Perception of Climate Variability and Its Impact by Smallholders in Pastoral Systems of Abudwak District, Galmudug State, Somalia

it is true in all the regions of the country; there is no stable and reliable documented meteorological data for reasonable tracking of the climate change and variability. Thus, this study explores the perception of significant variability in climate and related impact on local livestock holders among smallholders in pastoral systems of Abudwak district, Somalia. We drew on empirical data obtained from pastoral communities surveys conducted in 4 villages, 169 pastoral associations. Using this data, this study analyses smallholders' perception of climate variability and its associated impact on local livelihood, and the effect of several household on perception. Respondents interviewed during the study period, however, believed that there has been significant variability in the rainfall and temperature patterns for the last twenty years and considered climate variability as a salient risk to their future livelihoods and economic development. Likewise, the general perception of the people is that both rainfall and temperature have highly been fluctuating for decades now became unpredictable with less rainfall in shorter duration and warmer temperature over year now than usual. Different levels of perception were expressed in terms of climate variability and the impact on traditional rain-fed. Age, education level, livestock holding, access to climate information and extension services significantly affected perception levels.

Phytolith evidence for the pastoral origins of multi-cropping in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq)

Multi-cropping was vital for provisioning large population centers across ancient Eurasia. In Southwest Asia, multi-cropping, in which grain, fodder, or forage could be reliably cultivated during dry summer months, only became possible with the translocation of summer grains, like millet, from Africa and East Asia. Despite some textual sources suggesting millet cultivation as early as the third millennium BCE, the absence of robust archaeobotanical evidence for millet in semi-arid Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) has led most archaeologists to conclude that millet was only grown in the region after the mid-first millennium BCE introduction of massive, state-sponsored irrigation systems. Here, we present the earliest micro-botanical evidence of the summer grain broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in Mesopotamia, identified using phytoliths in dung-rich sediments from Khani Masi, a mid-second millennium BCE site located in northern Iraq. Taphonomic factors associated with the region’s agro-pastoral systems have likely made millet challenging to recognize using conventional macrobotanical analyses, and millet may therefore have been more widespread and cultivated much earlier in Mesopotamia than is currently recognized. The evidence for pastoral-related multi-cropping in Bronze Age Mesopotamia provides an antecedent to first millennium BCE agricultural intensification and ties Mesopotamia into our rapidly evolving understanding of early Eurasian food globalization.

Monitoring Plant Diversity to Support Agri-Environmental Schemes: Evaluating Statistical Models Informed by Satellite and Local Factors in Southern European Mountain Pastoral Systems

The spatial monitoring of plant diversity in the endangered species-rich grasslands of European mountain pastoral systems is an important step for fairer and more efficient Agri-Environmental policy schemes supporting conservation. This study assessed the underlying support for a spatially explicit monitoring of plant species richness at parcel level (policy making scale) in Southern European mountain grasslands, with statistical models informed by Sentinel-2 satellite and environmental factors. Twenty-four grassland parcels were surveyed for species richness in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, northern Portugal. Using a multi-model inference approach, three competing hypotheses guided by the species-scaling theoretical framework were established: species–area (P1), species–energy (P2) and species–spectral heterogeneity (P3), each representing a candidate spatial pathway to predict species richness. To evaluate the statistical support of each spatial pathway, generalized linear models were fitted and model selection based on Akaike information criterion (AIC) was conducted. Later, the performance of the most supported spatial pathway(s) was assessed using a leave-one-out cross validation. A model guided by the species–energy hypothesis (P2) was the most parsimonious spatial pathway to monitor plant species richness in mountain grassland parcels (P2, AICc = 137.6, ∆AIC = 0.0, wi = 0.97). Species–area and species–spectral heterogeneity pathways (P1 and P3) were less statistically supported (ΔAICc values in the range 5.7–10.0). The underlying support of the species–energy spatial pathway was based on Sentinel-2 satellite data, namely on the near-infrared (NIR) green ratio in the spring season (NIR/Greenspring) and on its ratio of change between spring and summer (NIR/Greenchange). Both predictor variables related negatively to species richness. Grassland parcels with lower values of near-infrared (NIR) green ratio and lower seasonal amplitude presented higher species richness records. The leave-one-out cross validation indicated a moderate performance of the species–energy spatial pathway in predicting species richness in the grassland parcels covered by the dataset (R2 = 0.44, RMSE = 4.3 species, MAE = 3.5 species). Overall, a species–energy framework based on Sentinel 2 data resulted in a promising spatial pathway for the monitoring of species richness in mountain grassland parcels and for informing decision making on Agri-Environmental policy schemes. The near-infrared (NIR) green ratio and its change in time seems a relevant variable to deliver predictions for plant species richness and further research should be conducted on that.

Property Rights and Governance of Land Resources in Pastoral Areas of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia

This article examines customary institutions governing rangeland resources in the Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Using data from different pastoral groups, we employed a case-study approach to explore how property rights are defined and enforced. The study indicates heterogeneity in systems of defining and enforcing rights. Due to the fugitive nature of resource use in pastoral systems, property rights vary seasonally. Though flexibility in the definition of such rights has become central to the survival of pastoral herders, formal administrative boundaries and policies have limited resource access, becoming sources of violent conflict and obstacle to customary systems. Government policies favouring private land use, expansion of large-scale investment on pastoral land, establishment of national parks, and certification of privately used land challenged the smooth functioning of customary land governance. This implies that state intervention should not undermine customary systems but permit them to exercise rangeland governance and ensure pastoral rights to secure livelihoods.

