Towards community-based in situ conservation strategies: a typological analysis of Borgou cattle herding systems in northeastern Benin

Small ruminant farmers' feeding strategies to cope with climate change across five agroecological zones of Benin, West Africa

This study aimed to understand feeding strategies used by small ruminant farmers to cope with climatic change in the five contrasting agroecological zones (AEZ) of the Benin Republic and to identify the determinants of adopting these strategies. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to conduct interviews with 400 smallholder farmers in the rural areas of Benin. Data was collected on production system characteristics, farmers' perception of climatic changes' impacts on livestock production, and their coping strategies. Cross tabulations with Chi2 statistic and the non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test were used to compare farmers' perceptions and coping strategies between the five AEZ. Then, the binomial logistic regression was used to identify determinants of using a particular adaptive feeding strategy. The farmers perceived climatic changes as rainfall delays, increasing rainfall, less frequent drought periods during the rainy season, no change in sunshine duration, and no change in temperature. These changes negatively affected grassland biomass production (86.3 %, 86.3 % and 77.5 % of farmers in South Borgou, Plateau, Atacora chain AEZ, respectively) and water availability (100 %, 93.7 %, and 85 % of farmers in Oueme Valley, Plateau and Mekrou-penjari AEZ, respectively). Consequently, farmers mentioned decreased animal growth (58.8 % and 45 % of farmers in Plateau and South Borgou AEZ, respectively) and increased animal mortalities (43.8 % in Plateau AEZ). Farmers' current and future coping strategies varied significantly (p<0.05) among AEZ. These strategies included more diversification of feed resources used, more free wandering of animals, feeding intensification with supplements as current strategies, and new feed resource exploration and forage cultivation as future strategies. Logistic regression results showed that gender, education level, main activity, and the climatic and agroecological zones where the farm is located influenced the strategies used. The study showed that farmers understood climate change and its impact on production systems. In response, the common climate-smart feeding strategies adopted were mainly diversifying feed resources. Feed resources use strategies, and limitations to adopting these strategies, could be assessed in future studies.

The functional traits and threats to the Borgou cattle breed as perceived by farmers in Benin

Benin has been facing the loss of its animal genetic heritage over the years. The aim of this study was to explore the reasons related to the progressive abandonment of the Borgou cattle breed. The assessment of threat level and functional traits related to the Borgou breed was therefore collected through semi-structured interviews from 105 cattle farmers using the Likert scale (1 to 5), and the scores recorded were compared within each group of farmers using the Kruskal–Wallis and the Mann–Whitney U tests. The results showed that depending on the types of farmers surveyed, the Borgou breed is much more threatened by the Zebu Goudali (p > 0.05), Yakana (p > 0.05) and Azawak (p < 0.05) with their medians ranging from 3.5 to 5. The lack of good breeding bulls and uncontrolled cross-breeding were considered to be the socio-environmental factors having more influence on the conservation of the Borgou breed (medians ranging from 3 to 4) according to the types of farmers (p > 0.05). Farmers appreciated its qualities such as adaptability, resistance to diseases, fertility, manure production, conformation, aptitude for draught and valorization of food resources (median: 3 to 5). However, scores recorded (medians 2 to 3) for the growth (p > 0.05), milk production (p > 0.05) and selling price (p < 0.01) of Borgou cattle indicated that these traits were unsatisfactory for farmers and reveal that the Borgou breed is mainly discarded in view of its low capacity to swiftly produce meat and its low milk productivity. This leads farmers to resort to cross-breeding through the use of other more productive breeds. This study will therefore allow to take into account farmers’ perceptions in the development of programmes and sustainable in situ conservation strategies of the Borgou cattle breed in Benin.