Pasture research led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and national institutions during the 80's and 90's, contributed with new Brachiaria species with various characteristics and uses that were incorporated with success in livestock production systems in the lowlands of Latin America. Brachiaria brizantha, Brachiaria dictyoneura, Brachiaria humidicola and Brachiaria ruziziensis are some of the forage materials released by research institutions in the region. Despite its indisputable advantages, the Brachiaria genus presents limitations because of its low tolerance to prolonged droughts and its high susceptibility to spittlebug, a pest that causes considerable economic losses to the livestock industry. Thus, most recent research in CIAT's Brachiaria breeding program has focused on the development of a second generation of Brachiaria grasses: outstanding agronomic characteristics, establishment vigor, good sprout capacity, high biomass production and nutritional quality, good seed production, resistant to Rhizotocnia and to multiple spittlebug species. The results of this effort have conveyed to the recent release of Mulato grass, the first hybrid of the Brachiaria genus obtained by CIAT's genetic improvement program. In the waiting list of the second generation of Brachiaria grasses is hybrid #4624 (CIAT 36087), to be released in 2005, having a similar forage quality as Mulato and with all the attributes defined for the second generation of Brachiaria grasses. Moreover, several other hybrids are in advanced stages of evaluation and close to being released as commercial cultivars. The potential economic impact of the adoption of new Brachiaria hybrids on livestock production systems was evaluated using the Economic Model MODEXC. Two regions were considered in Colombia: the Northern Coast and the Eastern Plains. In Mexico, the tropical region; and in Central America, its six constituent countries. The model estimates the economic benefits attributable to the utilization of the new materials, disaggregating per country, region, ecosystem, production system and large social groups (consumers and producers). It works with two types of parameters: the technical ones that characterize the new technology and its process of dissemination, and the economic ones representing the conditions of market supply and demand of both beef and milk affected by the technical change. The benefits of the new technology (from the year 2007) were calculated for a period of 20 years and the results were expressed in terms of the net present value (NPV) and annuities. The estimates were made using alternatively an economic framework of open and closed economy. In a closed economy, without international trade, the NPV of the technological benefits was estimated at US$4,166 million, of which 54% would be generated by the marketing of beef and the rest by milk. Most of the benefits were concentrated in Mexico, US$2,831 (68%); followed by Colombia, US$960 million (23%), and Central America, US$363 million (9%). In order to have criteria on the extent of the estimated technological benefits, the value of beef and milk yield during 2003 was calculated in the reference countries. The NPV is equivalent to 44% of the value of that year, ranging between 16% in Honduras and 78% in Nicaragua. The results show the importance of the dual purpose livestock production system. In most countries, more than half of the technological benefits was generated in this system: Colombia 70%, Central America 62%, and Mexico 50%. When a country is self-sufficient and the surplus resulting from the technical improvements is marketed domestically, the benefits are transferred to consumers who are favored with the reduction in prices, making possible for them to increase consumption. In the case of a closed economy, consumers would capture 83% of total benefits. Trade liberalization implies a re-distributive process favoring producers. Export purchases increase total demand and restrain the fall of domestic prices. In an open-market economy, the share of benefits to producers would rise to 46%. Research investment is conceived as a primary mechanism to achieve two of the most basic social goals: 1) poverty reduction and improvement in equity, and 2) the promotion of economic growth. Having this premise, in order to establish to what extent this technical change contributes to the fulfillment of these goals, the acquired benefits were estimated for the most vulnerable population groups: a) The two quintiles of poor consumers, representing 40% of total population, and b) the small producers. In both schemes, open or closed economy, both groups receive more than one-fourth of the benefits from technical change, 27% and 31%, respectively. This is equivalent to a NPV ranging between US$1,137 to 1,303 millions. Because the hybrids require better soils or fertilizer inputs to maintain forage biomass productivity and quality, the study was made with conservative hypotheses about changes in productivity and the size of the area to be planted. Despite the definition of the levels of critical variables, especially those associated with the productivity and the adoption of the new Brachiaria hybrids, conservative criteria were considered in order to avoid overestimating the benefits; it is important to evaluate the sensitivity of these, against undesirable changes of those variables. For this purpose, three alternative scenarios were established: 1) The reduction of 50% of the area cultivated with new Brachiaria hybrids, 2) the reduction of 10% in the yields of the new materials, and 3) the increase of 50% in the total time of adoption. The most critical variable in the determination of the amount of benefits is yield (productivity) of the new technology, in terms of beef and milk per hectare. The elasticity of the benefits regarding the yields was estimated at 2.2 for Colombia and 1.8 for Central America and Mexico. This suggests that if the yield declines by 1%, the reduction of the social benefits is more than proportional. The social benefits are less elastic with regard to the area planted with new Brachiaria hybrids or the time of adoption. For example, in Colombia, if the area with improved materials declines by one percentage point, the benefits will diminish at approximately six tenths of one point. In all the proposed alternative scenarios, the investment in the development of these new pastures are economically attractive, despite the adverse circumstances proposed in these scenarios. The technological benefits expressed as an annuity (a fixed annual payment received for a specific number of years) shows that the investment for the development of new forage options is very low, less than US$ 20 million, compared with the annual benefits resulting from the use of these new materials.

