The semi-arid Kitengela plains south of Nairobi National Park (NNP) have been the longtime

home of the Kaputiei Maasai community. Together with NNP these plains form the

Athi-Kaputiei ecosystem. The plains host rich populations of wildlife and are vital to the

health of NNP, since 70 to 80 percent of the Park’s animals roam outside it’s boundaries

at any one time.

But the rangeland that once seemed endless is now splintering. Close to the ever

expanding Nairobi, the Kitengela plains are experiencing a population boom, rising land

Presents a general description of pastoralist milk production from cattle in Africa, analyzing data on milk yield & offtake, lactation and milk composition under pastoralist conditions; briefly examines the use of milk from camels and smallstock by pastoralsits to complement their milk supply from cattle.

Discusses issues related to the collection of data on labour inputs for pastoral production, considering the utility of data on labour as part of pastoral systems research, and research methods for data collection, particularly for multi-visit recall techniques and the time allocation technique.

Lance Robinson, Governance and Resilience Scientist, ILRI, at the side event, “Measuring and Evaluating Resilience in Drylands of East Africa.”; IFPRI 2020 conference on Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security, May 15-17, 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More information at http://www.2020resilience.ifpri.info

Describes the characteristics of dairy production and processing in South Darfur and provides an analysis of the way in which pastoral families vary their diets according to seasonal food shortages and shifting terms of trade between milk and food grains.

Examines the extent and methods of crop production in the Fulani agropastoral system in central Nigeria by analyzing cropping patterns, management techniques employed, and inputs to cropping such as labour, draught power & fertilizers, and output in terms of grain yield, energy and crop residues.

Discusses the aim of studies on vegetation & feed resources in pastoral systems, describing the collection & presentation of data in the descriptive phase; identification of constraints in the diagnostic phase; and analysis of the impact of selected variables or technical innovations on the systems' functioning, and the development of adapted technology in the experimental phase.

Describes techniques of long-and short-term measurements of changes in vegetation and feed resources in pastoral systems, with particular reference to sampling techniques and costs of the various methods.