Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2019
Economic burden of livestock disease and drought in Northern Tanzania
Ahmed, Haseeb; Yoder, Jonathan; de Glanville, William A.; Davis, Alicia; Kibona, Tito J.; Mmbaga, Blandina T.; Lankester, Felix; Swai, Emanuel S.; Cleaveland, SarahAbstract
Livestock-dependent communities face considerable livestock disease and drought risk, which can impact herd value, income and consumption. This paper summarizes economic data collected from 404 households in Arusha and Manyara regions of Northern Tanzania in 2016. They provide estimates for (i) herd loss due to disease and drought as a fraction of herd value and income, (ii) the relative risk of disease and drought in small versus large ruminants and (iii) the relationship between livestock disease outcomes and household expenditures. We find that disease and drought losses comprise 10 to 4% of sheep, cattle and goat herd value, and amount to an estimated 62.1% of household income. The drought and disease risk ratios for small versus large ruminants indicate that small stock face higher disease risk, while large ruminants are affected more by drought. Furthermore, cattle abortions are negatively related to schooling expenditure and positively associated with increases in off-farm food expenditure related to livestock management, presumably through increased investments in prevention and therapy. These results suggest that climatic variability and livestock diseases are an important source of economic vulnerability and reducing this burden may help alleviate poverty in livestock-dependent communities.Keywords
household production; livestock disease; drought; herd management; TanzaniaPublished in
Journal of development and agricultural economics2019, volume: 11, number: 6, pages: 140-151
Authors' information
Information Technology University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Clinical Sciences
Yoder, Jonathan
Washington State University
de Glanville, William A.
University of Glasgow
Davis, Alicia
University of Glasgow
Kibona, Tito J.
Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
Mmbaga, Blandina T.
Duke Global Health Institute
Lankester, Felix
Washington State University
Swai, Emanuel S.
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
Cleaveland, Sarah
University of Glasgow
UKÄ Subject classification
Animal and Dairy Science
Economics
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5897/JDAE2018.1028
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/101295