Reviews various approaches and techniques used in a number of sub-Saharan African countries to collect and analyze data on large-scale ecological changes with particular reference to remote sensing and monitoring techniques in resource inventory; suggests ways to build more effective data bases.

Discusses ways of collecting livestock data, mentioning the usefulness and techniques of low-level aerial surveys to gather information on animal numbers; and methods of recording weight changes and milk yields.

Discusses the need for data on voluntary offtake & acquisition of livestock in pastoral production systems, and considers methods through which desired data can be collected, particularly multiple-visit, and single-visit progeny history technique.

This paper looks at African livestock herds in Zimbabwe over the period 1890-1980. The focus is on the livestock system in the tribal areas where, under communal land use, there has been long-term concern with environmental deterioration Zimbabwe was chosen because it is one of the few African countries for which reasonably accurate historical data are available regarding African (common range) as opposed to Europen (closed range) herd development.

The first chapter gives a brief description of a pastoral production system, as envisaged by the study team and outlines the multi-disciplinary approach of the study, its sampling design and the data collected. Chapters 2 & 3 describe Kenya's biophysical and socio-economic environments, within which the Maasai livestock production system operates. The biophysical environment of the study site is described in detail in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 describes the social organization of the Maasai and how it affects their use of livestock and grazing resources.

In Cameroon, rangelands occupy about 20 % of surface area; provide critical habitat to many animal and

plant species; offer many vital goods and services to society and are home to pastoralists, agropastoralists,

crop farmers, fishermen and hunter-gatherers, who for centuries co-existed peacefully. In

recent years this harmony is being threatened by changing land use patterns, poor land use planning and

poor recognition of ownership rights. Despite efforts by state and non-state actors to improve pastoral

Mohamed Said, 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 "http://www.2020resilience.ifpri.info"

The objective of the present study was to assess the behaviour of people in milk

production and consumption using qualitative methods. Further, the study involved

the microbiological quality and safety assessment of milk and traditional dairy

products along milk value chains. The investigation involved largely women given

that women are customarily involved in milk handling and processing. Individual

semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and observations were used to

Nineteen microsatellite markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity, phylogenetic

relationships and herd structure of Ugandan Ankole cattle. A total of 304 animals from 8 herds in

Mbarara District were characterised. Across all loci, 200 alleles were observed. A high mean

number of alleles (MNA) per locus, ranging from 5.89 to 6.79 per herd, was observed. Polymorphic

information content (PIC) ranged from 0.403 (ILSTS013) to 0.817 (ILSTS036), with an overall