Okanlade Adesokan Lawal-Adebowale

By Okanlade Adesokan Lawal-Adebowale

Farm animals constitute valuable source of quality nutrition and economic development across the world, and sustainable farm animal production is greatly being challenged by pests and disease infestation with the resultant poor productivity, death of animals and economic losses to the farmers and nations at large. But before infections reached the threshold of debilitative effects, an infected animal communicates a physiological disturbance by vocalisation and/or visual cues. While a healthy animal communicates its good health status by active display and movement of the body parts in response to its environment, a sick animal manifests its health situation by looking dull, by being self-isolated from the stock, by being sluggish or by refusing to move on when approached or to be fed. Although the communicated cues by a farm animal are determined by the kind of physiological impairment experienced by the animal, farmers’ understanding of the specific communication cues by the farm animals would make quick detection of any laden disease in the animals possible and stimulate prompt health care service provision. Consequently, several ways by which farm animals communicate their health situation and the veterinarian actions to be taken in the light of a disease outbreak are highlighted in this article.

Part of the book: Livestock Health and Farming

By Okanlade Adesokan Lawal-Adebowale

Development of the rural areas calls for the provision of basic infrastructure and social amenities with a view to enhancing the quality of life in the environments. Attainment of rural development, however, depends on pragmatic and conscientious planning, and the political-will to have the development plans was effectively implemented. The essentiality of these actions is highly reflected in the revolutionary transformation of China’s rural system, with the resultant rapid economic growth and poverty reduction in the country, put at 8–9% per annum. Nigeria though had transformation-oriented rural development programs that are similar to those of China, none of the programs had visible or sustainable impacts in the country’s rural life. A critical analysis of the causal failure of Nigeria’s rural development programs in relation to the recorded successes in China shows that implementations of Nigeria’s rural development programs veered from the locus of the political-will that forms the strength of the recorded successes by China. Rethinking the paradigm of rural development in Nigeria unequivocally calls for modeling the country’s rural program implementations alongside the strength of the political-will adopted by China for attainment of the much desired rural transformation and sustainable development in Nigeria.

Part of the book: Rural Development