Long Term Evaluation of Livestock Management Strategies in Drought Conditions: Case Study of Nomads in Fars Province

Subject Areas : Agricultural Economics Research

M. Bagheri ¹ , M. Zibaei ² , A.K. Esmaeili ³

1 - دانشجوی دکترای اقتصاد کشاورزی دانشگاه شیراز
2 - دانشیار بخش اقتصاد کشاورزی دانشگاه شیراز
3 - دانشیار بخش اقتصاد کشاورزی دانشگاه شیراز

Received: 2015-12-16 Accepted : 2015-12-16 Published : 2012-12-21

Keywords: Fars province, drought management, Multi Period Mathematical Programming, Herd Liquidation, Livestock Management, Nomadic,

Abstract :

Droughts and climatic fluctuations are the most important challenges of the range-livestock management for ranchers of nomadic which largely depend on natural rangeland. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate livestock management strategies including partial liquidation and purchasing additional feed during periods of drought for nomadic ranchers. For this purpose, a multi-period, linear programming model coupled with the dynamic process of animals was applied. The data are collected by questionnaire completion of chosen sample into nomadic communities with multi-stage random sampling method and by Affairs Organization of Nomads Fars province. Results indicate that purchasing additional feed is able to carry larger herds during the drought. Therefore purchasing additional forage has a larger gross income than partial liquidation of livestock but requires additional costs for purchasing additional feed as compared with partial liquidation strategy. These additional costs lead to decreased net returns in all scenarios and are more risky than partial liquidation scenarios when extended drought occurs. However, the purchasing additional feed has negative impact on profitability compared to partial liquidation of livestock in the long run drought and increase degradation intensity of rangelands. The partial liquidation of livestock tends to be less risky and create potentially less financial stress than purchasing additional feed and during drought results in better net returns than purchasing feed to overcome constrained forage supplies. Therefore base on the results, in the long run partial liquidation of livestock is recommended.  

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