PTVC

HPAI disease-transmission pathways are linked to the economic incentives that chain actors face. Disease transmission risk is strongly related to commercial practices and trade in poultry and poultry products. Consumer influences are insufficient to change governance and ...

The risk of spread of HPAI in Nigeria was derived by using a compartmental model to outline endemic and burn-out scenarios. Two paths, low and high mortality risks, were associated to each of the scenarios. The estimated risk parameters were then used to stochastically simulate the trajectory of the disease; without intervention and with an intervention. The intervention costs the country US$ 41 million obtained through a World Bank IDA loan of US$ 50million yearly disbursed over the 2006-2010 period. The key output variables (net social welfare gain – with incremental net benefits as proxy, disease cost, and benefit cost ratio) were estimated for each randomly drawn risk parameter. On average, the results show that such an intervention would make economic sense under the endemic scenario with high mortality. The discounted costs (12% discount rate) of the disease without intervention would have amounted to US$ 145 million in total over the 2006-2010 period. The model indicates that...

This study, designed to investigate trade-offs between forage yields, feed quality and labour use in fitting a newly introduced crop, Lablab purpureus, into an existing farming system, adopted distinct applied and adaptive research approaches. The applied research component compared forage yields, nutrient contents and feeding qualities of L. purpureus harvested at 100, 114, 128 or 142 d after planting in an on-farm trial. The adaptive research investigated how farmers incorporated L. purpureus cultivaton into their farming calendars given the constraints of labour for planting and harvesting.

I n 2000–01, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) carried out a study to identify economic, institutional and policy constraints to cross-border livestock marketing in West Africa conducted under the policy research component of the Common Fund for Commodities funded project “Improvement of Livestock Marketing and Regional Trade in West Africa”. Frontier livestock markets—markets that are strategically located along the border of neighbouring countries to ease cross-border trade—in Mali (Sikasso) and Burkina Faso (Bittou and Niangoloko) were studied to identify livestock marketing channels from farm gates to terminal markets in the coastal countries of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. Economic operators and livestock flows within these channels were also examined along with seasonal variations and other factors affecting livestock prices. The findings, summarised in this brief, indicate that producers and operators can realise significant economic benefits by incre...