Global food price increases affect households’ livelihood in developed and developing economies. It impinges on the socio-economic and food and nutritional security of nations, households, and individuals within households. At the national level, the effect may include a change in the overall socio-economic and political conditions through its consequence on the trade balance and change in the commodity and labor markets. At the household and individual levels, it affects the income and expenditure of households and the nutrition, health, and education of individuals within households ( Benson et al., 2008). The potential impact of increasing food prices on households’ welfare, mainly on poverty and food security, has been an interesting topic in the research and development community ( Benson et al., 2008; Attanasio et al., 2013; Amolegbe et al., 2021). However, existing empirical evidence is mixed and usually debatable ( Swinnen and Squicciarini, 2012). For instance, some researchers argue that increasing food prices reduces poverty ( Headey, 2018). These researchers associate the effect of food price increases on increasing supply and wage responses, as most of the world’s poor livelihood is strongly associated with agriculture. Other researchers suggest that rising food prices would increase poverty, mainly in urban areas and among poor rural households, as most resource-poor households are usually net buyers of different food groups ( Ivanic andMartin, 2008; Hoyos and Medvedev, 2011). For some researchers, increasing food prices have temporal effects. Accordingly, rising food prices increase poverty in the short run, as most poor households spend their budget on food. It reduces poverty in the long run by increasing smallholder producers’ wage rates and profits ( Ivanic and Martin, 2014). Nevertheless, conclusions from most empirical findings rely on various assumptions, and generalizing most results to the heterogeneous global population seems highly unlikely.

The majority of chickens in sub-Saharan Africa are indigenous ecotypes, well adapted to the local environment and raised in scavenging production systems. Although they are generally resilient to disease challenge, routine vaccination and biosecurity measures are rarely applied and infectious diseases remain a major cause of mortality and reduced productivity. Management and genetic improvement programmes are hampered by lack of routine data recording. Selective breeding based on genomic technologies may provide the means to enhance sustainability. In this study, we investigated the genetic architecture of antibody response to four major infectious diseases [infectious bursal disease (IBDV), Marek’s disease (MDV), fowl typhoid (SG), fowl cholera (PM)] and resistance to Eimeria and cestode parasitism, along with two production traits [body weight and body condition score (BCS)] in two distinct indigenous Ethiopian chicken ecotypes. We conducted variance component analyses, genome-wide association studies, and pathway and selective sweep analyses. The large majority of birds was found to have antibody titres for all pathogens and were infected with both parasites, suggesting almost universal exposure. We derived significant moderate to high heritabilities for IBDV, MDV and PM antibody titres, cestodes infestation, body weight and BCS. We identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with genome-wide significance for each trait. Based on these associations, we identified for each trait, pathways, networks and functional gene clusters that include plausible candidate genes. Selective sweep analyses revealed a locus on chromosome 18 associated with viral antibody titres and resistance to Eimeria parasitism that is within a positive selection signal. We found no significant genetic correlations between production, immune and disease traits, implying that selection for altered antibody response and/or disease resistance will not affect production. We confirmed the presence of genetic variability and identified SNPs significantly associated with immune, disease and production traits in indigenous village chickens. Results underpin the feasibility of concomitant genetic improvement for enhanced antibody response, resistance to parasitism and productivity within and across indigenous chicken ecotypes.

Chicken production in the context of nutrition-sensitive agriculture may benefit child nutrition in low-income settings. This study evaluated effects of 1) a chicken production intervention [African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG)], and 2) the ACGG intervention with nutrition-sensitive behavior change communication (BCC) [ACGG + Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU)], on child nutrition and health outcomes and hypothesized intermediaries. Forty ACGG villages received 25 genetically improved chickens and basic husbandry guidance; of these, 20 ACGG + ATONU villages in addition received a nutrition-sensitive behavior change and homegardening intervention; 20 control clusters received no intervention. We assessed effects of the interventions on height-for-age z scores (HAZ), weight-for-age z scores (WAZ), and weight-for-height z scores (WHZ) at 9 (midline) and 18 mo (endline) through unadjusted and adjusted ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. We examined the interventions' effects on hypothesized intermediaries including egg production and consumption, dietary diversity, women's empowerment, income, child morbidities, anemia, and chicken management practices through OLS and log binomial models. Data included 829 children aged 0-36 mo at baseline. ACGG + ATONU children had higher midline HAZ [mean difference (MD): 0.28; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.54] than controls. The ACGG group had higher HAZ (MD: 0.28; 95% CI: 0.05, 0.50) and higher WAZ (MD: 0.18; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.36) at endline than controls; after adjusting for potential baseline imbalance, effects were similar but not statistically significant. At endline, differences in ACGG + ATONU children's HAZ and WAZ compared with controls were similar in magnitude to those of ACGG, but not statistically significant. There were no differences in anthropometry between the intervention groups. ACGG + ATONU children had higher dietary diversity and egg consumption than ACGG children at endline. Both interventions showed improvements in chicken management practices. The interventions did not increase anemia, diarrhea, fever, or vomiting, and the ACGG + ATONU group at midline showed reduced risk of fever. A chicken production intervention with or without nutrition-sensitive BCC may have benefited child nutrition and did not increase morbidity.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03152227.