This article discusses major issues that confront attempts to introduce participatory methodologies into livestock production research, based on experiences during two projects in East Africa, and interviews with researchers and others in the region. The extent to which research can be participatory is strongly influenced by the institutional contexts in which it is carried and used, and some of the institutions involved are briefly surveyed. The article then discusses conceptual issues; including the notion of degrees of participation, the underdevelopment of participatory research in livestock compared to crop science, and the reluctance of existing livestock science to deal with multiple-output systems. The relations between participatory research, whole-farm research and livelihoods research, and the role of economic analysis are also explored. Methodological issues at various points of the project cycle are discussed, including: the need to tailor methods to agreed objectives, the role of “PRA toolsâ€, the specific problems relating to participatory trials with livestock, and the role of on-station trials. Institutional issues such as funding procedures and timescales, and reward systems for researchers are generic to all participatory research, but they are perhaps felt more strongly in the livestock sector where they combine with livestock-specific issues.

Ethiopia has been amongst the principal honey and beeswax producers worldwide for centuries. Beekeeping in Amhara region could be one way of assisting millions of the region’s farmers to improve their cash income, provide additional food, assist in pollination, generate employment and at the same time produce honey, beeswax and other hive products which can bring foreign currency into the country. This paper discusses the constraints and the future prospects on apiculture development of the region. The challenges are many but can be overcome while the opportunities are very encouraging. As a conclusion, developing appropriate policy and beekeeping development strategy that would be applicable to the different production systems will ensure the sustainable development of apiculture sub sector.

An evaluation of the pig enterprise at the Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) farm using sow productivity and gross margin analysis was carried out. The data were obtained from breeding and financial records of the Landrace and Duroc breeds from 1997 to 1999. Litter size at birth influenced litter size at weaning and both traits decreased with an increase in parities. A positive correlation (0.70) was observed between litter size at birth and litter size at weaning. A negative gross margin was realised due to the high feed costs and low market price of pigs which did not cover production costs

Smallholder poultry as a tool for poverty alleviation has been developed and widely applied in Bangladesh. In this paper, the evolution of the model has been summarized and studies conducted to assess the impact of the poultry model at various stages of its evolution have been critically reviewed. The results indicate that the project has reached the poor though not always ultra poor, the main target of the model, and that participants have benefited positively in terms of income, consumption and nutrition, empowerment of women. However, the results need to be assessed with a high degree of caution because of several methodological limitations of the impact studies. These limitations have been illustrated and suggestions have made for more objective assessment of impact of past projects and for conducting additional research for supporting smallholder poultry as a tool for poverty alleviation.

In the study area predominantly three marketing options were available for the dairy farmers; unorganized vendors, formal / organized dairy cooperatives and integrated contract system. A majority of dairy farmers around 57.3 percent had shifted from one marketing option to another. The rest 42.7 per cent of dairy farmers remained in the same marketing option from the day they began commercial milk production. A major shift from vendors (informal system) to contract (39.5 per cent), followed by vendor to co-operative (24.4 per cent) and co-operative to vendor (19.8 per cent) was noticed. Irregularity in payment and stoppage of procurement by vendor system made dairy farmers shift from vendor system to others. After the weakening of vendor- farmer relationship and initiation of Milk Producer Cooperatives at the village level, there has been a shift from vendor to co-operative system. When the dairy sector opened for private investment coupled with poor performance of cooperatives, farmers shifted towards new marketing option the 'integrated contract system'. Irregularity in payment, distant location of collection centre and inability to milk the animals were reasons for shifting back to vendor from other marketing options. Prompt payments, sustainability of marketing systems in business were major factors responsible for retaining members and attracting new dairy farmers. Dairy farmers with the experiences of various marketing options gave more value to the prompt payment for the milk sold on comparing to milk prices.

