Browsing by Author "Opio, Felix"

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    Characterization of the livestock production system and the potential for enhancing productivity through improved feeding in Tetugu village, Lira District, Uganda
    (International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 2015) Opio, Felix; Ongebo, Joel; Omara, Peter
    A feed assessment tool (FEAST) was used to assess livestock production and local feed resources in Starch Factory–Tetugu Village, Starch Factory parish, Adyel division in Lira municipality, Uganda. The study site is located within Lira municipality, 3 km north of Lira town. The assessment was carried out through a focus group discussion with 24 farmers to get an overview of the farming system and subsequently one-on-one interviews with 13 farmers (8 female, 5 male), selected from those who took part in the focus group discussion, to get quantitative information on farmers’ land holdings, crops grown on the farm, animal feed purchases, income from milk and livestock sales. The 13 farmers were selected to represent the three land endowment groups in the village (small, medium and large; with at least three from each group). The focus group discussion and individual interviews were done on 10th February 2015 and 25th-27th February 2015 respectively. The highlights of the assessment were categorized into farming systems, major income sources, management of livestock species and constraints and opportunities within the system.
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    Field report on the Participatory Training of smallholder pig farmers on biosecurity measures for the control of African swine fever (ASF) in Masaka and Lira districts of Uganda
    (International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 2015) Dione, Michel M.; Lule, Peter; Opio, Felix
    African swine fever (ASF) is among the major production constraints for smallholder pig farmers in Uganda (Atuhaire et al., 2013, Dione et al., 2014). There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease. The only control measure is implementation of biosecurity along the pig value chain. However, adoption and implementation of biosecurity measures is challenging in the current context of pig production, because of the nature of the production systems which are characterized by poor housing, husbandry practices and hygiene during pig handling and slaughtering process. Low level of knowledge and awareness of value chain actors about the ways to control the disease is also a big constraint (Dione et al., 2014) . Following an ASF outbreak, farmers operate “panic sales” and slaughters in order to avoid financial losses attributed the death of the pigs. Such practices contribute to the spread of the diseases within and outside their community. However, farmers complain about lack of knowledge about pig management and biosecurity (Dione et al., 2014);yet implementation of proper biosecurity measures requires farmers to be well equipped with a minimum package of knowledge on how to apply these measures. In order to address this knowledge gaps, ILRI and partners developed a training of trainers (ToT) manual on biosecurity for the control and prevention of ASF, which module is tailored to smallholder pig keepers in Uganda. To test the efficiency of this tool, a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) was designed in two districts namely Masaka and Lira. A second version of the training manual was established to meet the training requirements. The later version was in a form of Participatory Training (PT) module. It is in this context that the pig farmers in villages of Masaka and Lira were trained using a PT tool. This report highlights observations and discussions with farmers of the treatment groups during the training sessions.
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    Qualitative analysis of the risks and practices associated with the spread of African swine fever within the smallholder pig value chains in Uganda
    (Preventive veterinary medicine, 2016) Dione, Michel; Ouma, Emily; Opio, Felix; Kawuma, Brian; Pezo, Danilo
    tA study was undertaken between September 2014 and December 2014 to assess the perceptions of smallholder pig value chain actors of the risks and practices associated with the spread of African swine fever (ASF) disease within the pig value chains. Data was collected from 136 value chain actors and 36key informants through 17 group discussions and two key informant interview (KII) sessions respectively using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools.Results from this study revealed that according to value chain actors and stakeholders, the transport-ing, slaughtering, and collecting/bulking nodes represent the highest risk, followed by the inputs andservices (feeds and drugs) supply nodes. The processing, whole sale and consumption nodes represented the lowest risk. Value chain actors are aware of the disease and its consequences to the pig industry,however biosecurity measures are poorly implemented at all nodes. As for the causes, value chain actors pointed to several factors, such as inadequate knowledge of mechanisms for the spread of the disease,poor enforcement of regulations on disease control, and low capacities of actors to implement biosecurity measures, amongst others. Although traders, butchers and veterinary practitioners accepted that they played an important role in the spread of the virus, they did not perceive themselves as key actors in the control of the disease; instead, they believed that only farmers should adopt biosecurity measures on their farms because they keep the pigs for a longer period. Most of the recommendations given by the value chain actors for controlling and preventing ASF disease were short term, and targeted mainly pig producers. These recommendations included: the establishment of live pig collection centres so that traders and brokers do not have to directly access pig farms, capacity building of value chain actors on application of biosecurity, enactment and enforcement of by-laws on live pig movements and establishment of operational outbreak reporting mechanism at district level. Long term recommendations included the development of a vaccine, as well as pen-side diagnostic tests. This study suggests that interventions to control ASF disease through application of biosecurity measures should target all value chain nodes, while putting more emphasis on post-farm nodes especially the trading.