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Browsing by Author "Lewis, Dale"

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  • Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) links biodiversity conservation with sustainable improvements in livelihoods and food production
    Lewis, Dale; Bell, Samuel D.; Fay, John; Bothi, Kim L.; Gatere, Lydiah; Kabila, Makando; Mukamba, Mwangala; Matokwani, Edwin; Mushimbalume, Matthews; Moraru, Carmen I.; Lehmann, Johannes; Lassoie, James; Wolfe, David; Lee, David R.; Buck, Louise; Travis, Alexander J. (The National Academy of Sciences, 2011)
    In Zambia's Luangwa Valley, past economic development initiatives and household coping strategies have severely depleted natural resources and, in turn, hindered further development. The Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) Model has been developed to improve and shift livelihoods to ventures that also protect and conserve natural resources. The program trains the least food-secure in sustainable agriculture practices, identifies and trains those responsible for the greatest amount of resource depletion, and helps provide access to extension and markets to both of these groups. Although the program is still in progress, numerous indicators have been identified that signal its effectiveness, such as the stabilization of certain animal species and adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.
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    Sustainable smallholder poultry interventions to promote food security and social, agricultural, and ecological resilience in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
    Dumas, Sarah E.; Lungu, Luke; Mulambya, Nathan; Daka, Whiteson; McDonald, Erin M.; Steubing, Emily; Lewis, Tamika; Backel, Katherine; Jange, Jarra; Lucio-Martinez, Benjamin; Lewis, Dale; Travis, Alexander J. (2016-06)
    In Zambia's Luangwa Valley, highly variable rainfall and lack of education, agricultural inputs, and market access constrain agricultural productivity, trapping smallholder farmers in chronic poverty and food insecurity. Human and animal disease (e.g. HIV and Newcastle Disease, respectively), further threaten the resilience of poor families. To cope with various shocks and stressors, many farmers employ short-term coping strategies that threaten ecosystem resilience. Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) utilizes an agribusiness model to alleviate poverty and food insecurity through conservation farming, market development and value-added food production. COMACO promotes household, agricultural and ecological resilience along two strategic lines: improving recovery from shocks (mitigation) and reducing the risk of shock occurrence. Here we focus on two of COMACO's poultry interventions and present data showing that addressing health and management constraints within the existing village poultry system resulted in significantly improved productivity and profitability. However, once reliable productivity was achieved, farmers preferred to sell chickens rather than eat either the birds or their eggs. Sales of live birds were largely outside the community to avoid price suppression; in contrast, the sale of eggs from community-operated, semi-intensive egg production facilities was invariably within the communities. These facilities resulted in significant increases in both producer income and community consumption of eggs. This intervention therefore has the potential to improve not only producers' economic resilience, but also resilience tied to the food security and physical health of the entire community.