The project focuses on access and control of water/land, and the associated management and governance mechanisms. L4 seeks to provide the people and governments of the Limpopo Basin with:

1. A package of ways to better understand and organise access rights to water for multiple uses from farm level to the basin and regional level,

2. A package of ways to organise technologies for different physical and socio-economic contexts so as to improve the management and control of water for multiple uses from one or more water sources,

The spatial distribution of crops and farming systems in Africa is determined by the duration of the period during which crop and livestock water requirements are met. The length of growing period (LGP) is normally assessed from weather station data—scarce in large parts of Africa—or coarse-resolution rainfall estimates derived from weather satellites. In this study, we analyzed LGP and its variability based on the 1981–2011 GIMMS NDVI3g dataset. We applied a variable threshold method in combination with a searching algorithm to determine start- and end-of-season.

The Borana people are the predominant ethnic group on the Borana plateau in southern Ethiopia. Though traditionally transhumant pastoralists, they have recently increased their reliance on crops. Rainfall in the region averages between 353 and 873 mm; variability is high, with coefficients of variation ranging from 0.21 to 0.68. Anecdotal evidence implies that the vulnerability of pastoralist households to drought is increasing; stock levels increase dramatically during good rainfall years but plummet when rainfall is poor, indicating that the drought cycle is becoming more pronounced.

Presents and discusses ILCA's research on smallholder farming in the highlands, village sheep and goat production in the humid zone, cattle production in the subhumid zone, pastoral production in the arid zones of West Africa, range livestock production in eastern and southern Africa, and breed evaluation and herd modelling.