- Title
- The impact of unguided animal husbandry on the peripheral and landscape elements: the case of Alice
- Creator
- Chungag, Anye https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2308-9410
- Subject
- Livestock
- Subject
- Animal culture
- Subject
- Animal culture -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/19511
- Identifier
- vital:43134
- Description
- This study is based on Unguided Animal Husbandry as practiced in the town of Alice and its surrounding locations. It underscores the fact that though cattle are domesticated animals, they are still migratory in character. Their migratory tendency is prompted by the need of food and water and sometimes convenient rest positions. The search for food, water and rest may lead cattle to travel for many kilometres away from enclosure. This movement allows them to establish eating and drinking preferences and locations which become habitual, hence tracks develop along these paths which greatly compromise the soil, water and vegetation quality of the landscape. This study identifies such tracks and investigates the impact of cattle movement on soil physical properties and vegetation characteristics. However all this is against the back drop of the open access land regime; a mode of exploiting common property to which all have equal rights. It is a system of land management that comes with inherent challenges. Amongst them a selfish inclination of taking decisions that is motivated by egoistic interests and utmost personal gain. Secondly no thought is given to management and sustainability, subjecting common property to Haddins (1968) philosophy ‘The tragedy of the commons’. The results of the study show that when cattle is left to free range in common property they establish feeding, drinking and rest habits that have greater negative consequences on ecosystem elements of soil, vegetation and water than the positive effects they bring. The open access regime under which this farming system operates is appraised and recommendations proposed for its amelioration.
- Description
- Thesis (MPhil) (Environmental Studies) -- University of Fort Hare, 2015
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (127 Leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Geography and Environmental Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Geography & Environmental Science
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | M Phil (Geography) CHUNGAG.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |