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The objective of the present study was to determine the effects of the combination of a lactoperoxidase system (LP-s) and lactoferrin (LF) added to a milk replacer diet on severity of diarrhoea, the morphology of the small intestinal mucosa, and the microbiology of digesta and faeces in young calves, in comparison with a control diet. The experiment was conducted with 30 young calves, 15 per treatment, during the period of 7-21 days of age. During this period, calves are sensitive to gastrointestinal disturbances that can cause diarrhoea. The results showed a significantly (p < 0.05) reduced severity of diarrhoea in the LP-s/LF group compared to the control group as assessed by faecal consistency scores. Numbers of CFU (colony forming units) of Escherichia coli in jejunal and colonic digesta and in faeces were lower in the LP-s/LF group compared with the control group. The differences were significant in both colonic digesta (p < 0.1) and in faeces (p < 0.05). Examination of the small intestinal mucosa, using a dissecting microscope, indicated more finger shaped villi in the distal jejunum of LP-s/LF-treated calves compared with the control group (p < 0.05). Histometrical measurements showed that these villi were significantly (p < 0.05) longer.

In a 4 × 4 Latin square design the ammonia nitrogen (N) concentration in the rumen of West African Dwarf goats was manipulated by infusion of urea at levels of 0, 1.68, 3.36 and 5.04 g N day−1. Sulphur (S) was included in the infusate at an N S ratio of 10:1. The resulting ammonia N concentrations in the rumen were 39.8 mg l−1, 96.5 mg l−1, 180.1 mg l−1 and 250.2 mg l−1 for the respective levels of N infusion. Intake increased significantly with infusion of N, but did not differ significantly between infusion levels of 1.68, 3.36 and 5.04 g day−1. N infusion did not affect digestion of any nutrient except N, the apparent digestion of which increased with increasing level of N infusion. The concentration of volatile fatty acids in the rumen increased with increasing level of digestible organic matter intake (r = 0.63), without a significant change in rumen pH. No effect of N infusion on molar composition of the rumen volatile fatty acid pool was observed. The osmolality of the rumen fluid was significantly correlated with rumen ammonia N concentration (r = 0.64). Rate of passage of the particulate phase increased significantly with increasing N infusion, whereas the rate of passage of the fluid phase and the rumen volume were not significantly affected by N infusion. The rate of degradation, the potential degradable fraction and the disappearance after 48 h of in sacco incubation of neutral detergent fiber were not significantly affected by treatment.

Ammonia-treated wheat straw (AWS) was compared with untreated wheat straw (UWS) and untreated wheat straw supplemented with urea (SWS) in an experiment with 6 wether sheep. Microbial protein synthesis increased after ammonia treatment due to the higher intake of rumen degradable organic matter (OM). The efficiency of microbial protein synthesis was low for all diets, averaging 22.1 g N/kg apparently rumen degradable OM and was not significantly affected by ammonia treatment. Estimates of microbial protein synthesis based on diaminopimelic acid or the amino acid profile methods did not differ significantly. The pool of microbial DM (average, 151 g) and N (12 g) in the rumen and the proportion of rumen microorganisms associated with the fluid phase (average, 36%) were not affected by diet, but the clearance rate (%/h) of microorganisms tended (P

In the tropics, numerous organizations have promoted multipurpose fodder trees (MPFT) with an emphasis on exotic species. These species have generally been selected and recommended by the research system through the conventional nutritional and agronomic experimentation for use as animal feed and soil conservation. In Ethiopia, the introduction of exotic MPFT started in the 1970s. However, despite its apparent benefits, the adoption of exotic MPFT by smallholder farmers has been slow and in some cases farmers ceased using exotic MPFT in their farming systems. The objectives of the present study were to assess farmers’ preference criteria, compare their preference between exotic and local MPFT, and evaluate the relationship of farmers’ knowledge of feed value assessment with laboratory indicators. Focus group discussions and preference ranking and scoring by a total of 40 farmers were conducted in two districts representing two production systems (cereal and coffee-based livestock production systems) in the Ethiopian highlands. The comparison between exotic and local MPFT for their benefits and desired tree characteristics showed that farmers preferred local MPFT to exotics for biomass production, multi-functionality, life span, and compatibility to the cropping system. In terms of feed value, ease of propagation, and growth potential local MPFT were ranked lower than or comparable to exotics. There was also a strong correlation between farmers’ feed value score and laboratory results. Farmers were able to discriminate effectively MPFT species that had high and low protein and fibre content using their indigenous feed value indicator system for all pairwise comparisons. We concluded from this study that farmers’ preference criteria encompass multiple objectives beyond feed value and soil rehabilitation. The different merits that farmers associate with exotic and local MPFT could provide the opportunity to use both MPFT types and to improve farm bio-diversity. Hence, incorporating locally available MPFT, farmers’ indigenous knowledge and preference criteria at the research inception process is vital to maximize the likelihood of farmers’ adopting and maintaining these technologies.

