Bernard Bett, Senior Scientist, ILRI, at the side event, “Measuring and Evaluating Resilience in Drylands of East Africa.” IFPRI 2020 conference on Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security, May 15-17, 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More information at http://www.2020resilience.ifpri.info

Challenge Program Water and Food: Basin Focal Project NIGER

Faced with increasing food and water insecurity as a result of climatic and

anthropogenic (demography, land use) changes, the CGIAR Challenge Program

for Water and Food commissioned research in 10 river basins to study the links

between water, food and poverty. Looking at the Niger river basin, we carry out

a diagnosis of the hydrologic and agronomic potential, before attempting to

identify how good agricultural water management may reduce vulnerability in the

The Basin Focal Project Volta (BFP Volta) was developed along three main steps:

Assessment of present conditions of the distribution of rural poverty, of farming

systems with their productivity and water productivity;

Analysis of opportunities and risks, especially under the double pressure of demography

and possible climate change, and modeling of water resources to identify sensitivity of

water allocation to development and climate scenarios; and

Identification of research gaps and implementation plan.

This study attempted to investigate the beef cattle production system and opportunities for market orientation in southern Ethiopia, Borena Zone. The specific objectives of the study were to characterize cattle production systems, assessment of marketing systems, assess seasonality of domestic cattle meat consumption; and assess potentials and constraints of export abattoirs in Ethiopia. To achieve these objectives, secondary and primary data were used. Export abattoirs, producers, and butcheries interview were sources of primary data.

Lushoto District is part of Tanzania’s most important milk production regions; depending on the village, 25-95% of households own improved dairy cows. However, land pressure is high and both income and food security are low. The aim of this study has been to assess the potential of various forage cultivation intensification strategies (‘scenarios’) to improve physical production and income of smallholder crop-dairy farmers in Lushoto district, Tanzania.

In order to identify options suitable for providing livestock feed in the wetter part of the moist savanna, the DM yield, botanical composition, crude protein, in sacco digestibility and neutral detergent fibre of combinations of 4 herbaceous legumes and 2 grasses were evaluated between June 1994 and December 1995 at Ibadan, south-western Nigeria. The legumes, Stylosanthes guianensis, Aeschynomene histrix, Centrosema pubescens and Chamaecrista rotundifolia, were each planted in combination with Brachiaria ruziziensis and Cynodon nlemfuensis.