Introduction This chapter addresses the question “Can smallholder livestock production systems in developing countries be transformed to take advantage of the increasing demand for meat?”, a question that has been posed by many authors (for example, Tarawali et al. 2011). On the basis of a case study that followed smallholder cattle development in Ea Kar, a district in the central highlands of ...

This paper assessed factors which influence market access for smallholder farmers in the major maize producing districts (Mbozi and Sumbawanga) of Mbeya and Rukwa regions, located in the Southern Highland of Tanzania. Cross sectional data were collected from a sample of 240 smallholder farmers which were randomly selected and interviewed using standardized questionnaires. Data were analyzed usi...

A retrospective cross-sectional study of mortality was conducted on smallholder dairy farms in 2 separate regions (Iringa and Tanga) of Tanzania during the period of January to April 1999. A total of 1789 cattle from 400 randomly sampled smallholder dairy farms (200 each from Iringa and Tanga regions) were included in the study. These animals contributed a total risk period of 690.4 and 653.95 ...

AIM Disease outbreaks increase the cost of animal production; reduce milk and beef yield, cattle sales, farmers' incomes, and enterprise profitability. The study assessed the economic effects of foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks along the cattle marketing chain in selected study districts in Uganda. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study combined qualitative and quantitative study designs. Resp...

Assessment of livestock production constraints in the smallholder dairy systems in the western Kenya highlands was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative epidemiological methods. Rapid rural appraisals (qualitative) were conducted in rural and peri-urban areas. A cross-sectional survey (quantitative) was then conducted on a random sample of farms in the study area. Diseases, poor c...

A cross-sectional survey was undertaken on 240 dairy cattle farms in Nyandarua District in central Kenya to determine farm characteristics, farmer’s perception of production constraints and diseases and the prevalence and control practices for ticks and helminths. Farmers were interviewed using questionnaires and 708 cattle examined. The mean farm size was 3.2 hectares and average number of cat...

Leptospirosis is an important bacterial zoonotic disease globally and one of the notifiable diseases in Sri Lanka. Other than human leptospirosis, little information is available on leptospirosis in domestic and feral animals in Sri Lanka. Thus, this study attempted to determine the prevalence and carrier status of leptospirosis in smallholder dairy cattle and peridomestic rodents to understand...

Smallholder farming in the Brazilian Amazon has changed markedly over the last few decades, following a pervasive swing to cattle production observed across the basin. These changes have brought opportunities for accumulating a modicum of wealth that were not available in the early stages of colonization. At the same time, they have reconfigured livelihood systems away from diversified agricult...

The integration of cattle with smallholder oil palm plantations can increase the population and productivity cattle, improve efficiency plantations. positive synergy that be achieved from this ensure feed supply for save on use inorganic fertilizers plantations, forage grass feed. pattern raising varies (extension, semi-intensive, intensive) according to behavior/habits abilities farmers, thus ...