Indigenous cattle in Africa have adapted to various local environments to acquire superior phenotypes that enhance their survival under harsh conditions. While many studies investigated the adaptation of overall African cattle, genetic characteristics of each breed have been poorly studied. We performed the comparative genome-wide analysis to assess evidence for subspeciation within species at the genetic level in trypanotolerant N’Dama cattle. We analysed genetic variation patterns in N’Dama from the genomes of 101 cattle breeds including 48 samples of five indigenous African cattle breeds and 53 samples of various commercial breeds. Analysis of SNP variances between cattle breeds using wMI, XP-CLR, and XP-EHH detected genes containing N’Dama-specific genetic variants and their potential associations. Functional annotation analysis revealed that these genes are associated with ossification, neurological and immune system. Particularly, the genes involved in bone formation indicate that local adaptation of N’Dama may engage in skeletal growth as well as immune systems. Our results imply that N’Dama might have acquired distinct genotypes associated with growth and regulation of regional diseases including trypanosomiasis. Moreover, this study offers significant insights into identifying genetic signatures for natural and artificial selection of diverse African cattle breeds.

Summary: Despite the wide range of observed phenotypic diversities and adaptation to different ecological conditions, little has been studied regarding the genetics of adaptation in the genome of indigenous cattle breeds of developing countries. Here, we investigated the linkage disequilibrium (LD) and identified the subset of outlier loci that are highly differentiated among cattle populations adapted to different ecological conditions in Ethiopia. Specifically, we genotyped 47 unrelated animals sampled from high‐ versus low‐altitude environments using a Bovine 50K SNP BeadChip. Linkage disequilibrium was assessed using both D′ and r² between adjacent SNPs. We calculated F_ST and heterozygosity at different significance levels as measures of genetic differentiation for each locus between high‐ and low‐altitude populations following the hierarchical island model approach. We identified 816 loci (p < 0.01) showing selection signals and are associated with genes that might have roles in local adaptation. Some of them are associated with candidate genes that are involved in metabolism (ATP2A3, CA2, MYO18B, SIK3, INPP4A, and IREB2), hypoxia response (BDNF, TFRC, and PML) and heat stress (PRKDC, CDK1, and TFDC). Average r² and D′ values were 0.14 ± 0.21 and 0.57 ± 0.34, respectively, for a minor allele frequency (MAF) ≥ 0.05 and were found to increase with increasing MAF value. The outlier loci identified in the studied Ethiopian cattle populations indicate the presence of genetic variation produced/shaped by adaptation to different environmental conditions and provide a basis for further validation and functional analysis using a reasonable sample size and high‐density markers.

Increasing poultry product consumption trends have attracted researchers and development practitioners to look for interventions that transform the low-input low-output-based village chicken production to a high yielding production system. However, due to the intricate nature of the production system, there is a dearth of evidence that helps design comprehensive interventions at the smallholder level. Using national-level representative data collected from 3555 village chicken producers in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, this study examines the technical efficiency of village chicken production and investigates the main factors that explain the level of inefficiency. We applied a stochastic frontier analysis to simultaneously quantify the level of technical efficiency and identify factors associated with heterogeneity in inefficiency. We found that the level of technical efficiency is extremely low in the three countries, suggesting enormous opportunities to enhance productivity using available resources. The heterogeneity in technical efficiency is strongly associated with producers’ experience in breed improvements and flock management, limited technical knowledge and skills, limited access to institutions and markets, smaller flock size, gender disparities, and household livelihood orientation. We argue the need to adopt an integrated approach to enhance village producers’ productivity and transform the traditional subsistence-based production system into a commercially oriented semi-intensive production system.