wedap

Generally speaking the employment of animals in agriculture is seasonal. Then they work for about 120 days by year (UN literature estimate). Therefore it is available a lot of free animal working time that can be employed without compromise the health of livestock.

Both animals and their feed are produced in the village, so there is no cost in foreign currency for their utilisation. Then the savings in foreign value can be engaged in the purchase of pumps, seeds, pesticides, food or medicines or other appliances, such as telephone sets, lights, televisions. Therefore the local currency will not be utilized to purchase abroad fuel or more expensive electric generators. Then with the same foreign costs is possible to have a better watere and electric service.

La required manpower is represented by few minutes work for preparing the animals and a simple man watch during the working period also far from the equipment.

Taking in to account that the animals are yet present in the village their purchase price is to be only partially considered.

The other cost to be considered is not the complete cost of feed of the animals. In fact it should be considered only the difference between the ration of maintenance, that is the quantity of food eaten by the non working animal, and the ration of work that is the quantity of food eaten by the animal in working periods.

Furthermore the storage of energy is represented by the rest of the animal