Nutrient Requirements of Livestock for Sustainable Productivity in Tropical Africa: A Review (Published)
The objective of this paper was to review nutrient requirements of farm animals in other to improve feed supply and utilization for healthy sustainable livestock productivity in tropical Africa. Farm animals require nutrients to support body maintenance, reproduction, lactation, and growth. The nutritional needs of livestock vary according to breed, age, sex, class, stage of production, performance level and weight. Physiological and environmental stressors, such as sickness and weather, can also influence nutritional requirements of farm animals. Most livestock need carbohydrates, protein, minerals, vitamins and water. Identification of nutritional need of farm animals throughout the production cycle is paramount. Feeding animals without consideration to their nutrient requirements is tantamount to wasting time and resources. Matching animal requirements to nutrient value of feeds and using body condition score to fine tune the nutritional program of farm animals is also economically advantageous. Feed, whether purchased or produced on the farm, make up a large part of the expenses incurred in livestock production. Therefore, for profitable and healthy production, proper feeding and year-round management are essential. Without proper nutrition, it is impossible to produce a high-quality livestock, wean healthy heavy animals, and develop satisfactory flock replacements. All livestock producers should have a basic understanding of animal nutrition and should be familiar with common nutrition terms. Producers must also know the nutritional requirements of the animals at different stages of life. The ideal nutrition program supports optimum production, is efficient and economical, and minimizes related problems. In order to understand the fundamentals of livestock nutrition, the farmer must first know the nutrients essential for growth, production, and reproduction.
Keywords: Farm Animals, Productivity, Utilization, feed supply, tropical Africa
Examination of Acquisition and Utilization of Credits by Maize Farmers in Delta State, Nigeria (Published)
The study examined the acquisition and utilization of credits by maize farmers in Delta State, Nigeria. A simple random selection technique, on the whole, 210 respondents were selected and utilized for the study. The results indicate that male and female farmers were all actively involved in the production of maize in the study area, with male and female farmers accounting for 58.1% and 41.9 % respectively. It was further observed that that all the maize farmers practiced one type of cropping system or the other, with the respondents distributed as follows; sole cropping (33.3%), mixed cropping (62.9 %) and other cropping systems (3.8%). Majority of farmers engaged in mixed cropping because it reduces risk of revenue loss in the event of crop failure. Different varieties of maize were grown by the farmers, with 44.8% planting local varieties, 47.1% improved variety and only 8.1% mixed variety. The study found that only 43.81% of all respondents had access to credits associations mostly from Isusu/Esusu. In term of total volume of credit sourced, cooperative societies ranked highest contributions. On the determinants of farmers’ decision to access and utilize production credit, five of the eight parameters included in the model were significant, these being age, farm size, farming experience, membership of farmers association and distance to nearest credit center. The percentage loan repayment rate was a mean of 80%. The t – test statistics revealed that maize farmers that utilized credit produced significantly higher output per hectare (1.740 tonnes/ha) (p < 0.01) than farmers that had no access to credit (0.914 tonnes/ha). The findings also indicate that the farmer encountered number of problems, with the major constraint being high cost of production (55.2%). The main costs of production that really contributed to this high costs were labour, fertilizers and transportation. Next in weight of the constraints was non availability of improved maize seed (23.8%). It was recommended that formal credit outlets should be established within close distance to farmers, to encourage credit and acquisition utilization and time repayment.
Keywords: Acquisition, Utilization, credits, maize farmers