Climate change remains a major challenge for farmers who rely on nature-based livelihoods such as livestock, which is a crucial aspect of income generation and food security in developing countries. In this study, we examine the determinants of livestock farmers’ adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices and the impact of adoption on food security and household income in Punjab, Pakistan. The two CSA practices include livestock management (housing modification, livestock diversification, reducing herd size, and incorporating trees into livestock farming) and health and feed management (animal healthcare measures, feeding practices, enhanced fodder, and manure incorporation). We employ data from 428 livestock farmers in five districts of Punjab, employing a multinomial endogenous switching regression model to address potential selection bias. The results reveal that factors affecting CSA practice adoption include livestock units, landholdings, perception of climate change, climate indicators, veterinary center access, farming experience, and perception of increasing animal diseases. We also demonstrate that livestock farmers who adopt combined CSA practices benefit more than those who do not adopt any or adopt an individual practice, in terms of food security and household income. The findings also reveal that farmers’ perception of climate change and veterinary center access promote the adoption of CSA practices.

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to investigate factors influencing the adoption of improved cultivars (ICs) in peach production in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. A total of 270 respondents were randomly selected from the three different cultivated areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, namely, Peshawar, Nowshera and Swat. Binary choice model was used in this study to categorise the ICs of peach farmers into adoption and non-adoption. The study identifies that socio-economic, institutional farm resources, and climatic factors are influencing the adoption of ICs of peach production. Results of the estimated model reveal that farmer’s age, education, household size, membership, cell phone, farm size, extension services and the role of the non-government organization have a positive effect on adoption of ICs. In addition, farmer’s experience, off-farm income, livestock and machinery ownership, credit access and inputs prices have a positive and significant impact on ICs adoption. Moreover, results of the logit model demonstrate that climatic related factors have a highly significant and positive impact on the adoption of ICs. These results suggested that institutional services should be strengthened to provide managerial and technical skills on ICs technology adoption and on time provision of financial services to enhance the productivity of peach farmers.

Mixed cropping and livestock production is a widespread farming system in less developed countries. The literature has mainly highlighted the synergistic effects between crop and livestock systems from an agronomic and environmental point of view, but has never investigated the (economic) complementarity that may exist between the two activities. Complementarity exists when mixed farming allows smallholders to earn higher incomes than in specialized systems, i.e., crop-only or livestock-only. Our paper is the first to test for complementarity in mixed farming by deriving empirical predictions from the theory of supermodularity, which are tested econometrically using a database of 360 farming households in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Our estimation results confirm the existence of a significant and positive complementary effect between crop and livestock activities, and also provide a direct measure of this effect. The smallholder can earn an average additional income of 791 rupees (out of an average total income of 12,010 rupees) by choosing mixed farming. This implies that smallholders adopt mixed farming not only for its agronomic and environmental benefits, but also because it can generate higher incomes than specialized farming systems to alleviate smallholder poverty. Apart from the choice of activity, our estimation results show that the other variables that significantly increase smallholder incomes are the education level of the household head, as well as access to urban markets, herd size, and land size. We also find that the positive impact of land expansion does not depend on the property rights regime, i.e., the additional land can be owned or rented (sharecropping). A specific public policy aimed at reducing smallholder poverty must prioritize the improvement of these key factors, especially access to urban markets and sharecropping.

The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) was launched in 2009 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CSISA’s objective is to develop and deploy more efficient, productive and sustainable technologies for the diverse rice-wheat production systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) that ultimately improve food supply and improve the livelihoods of the poor in the region. CSISA builds on previous collaborative efforts (notably the Rice-Wheat Consortium, RWC) by bringing IRRI and CIMMYT together with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the WorldFish Center to accelerate sustainable intensification of cereal productivity growth in South Asia and to improve the poverty impacts of such growth. CSISA’s vision is to decrease hunger and malnutrition and to increase food and income security for resource-poor farm households in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan through the accelerated development and inclusive deployment of new and improved crop varieties, sustainable technologies and management practices, and improved policies. CSISA activities are based on a “hub approach†, which emphasizes the role of a central innovation and delivery center from which activities are directed. Hubs serve as unique platforms for integrating scientific research into on-farm trials with the help of partners from government and private sector organizations. The hubs are created to provide farmers with a complete range of quality inputs, objective technical guidance, easy crop financing, and direct output linkages for farmers. Hub scientists focus on a suite of technologies geared toward sustainable increases in cereal productivity and farm income. These technologies are made accessible to resource-poor farmers, providing a means by which they may potentially escape the trap of persistent poverty.

Socio-economic characteristics of the three zones.

Reducing antimicrobial use (AMU) in animal husbandry is imperative to curb the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, sustainable monitoring of AMU is essential to ensure responsible use, minimize resistance and promote long-term effectiveness. Examining the on-farm AMU in broiler production in Pakistan aimed to encourage farmers to adopt responsible antimicrobial practices, while also helping to observe trends in AMU during the fattening period as well as differences between farms. The data were obtained using the international AMU monitoring system VetCAb-ID (©TiHo Hannover, Germany). In this study, the results of monitoring four commercial broiler farms, each with 20 flocks, were investigated for a period of one year. Treatment frequency (TF) based on Used Daily Dose was used to determine flock, farm and season specific differences in AMU. Describing the relative TF of different antimicrobial classes. Shows that the use of antimicrobial classes varied between farms, among flocks within a farm and across fattening weeks within a flock. Overall, the most frequently used classes were polymyxins (27.2%), fluoroquinolones (20.4%), macrolides (17.1%) and tetracyclines (15.9%). The TF was higher in winter than in summer flocks. A statistically significant difference between summer and winter flocks could be observed in the use of fluoroquinolones (p = 0.0463) and macrolides (p = 0.0325). Using the shared international database VetCAb-ID, detailed and internationally comparable information on the on-farm use of antibiotics in Pakistan broiler production could be obtained and analyzed to identify differences between farms and flocks.