Intake and digestion and rate of passage kinetics were studied in 6 wether sheep fed on ammoniated wheat straw (AWS) plus pelleted sugarbeet pulp, untreated wheat straw plus sugarbeet pulp, and untreated wheat straw supplemented with urea. Ammonia treatment increased intake and whole tract digestion (rumen + small intestine + large intestine) without significantly affecting rumen pool size and rate of passage. 91% of the increased intake of cell wall material in ammonia-treated straw was due to a higher rate of degradation of cell walls in the rumen. No significant effects of ammonia treatment on concentration, molar composition or rate of absorption of volatile fatty acids were observed. The rate of passage in the large intestine and the contribution of this region to digestion were not significantly affected by ammonia treatment. Rumination and eating time and daily number of rumen contractions did not differ among diets, but AWS showed a lower rumination time/kg NDF ingested than the other 2 diets. After ammonia treatment, whole tract digestion and rumen degradation of hemicellulose increased more than those of cellulose. The effects of ammonia treatment could not be attributed to its nitrogen content since there was no effect on any parameter, except rumen ammonia-N concentration.

As a response to a high demand for milk and low national milk supply, the Indonesian government aims to increase national milk production by, among others, increasing the dairy cattle population. This will have consequences especially for manure production. Manure is an inevitable by-product of dairy production and has a number of benefits if it is appropriately managed, but can also cause environmental impacts when high manure production is followed by improper manure management. To avoid these adverse environmental impacts, manure needs to be managed appropriately. Smallholder dairy farms in Indonesia, however, are currently characterized by poor manure management, and with the expected increase in manure production, the importance of improving manure management is increasing. Improving manure management on smallholder farms involves many aspects, such as feed management, land for storing and applying manure, and costs associated with manure management. Knowledge about many of these aspects is lacking. The overall aim of the studies in this PhD thesis was to evaluate emissions to the environment associated with manure management and to identify improvement options on smallholder dairy farms in Indonesia. To this end, the studies in this PhD thesis analysed various aspect of manure management at different aggregation levels (i.e., the animal, farm, regional, and value chain level). At the animal level (Chapter 2), the models to accurately predict N-P excretion of dairy cows on smallholder farms in Indonesia based on readily available farm data were developed. The model predicted actual nutrient excretions with reasonable accuracy. The total N excretion of dairy cows in Indonesia was on average 197 g animal-1 d-1, whereas P excretion was on average 56 g animal-1 d-1. At the farm and regional level (Chapter 3), nutrient balances from dairy farming systems with different manure management systems (MMSs) were analyzed. Furthermore, nutrient balances from farm level were upscaled to regional level to determine the sector’s contribution to the pollution of the Citarum river and to identify potential options for improvement. Results showed that the N balances of all 30 dairy farms averaged 222 kg N farm-1 yr-1 and did not differ between MMSs. The P balances of the farms differed between MMSs; balances were highest for farms that discharge manure (83 kg P farm-1 yr-1) and lowest for farms that sell or export manure (-25 kg P farm-1 yr-1). Annually, all dairy farms in the Lembang region caused a loss of 1,061 tons of N and 290 tons of P into the environment and they extracted 8 tons of P from soils. At the farm and value chain level (Chapter 4 and 5), greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) at the value chain level by means of life cycle assessment (LCA) was estimated. Chapter 4 assessed seasonal differences in GHGE from Indonesian dairy farms by means of longitudinal observations and evaluated the implications of number of farm visits on the variance of the estimated GHGE per kg milk (GHGEI) for a single farm mean, and for the population mean. Results showed that GHGEI was higher in the rainy (1.32 kg CO2-eq kg-1 FPCM) than in the dry (0.91 kg CO2-eq kg-1 FPCM) season. The between farm variance was 0.025 kg CO2-eq kg-1 FPCM in both seasons. The within farm variance in the estimate for a single farm mean and the population mean decreased with an increase in number of farm visits. Variability in GHGEI can therefore be reduced by increasing the number of visits per farm. Forage cultivation was the main source of between farm variance, enteric fermentation the main source of within farm variance. Chapter 5 identified mitigation strategies of GHGE at smallholder dairy farms. The relationship between GHGEI and milk yield per cow for all farms was modelled and farms with an GHGEI below and above their predicted GHGEI were compared (‘low’ and ‘high’ GHGEI farms). Results showed that milk yield explained 57% of the variance in GHGEI among farms. Low GHGEI farms had fewer cows, and fed less rice straw, more cassava waste, and more compound concentrate feed (particularly the type of concentrates consisting largely of by-products from milling industries) than high GHGEI farms. In addition, low GHGEI farms discharged more manure, stored less solid manure, used less manure for anaerobic digestion followed by daily spreading, and applied less manure N on farmland than high GHGEI farms. At the farm and regional level (Chapter 6), the constraints on manure management on smallholder dairy farms and potential opportunities for improvement were identified. There are 20 constraints on manure management, of which availability of space to store manure on the farm, and costs of manure management are regarded most important. Stakeholders proposed strategies to improve manure management: communal manure storage (CMS), a structured manure market, and providing economic and institutional support such as access to credits and financial incentives for good manure management. The cost of manure management was high, and farms that sell or export manure, and farms that have a bio-digester had higher net total cost than farms that discharge manure. Total revenue (TR) differed between manure management systems and farms that apply manure had lower TR than farm that sell or export manure. All MMSs had negative net gross margins which could be explained by the high costs attributed to labour (i.e., family labour) and low revenue from manure. In Chapter 7, the methodological issues of the study, including the scope of the models and the method of data collection were discussed. Chapter 7 integrates the knowledge gained in the various studies and identifies a series of improvement options that connect the aggregation levels animal, farm, region, and value chain. It further suggests ways to create an enabling environment required to implement and effectuate the improvement options.

