Summary
Water plays an important role in livestock productivity. Livestock productivity in pastoral areas depends greatly on the availability of water. There are several factors, which determine water balance, water turnover and functions of the animal. Assessment of livestock and water requirement is helpf...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.586.3048 http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/assessment/files/pdf/publications/WorkingPapers/INCREASINGWater_Girma.pdf |
| Summary: | Water plays an important role in livestock productivity. Livestock productivity in pastoral areas depends greatly on the availability of water. There are several factors, which determine water balance, water turnover and functions of the animal. Assessment of livestock and water requirement is helpful in modelling water and livestock relationships. The fate of the earth During the latter half of this century, the pressure on natural water resources in many regions of the world has been increasing dramatically. Currently humans are extracting about half the 12,500 cubic kilometres that are readily available. Demand is now growing at twice the rate of population increase and accelerating. This can be attributed to the rapid growth in urban sprawl, the increased pace of industrialization, agriculture and irrigation development and pollution. The earth may be the midst of a planet working cycle, but in startling departure from global trends, temperatures on Antarctic contribution have fallen steadily (Sansom 1989: Jones 1995; Hansen et al., 2000). More alarming is the fact that glaciers across the Himalayan and Hindu Kush Mountains as well as the Tibetan plateau are receding. Recent surveys show that the water level in Eling and Zhaling Lakes is decreasing. The main source of yellow river in northern Tibet was low 4.3 m level in 1993. The flow rate has also fallen drastically from 7.8 m3 / sec –2.7 m3 /sec (Adhikary 1999). Hansen and Sato et al., (2000) predicted that the earth is getting warmer which is associated with an increasing green house effect and within the next decade there should be a noticeable increase in the frequent draught. The earth’s average surface temperature has increased by 0.65 o C per decade during from 1996-2000, and the earth’s average surface temperature will warm 0.65 o C –0.75 o C by 2050 (Michaeles and Balling 2002). As result, carbon dioxide proves beneficial for aquatic plants as well as land-based flora (Ojala et al., 2002). The hydrological cycle Rain and snowfall bring to earth ... |
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