Bücher von Margaret Ngigi

Livestock production is an important tool for rural development especially in the developing Countries. Here, the past two decades have witnessed dynamics in demand structure, climate, and demographic characteristics, with fast growth in the demand for livestock products and an increased dependence on livestock for sustainable livelihood systems. In response to these changes, there has been rapid land use and land cover changes, characterized by expansion of agricultural systems and decline in farm sizes, causing environmental degradation in several rural areas. The dilemma remains is to have a trade-off between meeting the expanding demand for livestock products and sustainable utilization of the limited stock of natural resources. This book draws key policy implications for sustainable livestock production, pointing towards incentives for intensification, institutional reforms, improving livestock productivity, and innovations that enhance the synergies between livestock production and the environment. These, can help to enhance livestock production as a key tool towards achievement of sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Horticulture provides many developing countries with opportunities for export diversification, poverty alleviation and rural development. However, stringent public and private-sector food-safety standards, for example EurepGap (or GlobalGap), pose a challenge especially to small export farmers. Compliance with these standards entails costly investments that may be a burden to smallholder farmers, failure to which might lead to their exclusion in the global market. This book assesses awareness of the EurepGap standards among smallholder farmers and analyzes the critical factors influencing their compliance. It also identifies the costs of complying with these standards and their implications on profitability of smallholder French bean farming business using a case study of Kirinyaga District in Kenya. The study makes several policy recommendations that could be implemented to enhance and upscale compliance with the standards in the study area. Particularly it highlights the need for synergies between the public and private sector in ensuring compliance with the standards among the smallholder horticultural farmers who face the risk of elimination in the international market.