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.

Examines decision making models formulated to guide the allocation of funds between alternative lines of research, issues emerging from the survey to the formation of ILCA's research policy, and various theories that account for the direction that research has taken in different contexts and reviews the past allocation of resources to livestock research in 10 African countries; includes proposal for further work.

Mali is one of the least developed countries with an economy that relies heavily on rainfed cereal production. Rural communities are faced with extreme poverty as a result of unpredictable rainfall pattern and lack of appropriate agricultural intervention practices. Most agronomic practices in support of development in the past had emphasized farm-level productivity issues with limited scope for managing interactions among components and actors beyond the level of the farm. Several studies showed different techniques practiced at farm level to improve the agricultural productivity.