Land reform is important to correct historical injustices in all districts of South Africa, including the Waterberg District Municipality. There is consensus, globally, that there are trade-offs among diverse land reform objectives, namely: social, economic, political and environmental. The general aim of this thesis, therefore, was to understand land reform: the extent to which it meets objectives and the associated consequences for land use and livelihoods. Restitution- Rest, settlement/land acquisition grant- SLAG, land redistribution for agricultural development phase 1- LRAD1 and phase 2- LRAD2, and proactive land acquisition strategy- PLAS, were the five South Africa’s land reform farm types. The results show that the socio-economic classes of beneficiaries was determined by synergies between policies and their implementation outcomes. Land uses were diverse in Rest, and less diverse and like previous uses in LRAD1, LRAD2 and PLAS. On-farm livestock and overall on-farm livelihood contributions were high for capital-endowed households in LRAD1, LRAD2 and PLAS, and low for capital-poor households in Rest and SLAG. This suggest that land reform was unable to bridge the inequality gap between capital-poor and capital-endowed households, and livestock influenced on-farm contribution in semi-arid conditions. Crop plus ruminants- CR, horticulture- H, ruminants- R, ruminants plus horticulture- RH and monogastrics- M were the five farming systems in land reform farms. These farming systems developed from interactions among the biophysical conditions, land reform policies, socio-economic class of farmers, physical capital endowment of farms, and the type of produce market used. The results suggest that land reform policies could influence land use activities by transferring farms of a particular size, and availability of external physical and financial capital support could determine participation of the poor. Strengths and weaknesses of land reform farms were determined by socio-economic class of farmers and the characteristics of land use activities. Use of farms by the poor led to strengths of low opportunity costs for family labour and farms being prioritised by the state for support, and weakness of being dependent on external support as farmers and farms lacked physical and financial capital, compared to farms used by the better-off. Farms where capital-extensive activities were key had strengths of less capital investment requirements and moderate susceptibility to climate, and a weakness of low possibility for partnerships with large-scale commercial farmers, compared to farm where capital-intensive activities were key. Overall, our results suggest limited use and limited livelihood contributions of land reform farms. These results arise doubts about the relevancy of land reform, and its future depends on stakeholders advocating for it to ensuring that it is implemented through approaches which pays landowners fairly, that correct people benefit, and that appropriate land uses are adopted.

Agri-food value chains in developing countries are experiencing rapid transformations because of increased urbanization, incomes, and supermarket retail chains, which have led to tighter food safety requirements. These changes call for upgrading and coordination of activities and decisions by actors in the chain to ensure value chain efficiency and to meet customer’s demands. Although wide literature is available on value chain upgrading and coordination, most research adopts a chain-wide perspective. Little has been done to understand the role of specific actors like POs. Yet, POs form the main channel through which smallholders are included in agri-food value chains in developing countries. More so, previous studies focus on economic upgrading while little attention has been given to social upgrading. Scholars are beginning to question whether economic upgrading leads to social upgrading.The present thesis aims to gain insights into the role of POs in value chain coordination and upgrading in agri-food value chains, and assess the relationship between economic upgrading and social upgrading.The thesis addresses this general aim using four research questions and by using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Chapter 2 takes a first step in answering the general aim by focusing on the business models of POs. With the changing coordination and upgrading strategies of value chains, POs are expected to change their business models as they adopt coping strategies. However, not much is known about the business models of POs. Thus, Chapter 2 fill this gap by answering the following question:RQ1: What are the business model components of POs and what typology of PO business models can be derived?Based on key informant interviews with managers and members of the board of 22 POs, experts from the government, and NGOs together with observations of PO activities and meetings, qualitative data was obtained to explore business models of POs. The study finds that key activities, key resources, members, governance structure, cost structure, and revenue streams, customer segments, legal form, and member and customer value propositions are important business model components of POs. Four types of business models of POs were derived including bargaining, cooling, hub, and processing. A processing PO is associated with the highest level of vertical integration and economic upgrading, while a bargaining PO is associated with low economic upgrading and vertical coordination in value chains. Cooling and hub POs facilitate intermediate levels. Because of its focus on improving competitiveness in value chains, we consider a processing PO as more business-oriented than bargaining, cooling, and hub POs. A bargaining PO is a typical example of a traditional organization or in other words, a less business-oriented organization.Chapter 3 extends the scope of the initial study by including a survey of smallholders in bargaining and processing POs to examine social inclusion. The purpose of this study is to assess the determinants of smallholders’ membership and participation in decision-making processes in POs. This will help in explaining social inclusion in POs, thus contributing to understanding social upgradining in value chains. The following research question was addressed:RQ2: What factors determine farmers’ membership and their participation in decision-making in POs?Using the economic utility theory and multinomial logit analysis of quantitative data from the 595 smallholder dairy farmers, results show that membership in bargaining POs favors farmers with hired labor and those in remote locations. Farmers who are more educated, own pure breeds, and have a large number of cows