Understanding resilience of pastoralists to climate change and variability in the Southern Afar Region, Ethiopia

Mekuyie, Muluken; Jordaan, Andries; Melka, Yoseph

doi:10.1016/j.crm.2018.02.004

Cited by 74 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Some of the farmers in the present study also sell diseased animals on the market to recover some losses. These practices appear to be a coping strategy adopted by the livestock farmers to help them deal with the challenge of inadequate access to veterinary services and thus high losses and is consistent with other studies [28,29]. Numbers (n) of farmers falling into each category of 'good' and 'poor' mental health, percentage (%) denotes the proportion of farmers with poor mental health within each influencing factor category and their Chi-square and p-value.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

et al. 2020

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Background: Agriculture represents the mainstay of African economies and livestock products are essential to the human population's nutritional needs. However, in many developing countries, including Ghana, livestock production fails to meet demand due to population growth and negative effects of climate change. One of the challenges to production is livestock loss affecting farmers. However, despite stressful events experienced, livestock farmers' mental health is poorly documented. This study aims to identify the root causes of livestock losses and their influence on pastoralists' mental health. Methods: We conducted a mixed methods study in two districts in the Northern and Southern Belts of Ghana. Using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 and guided interviews, we collected quantitative and qualitative data from 287 livestock farmers and 24 key-informants respectively. Mental health scores were categorized using standard guidelines. We evaluated the factors that explained variations in mental wellbeing using general linear models (α = 0.05). Results: About 85% (240/287) of the livestock farmers lost cattle within 1 year. Of these, 91% lost cattle to animal diseases, 50% to theft and 27% to pasture shortages. Qualitative findings reveal that due to poor access to veterinary services, farmers treat livestock diseases themselves with drugs from unregulated sources and often sell diseased cows for meat to recover losses. Findings showed that 60% of livestock farmers had poor mental health. Of those, 72% were depressed, 66% anxious and 59% stressed. Mental wellbeing was negatively associated with the number of adverse events experienced, proportion of livestock lost to most of the major loss factors, emotional attachment to livestock and self-reported physical illnesses in farmers, but positively associated with increasing herd size [F (8,278) = 14.18, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.29].

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

et al. 2020

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Section: Inferential Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

Nuvey

Kreppel

Nortey

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Background: Agriculture represents the mainstay of African economies and livestock products are essential to the human population’s nutritional needs. However, in many developing countries, including Ghana, livestock production fails to meet demand due to population growth and negative effects of climate change. One of the challenges to production is livestock loss affecting farmers. However, despite stressful events experienced, livestock farmers’ mental health is poorly documented. This study aims to identify the root causes of livestock losses and their influence on pastoralists’ mental health. Methods: We conducted a mixed methods study in two districts in the Northern and Southern Belts of Ghana. Using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 and guided interviews, we collected quantitative and qualitative data from 287 livestock farmers and 24 key-informants respectively. Mental health scores were categorized using standard guidelines. We evaluated the factors that explained variations in mental wellbeing using linear regression models ( α =0.05). Results: About 85% (240/287) of the livestock farmers lost cattle within one year. Of these, 91% lost cattle to animal diseases, 50% to theft and 27% to pasture shortages. Findings showed that 60% of livestock farmers had poor mental health. Of those, 72% were depressed, 66% anxious and 59% stressed. Mental wellbeing was negatively associated with the number of adverse events experienced, proportion of livestock lost, emotional attachment to livestock and self-reported illnesses in farmers, but positively associated with increasing herd size [F (5,281) = 17.19, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.23]. Qualitative findings reveal that due to poor access to veterinary services, farmers treat livestock diseases themselves with drugs from unregulated sources and often sell diseased cows for meat to recover losses. Conclusions: Livestock diseases are the leading cause of losses to livestock farmers, whose mental wellbeing is negatively affected by these losses. Although an adaptive strategy by farmers to compensate for poor veterinary services, the arbitrary use of veterinary drugs and sale of diseased cattle pose health risks to the public. Further research to evaluate the performance of veterinary services in Ghana, mental health problems and risk to human health due to potential high-risk meat entering the food chain, is needed.

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“…Periodic education diseased animals on the market to recover some losses. These practices appear to be a coping strategy adopted by the livestock farmers to help them deal with the challenge of inadequate access to veterinary services and thus high losses and is consistent with other studies [26,27].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

Nuvey

Kreppel

Nortey

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Agriculture represents the mainstay of African economies and livestock products are essential to the human population’s nutritional needs. However, in many developing countries, including Ghana, livestock production fails to meet demand due to population growth and negative effects of climate change. One of the challenges to production is livestock loss affecting farmers. However, despite stressful events experienced, livestock farmers’ mental health is poorly documented. This study aims to identify the root causes of livestock losses and their influence on pastoralists’ mental health. Methods We conducted a mixed methods study in two districts in the Northern and Southern Belts of Ghana. Using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 and guided interviews, we collected quantitative and qualitative data from 287 livestock farmers and 24 key-informants respectively. Mental health scores were categorized using standard guidelines. We evaluated the factors that explained variations in mental wellbeing using general linear models (α=0.05). Results About 85% (240/287) of the livestock farmers lost cattle within one year. Of these, 91% lost cattle to animal diseases, 50% to theft and 27% to pasture shortages. Qualitative findings reveal that due to poor access to veterinary services, farmers treat livestock diseases themselves with drugs from unregulated sources and often sell diseased cows for meat to recover losses. Findings showed that 60% of livestock farmers had poor mental health. Of those, 72% were depressed, 66% anxious and 59% stressed. Mental wellbeing was negatively associated with the number of adverse events experienced, proportion of livestock lost to most of the major loss factors, emotional attachment to livestock and self-reported physical illnesses in farmers, but positively associated with increasing herd size [F(8,278)=14.18,p<0.001,R2=0.29]. Conclusions Livestock diseases are the leading cause of losses to livestock farmers, whose mental wellbeing is negatively affected by these losses. Although an adaptive strategy by farmers to compensate for poor veterinary services, the arbitrary use of veterinary drugs and sale of diseased cattle pose health risks to the public. Further research to evaluate the performance of veterinary services in Ghana, mental health problems and risk to human health due to potential high-risk meat entering the food chain, is needed.

show abstract

Understanding resilience of pastoralists to climate change and variability in the Southern Afar Region, Ethiopia

Cited by 74 publications

References 14 publications

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

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