This study was conducted to assess livestock feed sourcing and feeding strategies and their implications on livestock water productivity (LWP) in mixed crop-livestock production systems of the Blue Nile Basin (BNB) in Ethiopian Highlands. Three Woredas (Diga, Jeldu and Fogera) representing diverse agricultural farming systems were considered. One watershed in each Woreda, which is Dapo from Diga, Meja from Jeldu and Mizuwa from Fogera were selected. Each watershed further stratified to different farming systems depending on cropping pattern and landscape positions.

The study was conducted in Fogera woreda which is one of the districts found in Northwestern of the Amharan region with the aim of Characterization of cattle milk and meat production systems of the woreda, to provide the basis for cattle development interventions.

This report is divided into seven sections. The first section deals with biology of Stylosanthes and its importance in West Africa and Latin America. The second section presents papers on the screening and evaluation of Stylosanthes germplasm. This includes genetic diversity, genetic resources, species screening, multi-locational testing and evaluation of accessions. The third part discusses the dynamics, nutrient requirements, and pests and diseases of Stylosanthes species. Section four looks at Stylosanthes-based pastures for livestock production.

Three major river basins flow out of Ethiopia into Sudan, constituting the Eastern Nile basin (the White Nile flows from the south). These are the Tekeze-Atbara flowing out of northern Ethiopia, the Baro-Akoba- Sobat flowing from southern Ethiopia, and the Blue Nile (Abay) sandwiched between the other two. The Blue Nile Basin, called the Abay in Ethiopia, is the largest branch of the Nile draining the Ethiopian highlands. It covers an estimated area of 311,437 square kilometers and is shared by Ethiopia and Sudan. It joins the White Nile in Khartoum, Sudan.

In the Brazilian savanna, there is a risk that soil fertility of pastures declines to a level below that of the native savanna because of low fertilizer application. To evaluate biophysical pasture sustainability we compared regularly fertilized productive pasture (PP), degraded pasture fertilized 13 yr previously (DP), and native savanna (Cerrado, CE) in an on-farm experiment. We determined (i) biomass productivity of the pastures and (ii) nutrient concentrations in Anionic Acrustoxes from three plots under each of CE, DP, and PP.

Soil microbial biomass is considered as an important early indicator of changes that may occur
in the long term with regard to soil fertility and constitutes an important source and sink of nutrients. In
South Africa, rangeland monitoring has mostly focused on assessing changes of aboveground vegetation
in response to land uses effects, but the associated changes at belowground soil level remain a topic of
further research. The aim of this study was to explore soil microbial biomass at three sites under

In the West African drylands, SOC sequestration is seen as one of the prominent strategies to both enhance the resilience of agro-ecosystems and mitigate global greenhouse effects. However, there is a dearth of baseline data that impede the design of site-appropriate recommended management practices (RMPs) to improve and sustain SOC accrual.