are likely to belong to processing POs compared to non-membership. Furthermore, farmers who are located in less remote areas are more likely to be members of processing POs versus non-membership. A sequential logit model was employed to analyze smallholder participation in three decision-making stages: attending the AGM, speaking up in the AGM, and serving on the board. The relationship between membership in processing POs and participation is negative. Membership in processing POs reduces the likelihood to speak up in the AGM and to serve on the board. We find that farm assets such as ownership of pure breed cows, number of cows, and farm size are positively associated with attending the AGM of bargaining POs while young farmers and women are excluded from the decision-making process in processing POs. Likewise, the probability of small farmers and those with low social capital to participate in the processing POs is low. The study provides insights into the role of POs in social upgrading in value chains.Chapter 4 offers further insights into the role of POs in social upgrading by examining who benefits from inclusion. It is argued that women control fewer resources, have less decision-making power over household income, and face time constraints because of their triple burden of productive, domestic, and community responsibilities (IFPRI, 2020). This creates barriers to women's participation in agri-food value chains. POs have been recognized as promising channels for women smallholders to overcome agricultural production and marketing challenges by facilitating access to markets, information, training, and inputs, and increasing women empowerment. Chapter 4 examines the effect of membership in POs on women empowerment by answering the following question:RQ3: What is the effect of household and woman membership in POs on women empowerment?The effect of PO membership is distinguished by the type of PO and the gender of a member. Quantitative data was used from 267 men and 207 women in member and non-membermarried households, and an entropy balancing technique and regression models were employed to assess the membership effect. Empowerment indicators are drawn from the Women Empowerment Livestock Index (WELI) tool and include(1) decisions about agricultural production; (2) decisions related to nutrition; (3) access to and control over resources; (4) control over and use of income; (5) access to and control over opportunities; and (6) workload. We find that household membership in a bargaining PO, that is, regardless of whether the man or the woman in the household is the member, increases women’s ownership of cows, their control over decisions on buying and selling of cows and dairy production while household membership in processing POs increases women’s control over dairy production decisions. Distinguishing the membership effect by the gender of the member, we find that woman membership in bargaining POs increases women’s ownership of cows but woman membership in processing POs has no significant effect on this outcome. The paper suggests that the type of PO has implications for women empowerment with bargaining POs appearing to be more empowering than processing POs.In Chapter 5, we gather empirical evidence from smallholders on economic upgrading through POs. The study focuses on process upgrading regarding improvement of food safety control measures. Food safety is the main determinant for coordination and upgrading in value chains and for inclusion of smallholders. The study examines the effect of membership in POs on the adoption of food safety measures. The research question asked is as follows:RQ4: What is the effect of household membership in POs on the adoption of food safety measures?We assess whether and to what extent membership in POs affects farmers’ adoption of food safety measures, and explore the differences in membership effects across POs. Using a literature review and 11 expert interviews, we identify four categories of food safety measures related to production: milking, milk storage, milking area, and animal health. The expert interviews aided in rating the importance of each category on milk safety and in generating the food safety indexes for the categories. We then used the food safety indexes to empirically evaluate the effect of membership on the adoption of the food safety measures across the four categories. For this empirical estimation, a quantitative survey with 595 smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya was employed. Using the propensity score matching technique to control for selection bias, our results show that membership positively and significantly improves smallholders’ adoption of food safety measures related to milk storage and the cleaning of the milking area. Notably, the estimation of the membership effects across POs reveals that members of processing POs achieve higher adoption levels of food safety measures than members of bargaining POs. The effect size of membership in processing POs is larger than that of membership in bargaining POs. We confirm that adopting vertical integration entails following strict food safety control measures.In sum, the four research questions have contributed to understanding value chain coordination and upgrading through POs. Regarding business models of POs, we show that where low coordination and economic upgrading exist in value chains, POs perform traditional functions of collection and bulking to improve economies of scale. However, as the need for coordination and economic upgrading increases, POs vertically integrate into processing, provide additional services such as inputs and technical training, hire professional managers, improve value proposition for members and customers and adopt strict food safety control measures. The typology is useful in formulating a business model design when establishing a new PO. For researchers, the typology is important for analyzing the impact of different POs on smallholder livelihoods and the performance of the organizations.In terms of the relationship between economic upgrading and social upgrading, bargaining POs are associated with low economic upgrading, but high social upgrading. Processing POs are associated with high economic upgrading, i.e., high food safety compliance, access to technical services, and vertical integration. However, this results in a trade-off where poor and women farmers are excluded from value chains. If development practitioners aim to promote inclusive growth, supporting bargaining POs is recommended. For processing POs, provision of additional services such as financial and technical training to the poorest farmers would be needed to improve inclusion in highly upgraded value chains.

