Why farmers dont always practice optimummanagement: case study of small stock ranching systems in southern Namibia
During more than 40 years, Karakul skin has been the dominating livestock production in arid southern Namibia.Then, following a drop in prices, a massive conversion to Dorper breeding was carried on at the beginning of the 80ties.However, livestock species may also have their specific impact on the range.Many farmers and experts believe that Dorper sheep, farmed for their lambs and meat and with their high feed demand, have a negative impact on rangeland condition and thus are not optimal for breeding when considering both economic and ecological aspects of ranching.Thus, other herd compositions, currently not practiced, might be more sustainable.The objective of this paper is to identify the optimal herd composition considering both economic and ecological aspects and to confront this result with actual herd composition on farms in our study area.Finally, an analysis of farmers.preferences reveals the reasons of the divergence between practice and what we calculate as optimum.
bio‐economic modeling choice experiment livestock breeds Namibia farmers preferences
Stephanie Domptail Alexander Popp Ernst-August Nuppenau
JL U Giessen,Institute for Agricultural Policy,Senckenbergstr.3,35390 Giessen,Germany Potsdam university,Vegetation ecology,M aulbeerallee 2,14469 Potsdam,Germany
国际会议
呼和浩特
英文
2008-06-29（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）