The resilience of rangeland soils and vegetation to different levels of grazing is still poorly understood. A study was conducted to determine the recovery of a rangeland grazed at different intensities and allowed a two-year rest period. The following treatments were applied to 0.5 hectare plots: 0, 4, 8 and 16 heifers per hectare, hereafter referred to as CL, X, 2X and 4X respectively.

Livestock is poorly represented in N budgets for the African continent although some studies have examined livestock-related N flows at different levels. Livestock plays an important role in N cycling and therefore on N budgets including livestock-related flows. This study reviews the literature on N budgets for Africa to identify factors contributing to uncertainties. Livestock densities are usually modelled because of the lack of observational spatial data.

Rangeland resources are among the most important – and almost certainly the most neglected – agro ecosystem component in dry areas. They are the largest land-use category, home to the poorest segment of the population, and crucial for millions of small-scale livestock producers. The availability of grazing resources for livestock in the world’s drylands is low and erratic due to the recurrent droughts in which animals can often fall victim.

There is an increasing interest among researchers, practitioners and donors in using agricultural innovation system approaches to reach development outcomes. Limited practical experiences have been shared on the dynamics of these innovation processes and how project partners have dealt with that. The objective of this paper is therefore to share experiences from a smallholder livestock development project – the imGoats project in Mozambique – by reflecting on the dynamics of innovation processes in the project.

The authors started the discussion with the fundamental question: why are property rights important? The central hypothesis of this collaborative venture is that inappropriate property rights institutions lead to resource degradation. Two cases were distinguished: single-user resources and multiple-use resources. A good example of a single-user resource is land. Absence of secure property rights will result in land degradation, as incentives to improve the resource base do not exist under such conditions.