Decision guide on developing livestock enterprises with rural communities in Africa. Part 1: rabbits, goats and poultry

The guidelines provided in this document are not intended to be comprehensive, but rather give field workers and researchers an idea of what to think about before planning to develop new livestock enterprises with communities. The aim is to give the reader enough information to be aware of the possibilities, and to provide warnings to prevent situations of classical mistakes resulting in unnecessary failure of the enterprise. The information is complied for the African context. There is a reference list at the end that provides practical and comprehensive background information on tropical livestock rearing

Forage technologies as a vehicle to mainstream participatory research in East Africa

-Livestock and participatory research -Institutionalization - the ILRI process -Plan of action for networking PR and GA in forage research in East Afric

Forage utilisation in smallholder systems - African and SE Asian perspectives

-some facts and numbers -how are forages used in smallholder systems in Africa and Asia? empirical evidence of benefits from forages -what are the smallholder challenges? -what are our R4D challenges

Integrating forage technologies on smallholder farms in the upland tropics

In the past, adoption of forage technologies has been poor. This paper considers the reasons for this low level of adoption and how the situation has changed in recent years. Experiences, mostly in south-east Asia and some in east Africa, have shown that participatory approaches in the development of technology are the key to integration of forages into smallholder upland farming systems. This paper describes how projects went through the formal and informal stages of forage evaluation. Several key characteristics of communities were identified that determined whether forages could have an impact. A participatory approach was developed, which enhanced both forage technology development and its scaling-out to new areas. Some important data were generated on the environmental adaptation of forage varieties. A model for scaling-out forage technologies was developed. There are several stages of forage adoption, in which grass and legume species play different roles. Challenges for the future are to strengthen participatory approaches in the development of technology, especially in the process of scaling-out such developments

Fodder research embedded in a system of innovation

A 3-year project implemented in India and Nigeria addressed the issue of improving livelihoods of poor livestock keepers by improving availability of fodder. The original approach focused on testing of new crop varieties to be scaled up through partners using mechanisms such as farmer-to-farmer exchange and field days. As the project evolved, it became clearer that the systems were much more complex than originally thought with a wide range of actors involved. Although fodder technology is obviously a requirement to reduce fodder shortages, many of the problems are embedded in the institutions and policies that determine how technology is developed and delivered. To help address these issues, an innovation systems approach is proposed with a focus on building capacity within the system