In mix crop livestock systems, farmers derive their livelihoods using natural resources based strategies and off farm income. In these system livestock is both a source of food, fiber cash income and draught power valued in agricultural production and transport. Using the sustainable livelihood framework the contribution of working animals to income, food security and poverty alleviation is discussed in the context of rural West Africa. We use data collected in selected communities to test empirically the impact of ownership of working animals on poverty alleviation. Specifically, a poverty index is developed based on asset ownership and income from different sources including forest and off farm income. Then, this index is regressed on ownership of working animals and other important socio-economic determinants to provide evidence of the role of draught animals in poverty alleviation. Additional discussion also addresses the issues of constraints to the optimal contribution of working animals to the livelihoods and strategies to further improve the role of these working animals are highlighted.

Dairy production is a major contributor towards national economies and household food security and incomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Milk production in the region is estimated at 1.27 million metric tonnes year-1. However, this level of milk production is inadequate for the existing human population who would require 103 million metric tonnes year-1. In Uganda, milk production only meets approximately 20% of the population's nutritional requirements. As such, methods need to be sought to increase milk production in the region. Research efforts have made strides in identifying the causes of the production-demand gap in the SSA region and a spectrum of interventions to bolster the productivity. Unfortunately, these efforts have by far yielded insignificant results. First and foremost, for exploiting the full potential of the dairy cattle population in the region, among the critical elements often overlooked in research and development processes is the recognition of systematic parametric variations within the sector, which if considered could provide entry-points for targeting intervention efforts. One such high potential entry-point is the recognition of the existence of a dairy intensification "vector" across a country or region, along which exist sections with sequentially marked nuclei of fairly uniform socio-economic and biophysical dairy sub-systems features. To enhance the process of targeting research and development in the Ugandan dairy sector, dairy production systems in the country were categorised on basis of level of intensification of production. Data were collected from 300 households in Mbarara, Masaka and Jinja districts in Uganda. The major variables derived from the data for the categorisation process were those related with milk production, expenditure, income, land area and cattle herds. The data was subjected to a cluster analysis which although produced 16 groups only five had prominent membership (above 5% of the farms). The five major clusters were selected as representative of the dairy production systems. A ranking system was used to develop an intensification continuum for the 5 systems. Herding-on own and communal land (cluster 9) was the least intensive, this was followed by Herding-mainly on own land (cluster 12) and Fenced (cluster 8) respectively. Semi-Zero Grazing (cluster 15) and Zero Grazing (cluster 13) were the most intensive dairy production systems with the latter being at the highest end of the continuum.

A study was conducted during the year 2000 to investigate flock size and egg production performance of backyard chicken maintained by woman in rural areas of Peshawar, NWFP, Pakistan. One hundred and thirty female farmers were selected at random from 13 randomly selected nearby villages of Peshawar city. Average flock size maintained by a household in rural areas of Peshawar was 26.1±0.69 chicken with a higher number of adult birds (14.5±0.50) than chicks (11.6±0.41).Fewer chickens was found in flocks given no housing facility (24.3±1.02) than those given part time housing facility (29.4±0.85). Higher number of chickens/household was found with flock owners vaccinating their chicken against ND+Fowl-pox than those not vaccinating their chicken against these diseases. On the average 2315±66.2 eggs were obtained by a household. Egg production/bird irrespective of the breed was found to be142±3.17 eggs. Of the total eggs produced, 703±23.8 eggs were consumed by the household on annual basis. More eggs per bird were produced by Rhode Island Red (RIR) than Desi chicken. Flocks given a part time housing facility produced more eggs/bird than those given no housing. Flocks reared in normal human dwellings also produced higher number of eggs per bird than those given no housing. More eggs/bird were obtained from flocks vaccinated against ND+fowl-pox disease than non-vaccinated flocks. RIR produced higher number of eggs/bird under scavenging conditions than desi, Fayumi and White Leghorn chickens. Effective health coverage, housing facilities and rearing of highly productive chicken will improve backyard chicken production in rural areas of Peshawar.