This report was produced following a study visit to Kenya and Uganda, 19–30 April 2004. The visit was sponsored by CTA and organised in collaboration with ORREDE and SACDEP–Kenya.

All eastern Africa is in the tropics, but its grasslands cover a very wide range of altitudes. Extensive grasslands are mostly in arid and semi -arid zones. The area is subject to droughts and a high degree of pastoral risk.

The mountain farmers operate on whole of animals (flocks, herds, working herds) copying models coming surely from the beginning of domestication. The apprenticeship lengthwise of centuries was received as a heritage and they will to enrich through every generational change.

Millennium Development Goal Number Seven is particularly concerned with the safeguarding and provision of freshwater resources to all human.beings; this is a major challenge – and perhaps even the main challenge – for all the world’s drylands.

This book brings together information on the contrasting characteristics, condition, present use and problems of the world's main natural grasslands. Since grassland is commercialized through the grazing animal, particular attention is paid to the livestock production systems associated with each main type.

This paper is part of the follow-up to the workshop “Managing Agricultural Biodiversity for Sustainable Development” organized by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) for the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) and hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya (23-25 October, 2003, Nairobi, Kenya).

In 2004, ICARDA began strategic visioning, driven by the global focus on achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the realignment of the CGIAR System priorities by the Science Council.