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.

Variations in availability and nutritional quality of feed resources in the tropics affect cattle production under smallholder production systems. This results in undernutrition of cattle because of fluctuations in feed and nutrient supply. The term undernutrition is very complex and not clearly understood. The end products from animal production in the forms of body growth, milk yield, reproduction and traction power are expressed as a result of the influence of undernutrition. The mechanisms involved in physiological changes need to be understood.

African farmers are poorly resourced, highly diverse and aground by poverty traps making them rather impervious to change. As a consequence R4D efforts usually result in benefits but also trade-offs that constraint adoption and change. A typical case is the use of crop residues as mulches or as feedstock. Here we linked a database of household surveys with a dynamic whole farm simulation model, to quantify the diversity of trade-offs from the alternative use of crop residues.