The use of participatory tools and methods has increased dramatically in

natural resource management (NRM) over the past decade, largely because of

the recognition that sustainable NRM cannot be achieved without involving the

individuals and communities who make decisions about how resources are

used. Participation of resource users and other stakeholders is important not

only in the management of resources, but also in research oriented toward the

generation of information and innovations that shape how resources are

Carbon sequestration is complicated but important at global scales.

Presents results of studies on the utilization of agricultural by-products as livestock feeds in Africa. Discusses methods of estimating the nutritive value of fibre residues and feed legumes, feed intake and digestibility, prospects of utilizing urea-treated maize stover, agroindustrial by-products and the chemical analysis of feeds.

Presents and discusses research results on feed resources, agroindustrial by-products utilisation, forage production, use of crop residues, dairy feeding systems, feeding strategies, introduction and adoption of improved forage technologies, nutritive value of different forages, effects of management on animal performance, effect of supplements on feed utilisation, potential of agricultural by-products as animal feeds, and effects of management on pasture grasses & legumes; and evaluates the utilisation of these results by smallholders.

Poultry is important for many poor smallholders, but infectious diseases, such as Newcastle disease, can drastically reduce the poultry population in a village and affects the food security and the livelihood of many farmers. Newcastle disease vaccination can reduce the spread of disease, but may be hard to access for smallholders if there is not a supportive system in place. In this paper, a district in Kenya is studied where there has been support for vaccination.

This study was aimed at analyzing dairy value chain in Laelay Maychew and Adwa districts of Tigray Region. The main focus was to describe and characterize different value chain actors, functions and services providers along the dairy value chain, to quantify the economic contribution of dairy value chain to actors and to investigate factors of small holder farmer’s participation in dairy value chain. To accomplish these tasks formal and informal data collection tools for both primary and secondary data.

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).

The study was carried out in three highland woredas (districts) of Chilga, Dembia and Gondar Zuria in north Gondar Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. These woredas were purposively selected because of their long experience in transhumance cattle production system. The objectives of the study were to characterize the transhumance cattle production system, identify the major constraints and forward appropriate developmental interventions for the future. Informal and formal surveys were employed to collect qualitative and quantitative data.

Transhumance, the seasonal movement of herds occurring between two points and following precise routes repeated each year, is practiced on a broad scale in the open field areas of Tigray (North Ethiopia). This article presents a characterization of the practice, factors that explain its magnitude, and recent changes. Eleven villages were selected randomly, semistructured interviews were conducted, and data on the sites were collected both in the field and from secondary sources.