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This paper studies the causal mechanisms behind poverty traps, building on evidence of nonlinear wealth dynamics among a poor pastoralist population, the Boran from southern Ethiopia. In particular, it explores the roles of adverse weather shocks and individual ability to cope with such shocks in conditioning wealth dynamics. Using original data, we establish pastoralists’ expectations of herd ...

Ethnoveterinary practices are locally available and affordable to Fulani pastoralists in Niger State, Nigeria, to whom conventional veterinary services are often not readily available and are relatively expensive. This study was designed to identify and document medicinal plant and nonplant materials used by this group in the management of cattle diseases. Participatory rural appraisal tools of...

Although southern African Khoisan populations are often assumed to have remained largely isolated during prehistory, there is growing evidence for a migration of pastoralists from eastern Africa some 2,000 years ago, prior to the arrival of Bantu-speaking populations in southern Africa. Eastern Africa harbors distinctive lactase persistence (LP) alleles, and therefore LP alleles in southern Afr...

Aim: The purpose of this pilot study was to genetically identify and characterize Coxiella burnetii from Amblyomma varigatum ticks collected on cattle in North central Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total of 40 partially fed ticks morphologically identified as adult A. variegatum ticks collected from cattle owned by Fulani pastoralists were evaluated for the presence of C. burnetii using PCR...

Food Security Context: Complex Patterns of Climate, Climate Change, and Livelihoods Most rural people live in the highlands and middle-highlands, which comprise only one-third of the country, and this population tends to be concentrated primarily in Oromia or northern SNNPR. The seasonality of rainfall varies in different areas of Ethiopia. In the eastern Somali region, rains come twice a year–...

INTRODUCTION One of the major challenges faced by the livestock sub-sector in Tanzania is how to utilize opportunities available from the ongoing socio-economic reforms to enable the sub-sector to become one of the major contributors to the national GDP. This is because livestock production is one of the major agricultural activities in Tanzania. As a major local income assuror, the livestock s...