TY - JOUR
T1 - Farmer challenge-derived indicators for assessing sustainability of low-input ruminant production systems in sub-Saharan Africa
AU - Marandure, Tawanda
AU - Dzama, Kennedy
AU - Bennett, James
AU - Makombe, Godswill
AU - Chikwahna, Obert
AU - Mapiye, Cletos
N1 - © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - The process of consulting stakeholders, particularly farmers, in developing appropriate indicators for sustainability evaluation of low-input ruminant systems is often compromised by limited awareness and understanding of the sustainability concept by farmers in developing countries. Insights from farmers’ challenges present useful prospects for developing context-specific sustainability evaluation indicators for low-input ruminant systems. In the present review, a meta-analysis was used to develop farmer challenge-derived indicators for the sustainability evaluation of low-input ruminant farming system in sub-Saharan Africa. Key ecological challenges reported were low forage quality, poor soil quality, feed shortages and; economic challenges were low poor marketing structure, high cost of labour, and poor transport network, poor marketing infrastructure; and social challenges were rural to urban migration, lack of animal breeding management and inadequate access to information. The corresponding derived ecological indicators were biomass quality, soil quality, high winds; economic indicators were available marketing infrastructure, labour costs, transport networks; and social indicators were rural to urban migration, animal management training and access to information. The review shows that farmers’ challenges can be transformed to indicators for assessing the sustainability of the low-input ruminant farming system in sub-Saharan Africa.
AB - The process of consulting stakeholders, particularly farmers, in developing appropriate indicators for sustainability evaluation of low-input ruminant systems is often compromised by limited awareness and understanding of the sustainability concept by farmers in developing countries. Insights from farmers’ challenges present useful prospects for developing context-specific sustainability evaluation indicators for low-input ruminant systems. In the present review, a meta-analysis was used to develop farmer challenge-derived indicators for the sustainability evaluation of low-input ruminant farming system in sub-Saharan Africa. Key ecological challenges reported were low forage quality, poor soil quality, feed shortages and; economic challenges were low poor marketing structure, high cost of labour, and poor transport network, poor marketing infrastructure; and social challenges were rural to urban migration, lack of animal breeding management and inadequate access to information. The corresponding derived ecological indicators were biomass quality, soil quality, high winds; economic indicators were available marketing infrastructure, labour costs, transport networks; and social indicators were rural to urban migration, animal management training and access to information. The review shows that farmers’ challenges can be transformed to indicators for assessing the sustainability of the low-input ruminant farming system in sub-Saharan Africa.
KW - Challenges
KW - Meta-analysis
KW - Ruminants
KW - Smallholder farmers
KW - Sustainability indicators
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094321342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.indic.2020.100060
DO - 10.1016/j.indic.2020.100060
M3 - Review article
SN - 2665-9727
VL - 8
JO - Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
JF - Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
M1 - 100060
ER -