeria) supported and funded by the European Commission under the European Research Area Networks (ERA-NET) scheme of the 7th Framework Programme. This project has been formed around the hypothesis that the local bovine breeds must be preserved since they possess a valuable genetic pool, and they are a part of the landscape and the biodiversity of rural areas. Moreover, their products (milk, cheese, meat, etc.) could contribute significantly to the local economies as they could easily be associated with recent food trends like “local” and “slow food”, which are considered today, as, not only a mean of nutrition, but also a way of living and a part of people’s identity. BOVISOL project aims to: (i) identify the local breeds and populations in a national level, (ii) describe the existing farm and breeding practices, (iii) analyze the quality of the main local animal products, (iv) propose solutions that will promote the sustainability of the traditional farming systems, especially nowadays that climate change proposes new challenges on animal production, and (v) disseminate the solutions on all the levels of the sector (farmers, scientists, local communities, governmental agencies).

Food security is one of the main goals of rural poor people. To enhance food security in this context, participatory action research can help to ensure sustained success while considering entire food value chains (FVC). This paper assesses the feasibility and potential success of upgrading strategies (UPS) as well as their assessment criteria as developed by German and Tanzanian agricultural scientists. The results form part of a larger participatory research project conducted in two climatically representative regions of Tanzania: semi-arid Dodoma and subhumid Morogoro. This paper presents the findings with respect to food processing, waste management and bioenergy, along with income generation and market participation. Assessments on other components of the FVC, including natural resource management, crop production and consumption, are reported by Graef et al (2015). The assessments for food processing revealed preferences for preservation techniques, oil extraction processes and food storage devices for the semi-arid region. In contrast, in the subhumid region, the experts favoured food storage devices and preservation techniques. Assessments of waste management and bioenergy UPS for both regions indicated the importance of animal feed from crop residues, crop residues as mulch and compost from food waste, although with somewhat different priorities. Assessments on income generation and markets in both regions revealed preferences for savings and credit cooperatives and communication techniques, but also indicated that warehouse receipt systems and guarantee systems had a high impact. Assessments differed between the two different climatic regions, and to some extent also between the nationality of experts 180

The indigenous cattle populations are threatened by extinction in many countries of the Mediterranean area. The objective of this study is the analysis of local cattle breeds’ production systems in Algeria, Greece, and Tunisia and the identification of their future challenges and opportunities. A total of 385 surveys were conducted in these study areas: central and northern Greece (43); northern and northwestern Tunisia (167), and northeastern Algeria (175). Data collected concerned socio-economic parameters as well as the production system’s functionality, constraints, and opportunities. Results revealed an average farmers’ age of 52.6 years old. The illiteracy rate is high, especially in Algeria (39%) and Tunisia (44%), where the farm size is relatively small with an average of 14 and four animals per farm, respectively. In Greece, much higher numbers were recorded (89 animals/farm). The average cultivated feedstuffs’ area is larger in Greece (12.07 ha) and smaller in Algeria and Tunisia (6.11 and 2.88 ha, respectively). Feeding resources are based on rangelands. Farming systems are traditional extensive and complemented when needed. Milk and meat marketing vary throughout countries and are not well valorized. The main constraints are high feeding costs, low milk and meat prices, and absence of labeling. Local and local-crossbred bovine populations could be valorized based on their good adaptation criteria when applying convenient genetic and development strategies.

No abstract

This research aimed to analyze the quality of milk (content and chemical composition) at several local farms in West Java province. Milk is a food that has complete nutritional value in balanced proportion. Good quality of milk contains the composition of fat content, total solids, protein, water and contamination level that meet the criteria in the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 3141.1.2011. The milk quality parameters were analyzed by the FT 120 MilkoScanTM (Foss). The milk was collected as much as 50 ml and then dipped in a milkoScan probe. The parameters observed included pH, specific gravity, fat, protein, water and non-fat dry matter (%). The highest fat content found in milk samples from Subang district i.e. 3.62 ± 1.40. Lembang district has the highest lactose concentration among the other sampling regions which is 4.58 ± 0.22. The highest concentration of dry matter content was found in Subang district (12.57 ± 1.87). The highest value at the content of the non-fat dry ingredients in the Subang area was 8.87 ± 0.70. The milk density from Pangalengan and Lembang were 103 2.44 ± 2.51 and 1032.27 ± 1.74 respectively. The concentration of FPD from the Subang district was 0.55 ± 0.06 (highest results and overreach the SNI value). The highest concentration of acidity was in the Subang district with a value of 7.84 ± 1.41.