Livestock are recognized as essential assets for the livelihoods of poor farmers in the mixed crop-livestock systems throughout the tropics, while feed resources have been identified as an important constraint to their productivity. Two international agricultural research institutes, CIMMYT and ILRI, therefore joined forces in a project designed to improve the value of maize as livestock feed with an aim of enhancing the livelihoods of maize-livestock farmers in East-Africa.

ILRI's mandate encompasses international livestock research through the developing world. This report makes the connection between research by ILRI and its partners and the needs of poor farmers in developing countries. The assessment of Asian animal agriculture indicates that the most significant and sustainable increases in livestock production are likely to come from mixed crop-livestock systems in rainfed and irrigated areas in South Asia.