Grain legumes are important crops in the mixed crop-livestock (MCL) systems in Africa because they provide food and cash for humans, fodder for animals and they improve soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation. The residues of grain legumes, also known as grain legume fodders (GLFs), have better nutritional quality than cereal residues, such as maize and rice straw. Besides their function as livestock feed, GLFs supply fuel, construction material and mulch for soil improvement. However, knowledge about factors that drive the diversity of use of GLFs in different farming systems is limited. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to understand the roles of grain legume fodders in mixed crop-livestock systems and identify options to improve their quality and utilisation by smallholders in northern Ghana. To achieve this objective, we conducted four multi-disciplinary studies. First, we assessed and described the variation in the use of GLFs to understand their impacts on MCL systems. Second, we evaluated and compared the effects of rhizobium inoculation and phosphorus fertilization on grain and fodder yield and fodder quality of the major grain legumes in two agro-ecological zones. Third, we evaluated the effects of storage conditions and duration on dry matter loss and nutritional quality of GLFs and to risk of aflatoxin formation in stored fodder. Lastly, we assessed the nutritional quality of stored GLFs using different quality assessment methods. Results show there is variation in the use of GLFs in the study regions in northern Ghana. For example, in Upper East region, most of the GLFs (87%) was stall-fed, whereas in Upper West region GLFs were for a considerable extent (61%), left on the field and used for mulching. In Northern region, both stall-feeding and grazing of GLFs was important. In our agronomic studies we found that rhizobium inoculation of cowpea seed, for example, increased grain yield by 44%, P-fertilization increased grain yield by 102% while the combination of P and inoculation increased grain yield by 123% compared to the control treatment where no input was applied. In the storage experiment, we found that dry matter loss during storage for 120 days was on average 24% across all storage conditions, 35% for the worst condition (tied in bundles and stored on roofs or tree-forks) and 14% for the best condition (sacks and in rooms). During storage, the CP content and OMD decreased, and the content of cell wall components increased. Aflatoxins were not detected in stored GLFs. Finally, in fodder quality assessment studies, all the four methods used (farmers’ perception, sheep preference, leaf-to-stem ratio and laboratory analyses) successfully discriminated GLF quality between crops. Only farmers and sheep could distinguish quality differences among storage conditions, whereas laboratory assessment methods could not. In general we concluded that with increasing importance of livestock in intensified MCL systems, GLFs become more important and more valuable for feeding, especially in the dry season. For this reason smallholder farmers can increased both grain and fodder yield of grain legumes concurrently through the use of rhizobium inoculation and P-fertilization. They can also reduce GLF nutritional quality and dry matter quantity loss by adopting appropriate fodder storage methods. The absence of aflatoxin in the groundnut fodder samples indicated that there is minimal risk of aflatoxin development when stored under dry conditions as in our study. Finally, farmers’ experience and local knowledge in feeding GLFs to livestock is valuable in determining the quality of GLFs and preference of their animals.

