Projekt

Cross-border and regional livestock mobility is critical for pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods in the West African region. However, the availability and herders' utilization of different pastoral resources including animal genetic patrimony, grasslands, browse, and water along the mobility routes from the Sahel to the West African Coast are still poorly understood. These bottleneck issues require research attention, and will be critical in informing policies and avoiding over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources. The main objectives of the study are therefore to: i) analyze mobile pastoralists' uses and management of natural resources (animals, rangelands) along the mobility routes, thereby accounting for interactions with sedentary pastoralists; ii) quantify the effects of mobility and its associated network of exchanges between mobile and sedentary herders on the genetic structure and diversity of local cattle populations, and on the productivity of both livestock and rangelands, and iii) derive recommendations for improved livelihoods of pastoralists, conservation of diversity in animal genetic resources, and hence for securing herd productivity in the region.

• Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stützel

  Universität Hannover
  Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
  Institut für Gartenbauliche Produktionssysteme
  Abteilung Systemmodellierung Gemüsebau
  Hannover
  

• Dr. Luc Hippolyte Dossa

  University of Abomey-Calavi
  Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
  Porto-Novo
  Benin
  

• Estimation of live bodyweight from linear body measurements and body condition score in the West African Savannah Shorthorn Cattle in North-West Benin

• The indigenous Somba cattle of the hilly Atacora region in North-West Benin: threats and opportunities for its sustainable use

• Change and continuity in traditional cattle farming systems of West African Coast countries: a case study from Benin.

• Determinants of crossbreeding practices by cattle farmers in South Benin, West Africa: implications for the sustainable use of the indigenous Lagune cattle population