Outlines the types of reforms introduced in animal health services over the past decade, summarises past experiences, provides a preliminary assessment of their impact, and indicates what lessons need to be taken into account in future policy adjustments and project investments. The discussion concentrates on World Bank- supported accessibility of the data to the authors.

2011 was the first year of operation of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). CCAFS brings together the work of all 15 international Centres in the CGIAR, and is a joint programme between the CGIAR and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). 2011 was a start-up year in terms of introducing a new way of working across Centres, but it was also a year of considerable research effort. Work was initiated in the field at many sites, and baseline surveys were completed in three regions on two continents.

Animal production systems in South-East and east Asia are discussed in the context of their potential and challenges for research to address poverty alleviation, increased food production and food security and environmentally sustainable development. The projected human population increase, rising incomes and changing consumer preferences will accelerate the demand for, and access to food in the future. This will place considerable pressures on the use of natural resources (land, crops and animals).

Evaluates the usefulness of direct data collection from low-flying light aircraft for inventory & monitoring animal population & other rangeland features, viz. water bodies, vegetation structure & greenness and human settlements, for planning and management purposes.

Rangeland scientists and quantitative ecologists have developed numerous methods and monitoring techniques that can be used for vegetation sampling (Barbour et al. 1987). The methods used to position samples (transects, quadrats, lines, and points) vary and can be classed as selective, capricious, systematic, or random. One of the prerequisites for valid statistical inference is that samples are taken randomly. A random sampling procedure implies that all elements or units of the population being studied have an equal chance of being represented in the sample.

This study assesses, in an indicative way, the impact of fodder banks and forage legume technology in countries of West Africa. The economic surplus method is used to estimate the social rate of return to public investment in research on fodder banks and the distribution of that return amongst producers and consumers. Subsequent sections of this report describe the technology of fodder banks, the economic surplus method, sources of data and the results of the analyses.