Assessing farmers' attitudes to, and the behavioural costs of, organic fertiliser practices in northern Ghana: An application of the behavioural cost approach.

The use of organic fertiliser to improve soil health is crucial to halting the downward trend of crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa. If this goal is to be achieved, however, farmers require support to adopt organic fertiliser practices that match their attitudes and decision-making capacity. This study evaluated farmers' attitudes to a set of prevailing organic fertiliser practices and their associated behavioural costs (difficulty). The explanatory Rasch model was applied to a set of primary data from 250 farming households in north-east Ghana. The results showed that the average attitude of farmers was much less than the difficulty estimate of an average organic fertiliser practice, although the practices generally showed a moderate difficulty. On average, farmers' attitudes matched just three of sixteen practices on the scale, with most (70 %) of the farmers showing very weak attitudes towards the input. Latent regression results revealed that the weak attitude levels were strongly related to key factors in the farmers' background, including education, resource endowment and access to extension services. Participation in determining policies on organic fertiliser use enhances farmers' knowledge and skills concerning use of the input. Hence, access to such policies can replace education for the less-educated majority of farmers. Thus, training programmes are proposed that develop the average farmer's capacity to adopt these practices in this area, especially the less difficult ones. Supporting farmers with the acquisition of animal-drawn vehicles can also facilitate uptake of the more difficult organic fertiliser practices and increase use of the input.

Costs of regulating ammonia emissions from livestock farms near Natura 2000 areas - analyses of case farms from Germany, Netherlands and Denmark.

Natura 2000 areas are designated according to the EU's Birds and Habitats Directives in order to protect particular habitats and species. A variety of these habitats and species are particularly sensitive to deposition of nitrogen caused by ammonia emissions. Livestock farming is the primary source of this pollution. The purpose of this paper is to compare the costs of reaching the ammonia emission targets for different livestock farms near Natura 2000 sites in the Netherlands, Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), and Denmark. These countries have some of the highest NH3 deposition rates in Europe, and Germany in particular will have to implement new measures to reach the NEC requirements for 2030. This will also benefit nature sites in Denmark as a large share of the ammonia emissions is dispersed over long distances. The general regulation includes implementation of BAT technologies and emission ceilings. The analysis looks at regulatory aspects, the emission requirements and the cost of implementing the technologies to reduce emissions further. The selected case farms are a finisher farm and a dairy farm, and the distance to a Natura 2000 site is 400 and 2000 m. In all three countries, relatively few livestock farms are situated near or inside Natura 2000 areas. The regulatory approach is very different in the three countries and key issues are: additional deposition from projects, neighbouring livestock farms (cumulation), the inclusion of background deposition and the use of the critical loads concept. The Dutch PAS system is interesting as projected reductions in emissions are distributed as additional "room for development" today. The costs for the case farm with finishers in Schleswig-Holstein are the highest as the Filter Decree requires the use of air scrubbers. The findings suggest that farms 400 m from a Natura 2000 site in the Netherlands face lower and less costly constraints than in the other countries, whereas the opposite is the case for farms 2000 m from Natura 2000 sites. The requirements near Natura 2000, where strict requirements apply, are so high that farms will expand at a different site instead.

Contribution of milk production to global greenhouse gas emissions. An estimation based on typical farms.

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: Studies on the contribution of milk production to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are rare (FAO 2010) and often based on crude data which do not appropriately reflect the heterogeneity of farming systems. This article estimates GHG emissions from milk production in different dairy regions of the world based on a harmonised farm data and assesses the contribution of milk production to global GHG emissions. MATERIALS, METHODS AND RESULTS: The methodology comprises three elements: (1) the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) concept of typical farms and the related globally standardised dairy model farms representing 45 dairy regions in 38 countries; (2) a partial life cycle assessment model for estimating GHG emissions of the typical dairy farms; and (3) standard regression analysis to estimate GHG emissions from milk production in countries for which no typical farms are available in the IFCN database. Across the 117 typical farms in the 38 countries analysed, the average emission rate is 1.50 kg CO(2) equivalents (CO(2)-eq.)/kg milk. The contribution of milk production to the global anthropogenic emissions is estimated at 1.3 Gt CO(2)-eq./year, accounting for 2.65% of total global anthropogenic emissions (49 Gt; IPCC, Synthesis Report for Policy Maker, Valencia, Spain, 2007). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We emphasise that our estimates of the contribution of milk production to global GHG emissions are subject to uncertainty. Part of the uncertainty stems from the choice of the appropriate methods for estimating emissions at the level of the individual animal.

Milk production systems in Central Uganda: a farm economic analysis.

The Ugandan dairy sector is developing rapidly over recent years and is dominated by small-scale farmers owning more than 90 percent of the national cattle population. Due to market forces and higher competition for production factors, milk production systems are intensifying, necessitating proper understanding of the new production tendencies. Three intensive and four extensive production systems were identified and analysed, using TIPI-CAL (Technology Impact Policy Impact Calculations model). The results show that the production systems are very different in many respects but share similar development trends. Whereas intensive systems use graded animals and invest heavily into feeding, buildings and machinery, extensive systems use local breeds and invest minimally. Total cost of milk production falls with increasing herd size, while dairy returns vary among farms from 18 to 35 USD/100 Kg of milk. All systems make an economic profit, except the intensive one-cow farm, which heavily employs family resources in dairying. Due to better management of resources and access to inputs and markets, dairy farming closer to urban areas and using improved breeds is highly profitable, especially with larger herd sizes. Stakeholders should favour such practices as well as others which can improve productivity, especially in African countries where traditional systems dominate dairying.