Search

Cattle are one of the most important livestock species in Nigeria because they provide multiple services to farmers and contributes to the national economy. In order to advance the benefits of cattle production, there are several breeding and genetic improvement programmes which have been implemented to enhance productivity of the indigenous cattle and pastoral livelihoods. However, after about 100 years of breeding and genetic improvement programmes, Nigeria still struggles to derive expected benefits from cattle production. Hence, this study was carried out to analyse previous cattle breeding and genetic improvement programmes in Nigeria to identify their successes and pitfalls as well as potential roles of post genomics technologies for advancing cattle production. The study identified optimization of indigenous cattle for meat and milk production as the main objective of the previous breeding and genetic improvement programmes; unfortunately, major pitfalls of the programmes are unrealistic breeding objectives and inadequate relevant stakeholder involvement. Furthermore, during their heydays, some of the programmes were successful, popular, and exemplary; but the shortcomings in planning and execution contributed to their failures. After analysis of 9 regional and national cattle breeding and genetic improvement programmes implemented in Nigeria, for cattle breeding and genetic improvement programmes in Nigeria to be among the league of successful similar programmes around the world, there is a need to consider genomic selection of cattle for genetic improvement. Also, the study suggested the need for collaborative networks among scientists, ranchers, breeders associations, smallholder farmers, institutions, biotechnology companies, government ministries, departments, agencies; and non-governmental organizations operating in the domain of cattle breeding, genetics, reproduction and production for advancement of cattle breeding and genetic improvement programmes in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network structures have drawn a lot of research interest in recent years. However, little is known about how the diversity, complexity, and structure of the multi-actor networks associated with a project shapes information exchange and linkages in different contexts. This study, conducted in 2017, addresses this deficiency by analyzing the social networks in three villages, and it was directly set up in response to operationalizing a smallholder dairy development project. Social network analysis was used to characterize the networks and to look into network configuration and information exchange dynamics. Data were collected through household-level interviews with the project's participant farmers and key project stakeholders, supplemented with other Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques. Analysis focused on network visualization and estimation of specific network parameters for comparison. Results indicated that public sector actors were the key drivers in all these smallholder networks. Flow of information was favored both vertically and horizontally in the network, which was configured at a later stage, rather than in the project piloting stages, owing to unique actor alignment and multiplicity of ties. The networks were also found to vary in terms of some of the network attributes, signaling varying levels of network integration and brokerage potential. Better cohesiveness and information spread was observed in the network, which had the right mix of information acquisition and exchange networks. The study offers valuable lessons with respect to connectedness of network actors, need for multi-actor alliance, and implication of centrality measures in determining network dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]