Article (Scientific journals)
Small ruminant farmers’ feeding strategies to cope with climate change across five agroecological zones of Benin, West Africa
Gninkplekpo, Euvrard; Koura, Bossima Ivan; Lesse, Paolo et al.
2024In Heliyon, 10 (21), p. 39834
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Keywords :
Climate-smart agriculture; Goat; Sheep; Smallholders; Déterminants; Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract :
[en] This study aimed to understand feeding strategies used by small ruminant farmers to cope with climatic change in the five contrasting agroecological zones (AEZ) of the Benin Republic and to identify the determinants of adopting these strategies. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to conduct interviews with 400 smallholder farmers in the rural areas of Benin. Data was collected on production system characteristics, farmers’ perception of climatic changes’ impacts on livestock production, and their coping strategies. Cross tabulations with Chi2 statistic and the nonparametric Kruskal Wallis test were used to compare farmers’ perceptions and coping strategies between the five AEZ. Then, the binomial logistic regression was used to identify determinants of using a particular adaptive feeding strategy. The farmers perceived climatic changes as rainfall delays, increasing rainfall, less frequent drought periods during the rainy season, no change in sunshine duration, and no change in temperature. These changes negatively affected grassland biomass production (86.3 %, 86.3 % and 77.5 % of farmers in South Borgou, Plateau, Atacora chain AEZ, respectively) and water availability (100 %, 93.7 %, and 85 % of farmers in Oueme Valley, Plateau and Mekrou-penjari AEZ, respectively). Consequently, farmers mentioned decreased animal growth (58.8 % and 45 % of farmers in Plateau and South Borgou AEZ, respectively) and increased animal mortalities (43.8 % in Plateau AEZ). Farmers’ current and future coping strategies varied significantly (p<0.05) among AEZ. These strategies included more diversification of feed resources used, more free wandering of animals, feeding intensification with supplements as current strategies, and new feed resource exploration and forage cultivation as future strategies. Logistic regression results showed that gender, education level, main activity, and the climatic and agroecological zones where the farm is located influenced the strategies used. The study showed that farmers understood climate change and its impact on production systems. In response, the common climate-smart feeding strategies adopted were mainly diversifying feed resources. Feed resources use strategies, and limitations to adopting these strategies, could be assessed in future studies.
Disciplines :
Animal production & animal husbandry
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Gninkplekpo, Euvrard ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health (FARAH) ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire > Doct. scienc. vétér.
Koura, Bossima Ivan 
Lesse, Paolo
Toko, Ismael
Demblon, Dominique
Houinato, Marcel R.B.
Cabaraux, Jean-François  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de gestion vétérinaire des Ressources Animales (DRA) > Ecologie de la santé et des productions animales
Language :
English
Title :
Small ruminant farmers’ feeding strategies to cope with climate change across five agroecological zones of Benin, West Africa
Publication date :
2024
Journal title :
Heliyon
eISSN :
2405-8440
Publisher :
Elsevier BV
Volume :
10
Issue :
21
Pages :
e39834
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 05 November 2024

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