Rangelands, Drylands & Pastoralism

Discusses issues in the development of dairying in Africa & Asia, outlining main approaches employed in the organization of production, and the need to take into consideration five interrelated factors in dairy development strategies, viz, the supply of dairy stock, animal health, fodder systems, marketing arrangements and training of farmers; also points out the need for research, and inst

Examines decision making models formulated to guide the allocation of funds between alternative lines of research, issues emerging from the survey to the formation of ILCA's research policy, and various theories that account for the direction that research has taken in different contexts and reviews the past allocation of resources to livestock research in 10 African countries; includes proposa

Compares the climates and soils and vegetation of the Ethiopian Rift Vallety with those of other areas in Africa, with particular reference to the screening of forage species.

Presents findings and proposals of a team which studied the pastoral zone of Niger to forumlate a development programme, describing the existing production systems and constraints related to range resources, nutrition, water points and diseases.

Discusses biological options available for improvement in the productivity of pastoral systems, particularly referring to problems arising from aridity and under-nutrition, and problems of particular systems such as mortality of young stock, bush encroachment, epidemic diseases and management systems.

Indicates factors that must be considered when designing pastoral systems research, esp. the need to maintain complementantrity among various types of research; the need for policy orientation when carrying out research; and setting up of priorities & opportunities. Includes case examples from work carried out by the ILCA subhumid programme.

Discusses ways of studying economics of household level activities in pastoral production systems, with particular reference to the collection and analysis of data on household income and expenditure as well as resources inventory.

Reviews differences between crop production and pastoral production, considering their effects on research possibilities; and describes basic methods that may be used to collect household level data, esp. informal & formal surveys, enumeration and the use of questionnaires.

Reviews most recent applications of methodologies for resource surveys appropriate to pastoral & agro-pastoral regions in Africa, with particular reference to remote sensing methodologies, viz. satellite imagery, aerial photography, side-looking radar (SLR), spectral radiance and low-altitutde aerial survey.

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.

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.