In 2010, the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy concluded that development cooperation lacks a development cooperation ethics. Ethical problems in development cooperation include the neglect of unintended and negative results of development programmes, the employment of methods that are disrespectful of human agency, motives that are publicly professed to be predominantly self-interested, and operative worldviews that are myopic in their focus on only specific development trajectories at the exclusion of others. This thesis responds to this challenge by offering a proposal for an ethical approach to development cooperation. Therefore, the main research question is: how should an encompassing development cooperation ethics look like?The question is answered by deploying the Normative Practice Approach (NPA). The NPA is a conceptual and normative framework that enables professionals to deal with tensions within their practices. The NPA is normative in the sense that it articulates both the normative principles that hold for professional practices, and the way they cohere and interact.It is argued in this thesis that development cooperation can be understood as a domain-relative normative practice. Professional development cooperation has its own normative structure; yet, development cooperation is simultaneously geared towards some domain, such as basic education, health care, or agriculture. This thesis focuses on development cooperation in the agro-food domain.Development cooperation as practice has a structural, regulative, and contextual side. The structural side of development cooperation refers to the kind of practice it is. The structural side can be further differentiated into foundational, qualifying, and conditioning modal aspects. Modal aspects refer to ways of being of all entities, including practices. Some fifteen aspects can be distinguished. The formative aspect is foundational for development cooperation in the sense that technical knowledge first makes possible the performance of the practice. At the same time, development cooperation is characterized by facilitation and is therefore seen as qualified by the formative aspect as well, with its normative principle of meaning- oriented design. Facilitating the agency of farmers and other people involved with food production is constitutive for agricultural development cooperation as a practice. Practicing agricultural development cooperation means to build the capability of these actors to produce and trade on fair terms.Conditioning modal aspects with their respective normative principles imply efficient and cost- effective programme planning (economic aspect), playful imagining of different agricultural development scenario’s (aesthetic aspect), and the inclusion of justified interests and the equal consideration of those interests in a development programme (jural aspect). For a meaningful performance of development cooperation, development professionals should simultaneously realize all those normative principles, under the lead of the qualifying normative principle of meaning-oriented shaping. For this, virtuous, development professionals and organizations are needed who give shape to those normative principles in their acting.Because development cooperation is a domain-relative practice, its fruitful and meaningful performance requires that the respective normativity of the various practices in the facilitated agro-food domain will be respected. This thesis provides a detailed normative analysis of livestock development as one sub-cluster in the agro-food domain. Employing the NPA, again qualifying, foundational, and conditioning modal aspects are distinguished. The economic aspect is seen to qualify and the formative aspect to found the livestock farming practice. What this means is that livestock farming realizes its destination by particularly observing economic normativity. Examples of conditioning normativity include social normativity (reducing odour emissions) and jural normativity (fair trade with suppliers and buyers). It is argued that sustainable livestock farming – understood as livestock farming that can be maintained over time – is farming that takes into account this normativity that holds for the livestock farming practice.Faith and religion are important within development cooperation. Religion and religious practices are omnipresent within development contexts, and faith-based organizations play a significant role within development cooperation. Within the NPA, the influence of faith convictions and religious ideas is conceptualized by distinguishing a regulative side next to the structural side of practices. Within agricultural development cooperation, it is helpful to distinguish between different kinds of practices involved, namely farming practice, scientific practice, and faith practice. Within each of these practices faith functions as a worldview. In the farming and scientific practices, however, faith is not qualifying for the practices. There, justice should primarily be done to, respectively, the economic and analytical aspects and their respective normativity. This conceptualization prevents dichotomous models of science-based versus faith-based approaches within agricultural research and development.It is shown in this thesis that in evaluations of dairy development programmes in Kenya, a Cartesian worldview is operative. This appears from a strong emphasis on technology transfer and adoption (especially in bilateral and multilateral programmes), on individual women’s control of household resources, and on the neglect of religious understandings in relation to livestock. This Cartesian orientation puts development professionals and organizations for the dilemma of planned development. The problem is that the autonomy of intended beneficiaries and their organizations is implicitly thought to be opposed to that of development professionals and their organizations. It is argued that the dilemma of planned development can be dealt with by doing justice to the normative structure of the development cooperation practice, and conceiving of agency in a broader way than usual in development cooperation ethics.The organizational embedding of professional development practitioners refers to the contextual side of the development cooperation practice. Organizations professionally involved with development cooperation include business, non-governmental, and governmental organizations. Each of these organizational contexts make different legitimate claims on the embedded development cooperation practitioners. On this organizational level, the respective qualifying aspects associated with the different types of organizations should be kept in sight for a meaningful and complementary collaboration among stakeholders in development cooperation.To conclude, it is suggested that the NPA can address the problems in development cooperation through explicitly conceptualizing effectiveness as an appropriate normative principle (results), conceiving of development cooperation as facilitation (methods), recognizing the importance of an attitude of love (motives), and both acknowledging that worldviews play a role in development professionals’ everyday acting and being responsive to a given normativity as articulated in various worldviews (worldviews).