Willingness to Pay for Assisted Reproductive Technologies by Pastoral Herd Owners in Southern Rangelands of Kenya

Uptake of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) can widen and accelerate access to quality breeding stock under pastoral systems, but user participation without subsidy is uncertain when the herders have to meet the direct cost. Analysing willingness to pay (WTP) for ARTs may provide insights into potential uptake of ARTs when development agencies withdraw subsidies and private entrepreneurs take up the service delivery. This study estimated WTP for ARTs among 130 pastoral herd owners participating in Sahiwal cattle breed upgrading program implemented in Transmara Sub County in the southern rangelands of Kenya. The average WTP was KES 3,643 (USD 33.4), equivalent to 21.4% premium with reference to base price (KES 3,000) (USD 27.5). Sixty-seven percent of the pastoral herd owners expressed WTP above the hypothesized market price, twice more than those expressing WTP below the hypothesized market price (33%). The first choice attributes influencing the WTP for ARTs were high milk yield (62%), high value calves (37%), and high growth rates (1%). Gender was the only socioeconomic factor significantly (P<0.005) influencing WTP, with men expressing higher WTP than women (KES 3,870 (USD 35.5) versus KES 3,223 (USD 26.6). The results indicate a high likelihood of pastoral herd owners continuing to access and use ARTs at own cost, which provides opportunities for private sector participation in ARTs delivery and upscaling to increase access to superior Sahiwal genetic resources in pastoral herds. This will need putting in place policy interventions supportive of efficient ARTs delivery mechanisms.

Varied diets: Implications for lamb performance, rumen characteristics, total antioxidant status, and welfare

Intensive pastoral systems have moved away from diverse and varied diets towards overly simple monotonous diets. Feed choice through time is an obsolete way of providing forage to animals, as intensive management schemes generally allocate a single herbage or a dyad mixed sward. Monotonous feeding regimes impose nutritional repetition, which may impair animal performance and welfare. The objective of this experiment was to determine the impact of a diverse diet [DIV; free choice from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), and chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) at all times], a varied diet [VAR; choice from ryegrass and plantain in the AM (0700 – 1600 h), and chicory and alfalfa in PM (1600 – 0700 h)], and a single forage diet of alfalfa [SFA; alfalfa at all times], on DMI, performance, and welfare of lambs. Six-month-old Coopworth ram lambs (n=21) were offered their respective fresh-forage treatment (n = 7) diet indoors for 20 days. The DIV lambs consumed 1.64 ± 0.03 kg DM/d (mean ± SEm), which was 6% more (P &lt; 0.05; 1.54 ± 0.03 kg DM/d) than the SFA and were not different (P &gt; 0.05; 1.59 ± 0.03 kg DM/d) to the VAR lambs. Average daily gain (ADG) of DIV (296 g/d) and VAR (378 g/d) was 30 and 67 % greater (P &lt; 0.05) compared with the SFA lambs (227 g/d), respectively. The VAR lambs had 28% greater (P &lt; 0.05) ADG than the DIV lambs. Differences among treatments were detected (P &lt; 0.05) for the proportion of the day spent conducting the following behaviors: eating, ruminating, idling, lying, and standing. In addition, the number of bouts of stereotypic behaviors recorded from the SFA lambs (13.2 ± 2.2) was 150% greater (P &lt; 0.05) than the DIV (5.1 ± 1.0) and VAR (5.5 ± 1.0) lambs. Our results suggest that the varied diet offered can improve animal performance and welfare compared to a monotonous SFA diet. Feeding management to provide a varied diet can improve performance relative to giving lambs free choice from taxonomically diverse forage options. Moreover, performance is affected by more than the primary chemical composition of the diet consumed, but how the diet is presented through time and the herbage species and quantities of each that are consumed to reach that chemical composition.

Attributes of resilient pasture for achieving environmental outcomes at farm scale

Pasture resilience commonly refers to a pasture’s ability to withstand or rebound from pressures to maintain production and quality of sown species. We suggest that a broader definition of pasture resilience is needed that also includes environmental responses, thus ensuring that productivity and environmental outcomes are considered together. Key attributes of resilient pastures to minimise soil erosion and nutrient, greenhouse gas and soil carbon losses are summarised based on current understanding of environmental losses from pastoral systems. These attributes include maintaining consistent pasture cover, high energy and/or low nitrogen species and species diversity that provides complementary root morphology and/or growth seasonality; all are likely to have positive benefits for production and productivity. There is a potential tension, however, between productivity and methane emissions, as methane production increases with increased feed intake. Increasing pasture quality is therefore also an important consideration for pasture resilience as it can maintain animal productivity at lower levels of feed intake. From a farm systems perspective, the choice of pasture species should reflect the desired attributes for both productivity and environmental outcomes, and ensure that the sown species persist in the sward. Finally, we note that none of the environmental attributes/benefits are likely to deliver major farm-scale improvements on their own; progress will likely be incremental improvements upon implementing a range of attributes.

Climate change impacts on pest ecology and risks to pasture resilience

It is well understood that damage by insect pests can have serious consequences for pasture resilience. However, the impacts of climate change on pastoral systems, the responses of insect pests, and implications for pest impact mitigation are unclear. This paper reviews pest responses to climate change, including direct impacts such as temperature and carbon dioxide levels, geographic range expansion, sleeper pests, and outbreaks resulting from disturbance such as drought and farm system changes. The paper concludes with a plea for transdisciplinary research into pasture resilience under climate change that has insect pests as an integral component – not as an afterthought.