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Socio-economical and ecological optimisation of livestock systems (Central Menabe, Madagascar) |
Science et changements planétaires / Sécheresse. Volume 21, Number 3, 211-8, juillet-août-septembre 2010, Article de recherche
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 Résumé
Article gratuit
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Author(s) : Ny Riana Solomalala Andriamarosoa Ratsimbazafy, Clémence Dirac Ramohavelo, Jean-Pierre Sorg, Alexandre Buttler |
Summary : The dry dense forest of Central Menabe, west coast of Madagascar, is disappearing at a rate of 1% per year. Slash and burn cultivation practices convert the forest soils to agricultural lands, some of which are, once abandoned, reused as pasture lands. By keeping former forest areas in open savannahs, pastures contribute to forest degradation. Within a context of conservation of biodiversity and improvement of livelihood, this study presents i) the pasture pressures, and ii) a diagnostic of the traditional management and economy of small and big livestock. The methodology comes from natural sciences (pasture land vegetation, biomass), from agricultural sciences (pasture pressures) and from socio-economical sciences (surveys, questionnaires, score assignment). Most of the pasture lands studied are dominated by pyrophyte species and overpastured in the dry season. This situation leads to vegetation and soil degradation that can by decreased only by suitable spatial and temporal pasture land management. The local role of big livestock is both social and economical, relating to the breeder’ s ethnicity. In Central Menabe, a traditional big livestock system is economically profitable only if the milk marketing represents more than the half of the total income \; only 7% of the breeders, however, sometimes sell milk. The pastoral system intensification is thus linked to milk market-path optimisation. According to local custom, small livestock products participate more frequently in the rural households’ budgets as 73% of the breeders sell at least one animal per year and 23% sell eggs. Intensifying the small livestock system would however require support for an improvement in chicken sanitary practices. |
Keywords : agricultural production, biodiversity, floristic composition, rural development, survey |
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