How can dairy farmers in the land-scarce East African highlands increase their market participation in a sustainable way? Answering this question is important to ensure sufficient supply of safe milk and dairy products to rural and urban consumers. The question implies that farmers can make a decent livelihood, achieve investments and changes in their practices, and are not exposed to insurmountable risks. It also implies that other actors in the market chain do the same, and that a conducive enabling environment is present. The question further touches on societal expectations regarding what is being produced and how, with profound concerns about social inclusivity and the impact of market dynamics and climate change.Chapter 1 lays out the objective of this thesis to gain insights into factors affecting commercialization of dairy farming under land scarcity, through assessment of the dynamics of market participation, land use intensification, and resilience of dairy farming systems in relation to the markets for inputs, services, and outputs. The main research question is: in what ways do market quality and spatial factors affect commercialization of dairy farming systems under land scarcity in two countries in the East African highlands? It considers the research question from different angles: the role of spatial factors in driving or hindering upgrading of dairy farming systems; the effects of input and service arrangements on the market quality and market participation of dairy farmers; and lastly, transition and resilience of farming systems Chapter 2 looks at the effect of being located in a dairy cluster on dairy farm commercialization. This comparative study of five emerging dairy clusters elaborates how the upgrading of farming systems, value chains, and context shapes transformations from semi-subsistent to market-oriented dairy farming. The main results show unequal cluster upgrading along two intensification dimensions: dairy feeding system and cash cropping. Intensive dairy competes with high-value cash crop options that resource-endowed farmers specialize in, given conducive support service arrangements and context conditions. A large number of drivers and co-dependencies between technical, value chain, and institutional upgrading build up to system jumps. The main theoretical implications are (1) for the debate about cluster upgrading, that co-dependencies between farming system, market, and context factors determine upgrading outcomes; and (2) for the debate about intensification pathways, that service providers need to consider differences in farmer resource endowments, path dependency, concurrency, and upgrading investments.Chapter 3 explores the effects of proximity to input and output markets on commercialization. Dairy farms in nine villages each in Ethiopia and Kenya were sampled and interviewed along a double proximity gradient, to local and end-markets. Effects on many production and marketing parameters were measured and compared, to test the hypotheses that intensity of dairy farming and degree of market participation increase (1) with proximity to end-markets and (2) with proximity to local service centres. Findings prove the second, but only partly the first one. An implication of this study is that the common typology of dairy farms as ‘(peri-)urban’ and ‘rural’ needs adjustment by outlining local market access and connectivity. ‘Remote’ rural farms need to be connected to milk collection infrastructure, input shops and services to even have the choice to increase market participation.Chapter 4 presents a case study from Kenya on one particular model of service agri-enterprises, evaluating both technical and business performance. It addresses the gap in understanding performance of emerging private agricultural extension and advisory service (AEAS) models in developing country contexts, in relation to their dual objectives of supporting farmer-clients and becoming profitable agribusinesses themselves. A multiple case study is presented of an emerging youth-led agribusiness model offering silage-making and other services in the Kenyan dairy sector. The results show its contribution to some changes in farmers’ practices, but with limitations to optimal technical performance. Evidence implies that enhancing the contribution of such agri-enterprises to transforming agrifood systems requires sustained support in business incubation, market development, and strengthening of the value proposition to farmer-clients. The dual perspective on performance expands theoretical perspectives for assessing AEAS, especially in relation to commercialization.Chapter 5 contains a review of how resilience is being assessed in recent literature. It aims to identify the commonalities, differences, and gaps, as well as their implications, in resilience conceptualization and in assessment approaches for farming systems. The lack of agreement on resilience, links to other key concepts, and degree of specification lead to different choices in assessment approaches. This chapter uses a series of characteristics to code and assess 123 papers relating to resilience and its assessment, in order to clarify the apparent ambiguity in theoretical underpinning of resilience assessment approaches. The study proposes to further develop resilience assessment methodology by drawing from the different perspectives, and it identifies five key elements that should be included in such methodology development.The discussion in Chapter 6 formulates conclusions and implications for theory, policy and practice. The main conclusions are:Spatial factors are critical drivers of commercialization of dairy farming, with proximity to local markets and being located in a dairy cluster enhancing commercialization.Concurrent and co-dependent upgrading in farming, market, and context domains enhances market quality for dairy and/or other farming activities.Farmers’ market quality and feasibility space are also enhanced by the plurality and performance of input and service provision.Risks and risk perceptions around market quality play important roles in decisions of upgrading; resilience assessment needs to move beyond specific and known risks to include multiple and unknown risks, in order for commercialization to be sustained.Connecting theory around system jumps of farming systems and around resilience determinants offers a way to explain farmer attitudes toward commercialization.Dairy commercialization will thus need to consider spatial effects; concurrent upgrading in farm, market, and contextual domains; plurality and performance of input and service providers; risks and risk perceptions; and resilience so that commercialization can be sustained over time.

