Joint monitoring of livestock stocking rates and rangeland vegetation of Hombori district in Mali during the 2010-2011 dry season

Abstract

and wide seasonal and interannual variations. Pastoral livestock systems adapt to these patchy and variation resources by herd mobility and some supplement feeding that only partially overcome seasonal forage shortages in dry years. This study aimed at analyzing the relationship between livestock stocking rates and forage availabilities during the 8-9 month dry season at the scale of the Hombori district. Stocking rates were estimated by monthly count of livestock by species, sex and age classes at the main pastoral water points. Herbaceous forage over the district was assessed at the onset of the dry season over using NDVI-MODIS remote sensing calibrated with in situ measurements. In addition, forage availabilities were monitored monthly in the service area of three selected water points as a function of distance from the water point up to 12 km. The results indicated that despite the large numbers of livestock and the weak mobility of the resident herds, the overall stocking rate in the Hombori district remains low, as it entails an average grazing exploitation rate of only 9.4% of the fodder resource during the dry season. The grazing exploitation rate invalidates the statement of widespread 'overgrazing' of forage resources by livestock in the Sahel often advanced in rangeland ecology and management projects.
 Keywords: Rangelands, stocking rate, dry season, degradation rate, overgrazing, Sahel.

From Wooded Savannah to Farmland and Settlement: Population Growth, Drought, Energy Needs and Cotton Price Incentives Driving Changes in Wacoro, Mali

“…Keeping more livestock through transhumance to meet the high meat and milk demand leads to overgrazing which has been considered as contributing factor to the decline of wooded, shrub and grass savannah by the majority of local communities [7,47,48]. Overgrazing, combined with trampling by livestock hooves and subsequent soil compaction, leaves bare land which is subsequently exposed to the hot sun during the dry period and, ultimately, leads to soil [49] and wind erosion [50]. Unsustainable land use practices are attributed to the insufficient level of enfo rcement of the national pastoral charter and natural resources management policy.…”

Nitrogen budget and critical load determination at a Sahelian grazed grassland site

“…Each animal type (bovine, ovine, caprine) has a different ingestion capacity and a different population density in the Dahra region. N ingestion by animals (N animal_ingestion ) depends on the ingestion rate Ig = 0.075 kg DM kg MW −1 day −1 where MW is the metabolic weight of each type of animal, calculated from the real weight (RW): MW = (RW) 3/4 (Diawara et al 2020), and DM is dry matter. Calculations are detailed in Table 1.…”