Climate-induced livelihood transitons in the agricultural systems of Africa are increasingly likely. There has been only limited study on what such transitons might look like, but it is clear that the implicatons could be profound in relaton to social, environmental, economic and politcal efects at local and natonal levels.

Carbon footprint is a key indicator of the contribution of food production to climate change and its importance is increasing worldwide. Although it has been used as a sustainability index for assessing production systems, it does not take into account many other biophysical environmental dimensions more relevant at the local scale, such as soil erosion, nutrient imbalance, and pesticide contamination.

The papers presented here by the group covering the states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) had detailed discussions on defining the livestock priorities, research requirements, and ways to achieve these with a focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Discussions were conducted in three sequential phases. In the first phase, each country identified the priority agro-ecological zones (AEZs) and, within each, priority production systems in which livestock research was required. The results are presented in a tabular form.

This proceedings presents the results and conclusions of ILRI's role in livestock research and development in Asia. It provides a detailed testimony of the success of the consultation, and especially about ILRI's commitment to form integrated programmes for livestock and agricultural research with national partners and others.

The objectives of this consultation are to identify priority requirements for improved livestock productivity and development of the sustainable production systems in the developing regions; to identify cross-regional priorities, major constraints, the researchable areas and issues in livestock production most likely to bring distinct benefits and impacts; and to assist identification of participants and planning for future regional research workshops.

Innovation platforms are increasingly used as spaces for interaction between actors in value chains to overcome barriers to development. It involves continuous learning and capacity building – both in terms of innovation capacity and specific technical or organizational capacities. Despite the increased use of Innovation Platforms in the context of value chains, there are several questions regarding their practical implementation.