Mixed crop-livestock (MCL) systems with small herds of improved dairy cattle breeds produce the bulk of Kenya’s milk. The adoption of interventions to achieve increased cow productivity and increased market orientation has been relatively low, which could be due to the fact that variation between MCL farming systems is not taken into account in development projects. Variation among farming systems is determined by their market quality for inputs and outputs, by their availability of production factors, and by their biophysical context. These aspects are associated with spatial variation, i.e. they differ among locations. Consequently, farming systems in different locations will be different, will have different constraints and different targeted interventions to overcome these constraints. Better understanding of the variation in these systems and the context they operate in can inform development interventions towards their market-orientation and productivity. The aim of this thesis was to understand the variation in farming system development, constraints for development and targeted interventions for development, in order to increase market-orientation and dairy cattle productivity of smallholder MCL system in Kenya. I concluded from my studies that in Urban Locations (UL), farm development was constrained by scarcity of fodder, replacement stock and hired labour, and the limited availability of production factors, while in Rural Locations (RL) farm development was constrained by low quality of concentrates and low prices of milk. In UL, most perceived positive deviant farmers (PDs), i.e. farmers that overcame constraints and/or were perceived successful for dairy production, were economic PDs. Results suggest that in UL, PDs overcame constraints by increasing herd size and intensity of production, whereas non-PDs lacked the skills and financial stability to increase herd size and milk production per cow. In RL, PDs overcame constraints by increasing herd size, whereas non-PDs lacked the skills and financial stability to increase herd size. A method was developed to estimate milk production per lactation (MPL) from recall data, which was used to assess the biophysical factors constraining milk production. Results suggest that the level of accuracy of estimating MPL based on recall data were acceptable. In all locations, feed was the most important biophysical constraint for increasing milk production and protein deficiency was a pervasive constraining factor during lactation. Therefore, supplementing lucerne, with or without concentrates, increased feedlimited milk production, suggesting that sourcing affordable protein supplements of good quality is a priority for increasing productivity. These results imply that development interventions should address the different constraints in the farming systems. UL farmers and PDs are following the stepping-up livelihood strategy and relevant interventions should be tailored for commercial production including to develop and/or strengthen market-oriented fodder production and value chains, infrastructure, and training and extension. RL non-PDs are hanging-in and interventions should address both production function and subsistence function of cattle and should include improving farmers’ financial stability, access to grazing areas, and skills as well as improving breeds. Future dairy development in Kenya will follow diverse pathways with mid-rural location (the location between UL and RL, about 15 to 50 km from the centre of UL) as the most promising optimal location for dairy development because of land availability and potential to develop formal dairy value chains and infrastructure and recycle nutrients.

Members of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are both vulnerable to the health burdens that stem from food insecurity and central to improving the availability and affordability of wholesome foods. It has been estimated that chronic and hidden hunger can be alleviated by implementing a suite of nutrition-specific interventions at a cost of US\$9.6 billion per annum. This can be accelerated with complementary food system-based interventions. However, such interventions are hampered by a limited understanding of food security status and its associations with rural livelihoods. Therefore, the primary objective of this thesis was to describe, analyse and understand food security in rural landholding households in predominantly mixed crop-livestock agricultural systems of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The secondary objective was to improve the methodological basis of household level food security studies. The rural household multi-indicator survey (RHOMIS) tool was developed to describe and analyse the circumstances of rural households. The RHOMIS tool aims to adhere to the principles of being time-efficient, utilitarian, user-friendly, flexible and reliable. The credibility, consistency and reliability of data collected using three different farm household surveys. The shorter and more targeted survey tool, RHOMIS, performed better in terms of staying within credible bounds. Measurements of maize yields and land area owned were found to be less reliable than other variables. Despite the limitations in data quality, our analysis shows that if the same farm households are followed over time, the sample sizes needed to detect substantial changes are in the order of hundreds of surveys, and not in the thousands. The RHOMIS tool was then used to quantify changes in livelihoods and food security status in an urban linked, high potential region of Tanzania. Households in the study site adaptively responded to local and national circumstances. Changes in land ownership, livestock-holdings and high value crop production were most likely related to market opportunities and personal circumstances, rather than to direct interventions. Several households made strategic changes by expanding land ownership, planting perennial crops and investing in exotic cattle breeds; many households tactically utilised their land for diversified, mixed crop-livestock production. A central finding of this study is that the complex risk management strategies and market responsiveness demonstrated by the `Rising' clusters are at odds with single focus activities that external organisations tend to promote. Subsequently, instances of chronic and hidden hunger were analysed in two provinces of Burkina Faso. The results of this study show that in both provinces, the ability to purchase food is what differentiates the more food secure households from their less food secure counterparts. This finding does not detract from the utility of subsistence production -- where consumption of own-farm sourced food catered for between 72\% and 91\% of the annual energy requirements. Further, households were observed to be pursuing market-oriented strategies in combination with production diversification -- likely to reduce risk exposure to climatic or economic shocks. In a large sample of households across SSA, we found that as many as 40\% of households were classified as chronically hungry in the lean period. Prevalence of micronutrient dietary gaps were high, ranging from 35\% of households to 68\%. Vulnerability to dietary gaps differed by household composition, livelihood characteristics and agro-ecological zone (AEZ). It is the combination of livelihood characteristics and the agro-ecological production potential that drive the availability of food and income. It was found that households fail to purchase food categories that nutritionally complement their own agricultural products. Furthermore, households with a livestock component to their farm were found to have a lower prevalence of chronic and hidden hunger. In extended analyses, the gender of household head and stage of life were found to be associated with the number of household inhabitants and thus influence nutritional requirements and food security status throughout the year. The high prevalence of food insecurity, the complexity of associations and the failure to nutritionally complement own-production with purchases have implications for developing effective interventions. Programs can be designed as `packages' of agricultural and non-agricultural interventions to maximise adoption and maximise the positive impact on food and nutrition security throughout the year.