Doctoral Dissertation Research: Farmer Understanding of Inheritability of Traits and Livestock Management in The Gambia

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

University of Georgia doctoral student Tad Brown, under the guidance of Dr. Ted Gragson, will undertake research on how Gambian farmers understand genetic selection and how this understanding affects their economic decision-making for small livestock (sheep and goats). Regional-level genetic analyses have revealed that significant crossbreeding is present in endemic ruminant livestock populations across West Africa. The genetic merits of endemic breeds are important because they confer tolerance to the pressures of tsetse fly, which transmits the parasitic protozoa that causes trypanosomosis ("sleeping sickness"), affecting some half-million people in Africa each year. Livestock also represents a major source of income and savings in The Gambia, and development efforts to achieve poverty alleviation are working to improve endemic livestock performance. Most previous research on preferences for particular livestock traits has elicited rank profiles to identify constraints in the production environment and thereby to set the agenda for directing breed improvement at research stations. In contrast, this research will focus on farmer understandings of the heritability of traits and their day-to-day herd management practices. The first phase of research will capture local knowledge about livestock breeds, rules about breeding, goals of and constraints on livestock production, household wealth, and a genealogy of the current herd as a cross-check on statements about herding decisions. The second phase of the study will involve structured techniques for eliciting local knowledge about directional selection in specific traits and about tracing ancestry, and local interpretations of disease tolerance in breeds. The final phase will employ village-level ethnography to observe actual practices of small-stock keeping, while observation at stock-yards and abattoirs will provide data related to culling events. This socio-ecological research will help link household decision-making to larger scale environmental phenomena in West Africa, and will contribute to theories of animal domestication. Findings from this research will also inform livestock development efforts and animal genetic resource conservation. Funding this research supports the education of a graduate student.