This paper compares the conclusions drawn from ILCA's work on single-ox and cow traction in Africa with those drawn from surveys and farmers' experience in South East Asia especially Thailand and Bangladesh. The ILCA work shows cow traction to be apparently more profitable than single-ox ploughing and both better than pair-ox ploughing. This paper throws some doubt on these conclusions and indicates that cow traction may cause problems by requiring larger amounts of high quality feed.

Describes the Ethiopian highlands assessing their potential for improved agricultural production; reports ILCA's studies on the traditional smallholder production system of the highlands; and analyzes productivity aspects of the system's crop and livestock components. Discusses the approach to farming systems research (FSR) along with the implications for adoption of the approach and its results by a national agency, some research experiences and the outlook for future research.

This conference proceeding is divided in four major sessions, viz, regional overviews; technology and adoption processes; markets and smallholder participation; and food safety and quality quality. The overviews include ILRI, HOPEA (a regional small scale start-up project for household poultry enterprises in Asia); SEARCAR & D programme; Asia-Pacific region and other global studies.

This book is a compilation of the abstracts of in-house and external publications produced in the year 2001 by CIFOR scientists and their collaborators. The abstracts are grouped into seven themes: general, biodiversity, forest governance and community forestry, forest management, non-timber forest products, plantations and rehabilitation of degraded forests, policy and extrasectoral issues that represent CIFOR's research activities. Indexes are provided by author and keyword.

This workshop was conducted to identify and prioritise areas of rumen ecology which are promising for their potential impact on improving nutrition status of tropical ruminants, to develop a rumen ecology research programme for ILRI based on relevance to developing countries and ILRI's comparative advantage vis-a-vis other institutions, to identify potential collaborators in advanced research institutes, and to define model(s) of collaboration.

Poor nutrition because of poor quality feeds and fluctuating feed supply is a major constraint to tropical livestock productivity. The need to supply greater quantities of quality fodder requires development of both new forages and feeding strategies that will enhance the efficiency with which conventional on-farm feed resources are used. Research at ILRI has identified a range of herbaceous forages and fodder tree species which can be used to alleviate the constraints of lack of feed and which can be incorporated as part of sustainable farming systems.