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Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository (SUA IR). This repository was built and is maintained by the university library (Sokoine National Agricultural Library-SNAL) , in order to collect, preserve and disseminate scholarly output generated by University research community (staff and students) members.
This repository hosts a variety of openly accessible materials including: scholarly articles and books, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings and technical reports. For assistance about depositing your research output in the repository click here. SUA IR Policy click here or any queries contact us at snal@sua.ac.tz.
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Recent Submissions
GIS application in rangeland management in Tanzania: a systematic review
(Rangeland Society of Tanzania (RST), 2023) Nzunda, Emmanuel F.; Yusuph, Amri S.
A good proportion of the aspects of range resource management
are amenable to GIS technology because range resource
management integrates spatial and non-spatial aspects of data
and information for which GIS is best suited. Whether this
amenability is exploited was questionable and needed evidence-
based research to confirm. The current paper presents the results
of a systematic review of the application of GIS in rangeland
management in Tanzania. The specific objectives of the study
were: (1) to assess the distribution of the publications by year of
publication; (2) to examine the distribution of the publications by
subject area; (3) to analyse the relationships among key words
used in titles and abstracts of the publications; (4) to describe
details of a sample of selected publications, and; (5) to evaluation
the distribution of publications by institution of the authorship.
The study used the PRISMA method in searching, selecting and
analysing the publications. Records were retrieved from Google
scholar, Scopus, and science direct. We included 80 English
language studies done in Tanzania for the first four specific
objectives and 136 for the fifth specific objective. There is an increasing trend of application of GIS from 1 study in 1993 and
years close by to 11 publications in 2021. About 34%, 31%, 27%
and 8% of the publications applied GIS respectively in
environmental science, earth and planetary sciences, agricultural
and biological sciences and social sciences. The words μchange¶,
μaUea¶ and μTan]ania¶ ZeUe Whe moVW fUeqXenWl\ XVed in WiWleV and
abstracts. Furthermore, words in titles and abstracts formed
about five clusters representing study area (e.g. Tanzania),
method of analysis (e.g. remote sensing, assessment, data), topic
of study (e.g. change, land use, land, conservation) and land use
(e.g. grassland, woodland, forest). Most words clustered close
WogeWheU foUming a meVhZoUk bXW Whe ZoUd μconflicW¶ ZaV Whe moVW
distant from the rest of the meshwork. GIS data sets used included
land use land use/cover (LULC) layer, landscape features (e.g.
rivers, roads, topographic variables) and socioeconomic data.
Most publications came from Sokoine University of Agriculture,
University of Dar es Salaam and Nelson Mandela African
Institution of Science and Technology while the fewest came from
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Hohenheim University
and the University of British Columbia respectively. It is
concluded that GIS is increasingly being applied to rangeland
management. However, social sciences apply GIS the least.
Tanzanian institutions lead in application of GIS technology,
which means it is no longer foreign expertise. It is recommended
that all fields apply GIS wherever appropriate. In particular, why
GIS is least applied in social sciences aspects of rangeland
management needs further investigation.
The use of a heritage cattle breed as an adaptation strategy to new challenges imposed by climate change in Chihuahuan desert rangelands in the Southwest United States
(Rangeland Society of Tanzania (RST), 2023) Nyamuryekung’e, Shelemia; Cibils, Andres F.; Estell, Richard E.; Utsumi, Santiago A.; McIntosh, Matthew M.; Spiegal, Sheri
This review synthesizes research comparing conventional (Angus
X Hereford; AH) vs. heritage (Raramuri Criollo; RC) cattle
foraging behavior, heat tolerance, and cow-calf interactions
using telemetry devices in the context of determining adaptation
strategies related to climate change effects. The AH and RC cows
grazed separately in two adjacent pastures in a crossover design
during summer and winter for three consecutive years. Rectal
fecal samples were collected twice (day 14 and 28) in each
experimental period and fecal-DNA (fDNA) meta-barcoding
analyses were performed to characterize diet compositions. A
subgroup of individuals in each herd was fitted with sensors to
track their location (GPS collars), body temperature (iButton
thermal loggers), and cow-calf contact events (proximity loggers).
The RC cows traveled farther, spent less time resting, more time grazing, and explored larger areas than AH cows. The RC cows
showed a stronger preference for ecological patches with greater
shrub density and avoided areas with a high density of black
grama (an ecologically sensitive forage species) during winter
(period when vegetation is most vulnerable). Our fDNA study
revealed that RC cows select less black grama and more mesquite
than their AH counterparts, which corroborated our vegetation
electivity findings. During summer, RC cows maintained a lower
internal body temperature than their AH counterparts, providing
evidence of heat tolerance in RC. The RC calves appeared to
impoVe feZeU conVWUainWV on WheiU damV¶ moYemenW paWWeUnV;
nursing RC dams covered a daily grazing area almost three times
larger than AH dams. Differences in foraging strategies
documented in this review support our hypothesis that RC
(heritage breed) cattle are better equipped to cope with hotter and
drier climates and are better able to adjust their grazing behavior
according to forage availability.
