Breeding programs for smallholder sheep farming systems: I. Evaluation of alternative designs of breeding schemes
Village- and central nucleus-based schemes were simulated and evaluated for their relative bio-economic efficiencies, using Ethiopia’s Menz sheep as example. The schemes were: village-based 2-tier (Scheme-1) and 1-tier (Scheme-2) cooperative...
Breeding programmes for smallholder sheep farming systems: II. Optimization of cooperative village breeding schemes
A simulation study was conducted to optimize a cooperative village-based sheep breeding scheme for Menz sheep of Ethiopia. Genetic gains and profits were estimated under nine levels of farmers’ participation and three scenarios of controlled...
Promoting women’s participation in income generating activities
An initiative to empower rural women in Jordan and encourage their participation in income-generating activities, recently held a ceremony for graduates of its peer-to-peer training scheme.
Managing rangelands: promoting sustainable shrub species: Periploca: A soil stabilizing shrub that can grow in poor soils
Periploca laevigata is an important shrub for grazing in the dry season. Although it contains tannins, it is palatable and is grazed mainly by camels, sheep, and goats. As this plant is able to grow in dry and rocky conditions in the poorest of...
Managing rangelands: promoting sustainable shrub species: Retama: A resilient, pioneer plant for rangeland rehabilitation and stable ecosystems
Retama is noted as an important multi-purpose species in need of conservation. It is a drought-tolerant legume species native to the Mediterranean, which is beneficial for dune stabilization and rangeland rehabilitation. Retama can also...
Analysis of long term meteorological trends in the middle and lower Indus Basin of Pakistan—A non-parametric statistical approach
The Indus basin of Pakistan is vulnerable to climate change which would directly affect the livelihoods of poor people engaged in irrigated agriculture. The situation could be worse in middle and lower part of this basin which occupies 90% of...
Scaling up successful practices for pro-poor development projects involving goats: First outputs of a comparative study
Goat livestock is generally considered as an efficient activity for smallholders to eradicate poverty in many situations. More and more projects are submitted for donors who have still few references and data to evaluate if these proposals could...
Inheritance of spot blotch resistance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)
Singh, S., Singh, H., Sharma, A., Meeta, M., Singh, B., Joshi, N., Grover, P., Al-Yassin, A. and Kumar, S. 2014. Inheritance of spot blotch resistance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Can. J. Plant Sci. 94: 1203–1209. Spot blotch, caused by...
Sensitivity of vegetation indices and gross primary production of tallgrass prairie to severe drought
Drought affects vegetation photosynthesis and growth.Many studies have used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is calculated as the normalized ratio between near infrared and red spectral bands in satellite images, to...
Global Wild Annual Lens Collection: A Potential Resource for Lentil Genetic Base Broadening and Yield Enhancement
Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are invaluable gene sources for various traits of interest, yet these potential resources are themselves increasingly threatened by the impact of climate change as well as other anthropogenic and socio-economic factors...
