The desert areas of the country had remained backward in many respects due to difficult physiography varying agro-climatic conditions and distinct socio cultural features. Since the people living in these areas were facing hardships owing to geo-climatic conditions, the desert development programme was introduced as a centrally sponsored scheme in 1977-78.
Recent arguments have stated that the new livestock development policy will carry a high social cost, that the reality of range degradation in Botswana has been ignored, and that there is no basis for assuming that de-stocking would decrease the productivity of rangeland.
This article looks at the changes which are taking place in the Syrian semi-nomadic bedouin flocks' feeding and migration patterns, and the historical reasons for these changes.
A useful debate is developing over carrying capacity and the degradation of communal rangelands in sub-Saharan Africa. With a few lonely exceptions, scientists and policy-makers have in the past claimed that degradation is universal and livestock productivity lowered because of overstocking on communal range. This position has been mainly dogmatic.
Organisation of the dairy industry and the marketing system in Kenya is highlighted and marketing and pricing of milk in Kenya is discussed. The formal and the informal milk marketing subsystems are also discussed. The Kenya Cooperative Creameries Limited (KCC) handles most of the marketed milk that is not sold and consumed in the rural areas.
This report presents some of the highlights of ILCA's research and training and information programme. The highlight described for the Cattle Milk and Meat Thrust focuses on helping national agricultural research systems (NARS) make better use of their livestock production data.