Chemical composition and physical characteristics of standing hay and foggage along the pasture field in Morogoro sub-urban, Tanzania
(Rangeland Society of Tanzania (RST), 2022-12) Venance S. Tarimo; Ephraim J. Mtengeti
In-situ forage conservation in the form of standing hay is the
commonest and cheapest form of natural pasture conservation by
most agro-pastoral and pastoral communities in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Standing hay is over matured and un-harvested pasture
(mainly annual grasses). On the other hands, excessively
overstays standing hay in the field until the first rain a shower of
the next season is referred as foggage. The objective of this study
was to evaluate the nutritive value of the standing hay and
foggage of natural pastures plot rested for entire wet (growing)
and dry periods for nine months until the first rains. Standing hay
samples were taken three months before the rains while those of
foggage were obtained three weeks after the first rains. Ten
samples were taken at random from a standing hay and foggage
for determination of botanical and nutritive composition.
Standing hay and foggage did not differ significantly (P ≥ 0.05) in
terms of dry matter (DM) content (85.9 % vs 83.1 %), Crude
protein (3.8 % vs 3.3%), in vitro dry matter digestibility (34 % vs
32 %), metabolizable energy (5.3 vs 5.2 MJ/kg DM). However,
standing hay had significantly (P ≤ 0.05) less Neutral Detergent
Fiber (80 vs 82 %) and more leaf:stem ratio (2:1 vs 1.4:1) than oggage. In terms of organoleptic test scores standing hay and
foggage were not significantly (P ≥ 0.05) in touch and pollution but
foggage had significantly ((P≤ 0.05) mouldy appearance and bad smell
than standing hay. It can be concluded that tropical natural pastures
standing hay and foggage have low nutritive value yet the foggage is
very fibrous which can reduce the productivity of grazing animals.
Rangeland management practices in changing environment: implications for land use and climate change in selected African countries
(Rangeland Society of Tanzania (RST), 2023-04) Kilemo,Dominico Benedicto
Rangeland Management entails rangeland resource management
for improved animal production and other ecosystem services.
While Africa is endowed with spectacular rangelands which
support biodiversity, animal production and people's livelihoods,
they face pressure from anthropogenic activities such as
overgrazing which leads to land degradation and conversion of
rangelands into other land uses. Furthermore, the quality of
pastures fed to livestock has implications on feed efficiency and
methane gas emission. Rangeland management interventions
which enhance the carbon sequestration function of rangelands
and reduce enteric methane emission from livestock have a
potential of mitigating global warming and climate change. This
paper reviews different rangeland management approaches for
animal production and assesses their contribution to climate
change in some African countries. Such approaches include (i)
Community Based Natural Resource Management; (ii) Land and
water use planning; (iii) marketing and alternative income;
and(iv) wildlife and nature tourism. The findings suggest that, the
adoption of SRM approaches is very low with less than 25 cases
across Africa. This suggests that the existing SRM interventions
have had little contribution to climate change mitigation. The
74
implementation of approaches such as village land use planning,
legalization of the customary land right to grazing areas,
establishment of mini ranches and the establishment of improved
pasture species with low GHG emission will significantly
contribute to sustainable range management and climate change
mitigation in Africa.
Livestock population and role of land use planning on sustainable grazing land management: case of Tanganyika district, Katavi region
(Rangeland Society of Tanzania (RST), 2023) Hieronimo, Proches; Mbungu, Winfred
The aim of the study was to assess the trend of livestock
population and contribution of land use planning process towards
development and implementation of sustainable grazing land
management, reconciling land use with environmental concerns
and resolve potential conflicts between sectoral interests and
potential uses as well as increasing land tenure security and
clarify customary land tenure of grazing lands (communal lands)
as per requirement of national policies and laws. The study
employed Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) as
tools to realize the study aims. Results from the livestock data in
the district show that there is an increasing number of livestock,
and in particular cattle increased from about 39600 in the year
2006/2007 to about 316651 recorded in the year 2016/2017 in the
Tanganyika district. This signifies that the district experienced
almost 700% increase in cattle from 2006 to 2017. In the year
2018, Lwega village located within the Mwese ward contributed
20950 cattle (55%) out of the 37834 in the Mwese ward. Land use
planning process was carried out in the Lwega village as pilot village to enable setting aside areas for various uses including
grazing land and issuance of Certificate of Customary Right of
Occupancy (CCRO) in grazing land and other communal lands.
The process enabled setting aside grazing land of total area of
12,955 ha (which is 26% of the whole village land) for the village
with a total of 12,736 Livestock (with a total of 11,359 cows) by
2020 and which is expected to have a total of 15,193 Livestock
(with a total of 13,313 cows) by 2030 based on the number of
livestock found within new village boundary which was
resurveyed in 2020. The requirement of grazing land was 20,579
ha which would have been sufficient for the planning period of 10
years i.e. from 2020 to 2030. This has a deficit of 7,625 ha and
therefore this calls for a further study which will provide
recommendations for interventions to improve rangeland quality
and advise on restoration techniques of the currently degraded
rangeland including enrichment planting and identify species of
interest taking into account their palatability, intake, digestibility,
and nutrient content for future reseeding programs or other
measures including destocking.