The major objectives of this workshop are to sharpen the focus of ILRI's ecoregional research, to further identify commonalities in tools and new methods that can enable ILRI to do effective transregional research, and to identify improvements to the way in which ILRI does ecoregional research.

Examines economic aspects of browse development, w. data on browse, wood, gum and crop production, international rate of return and cost prices on atriplex and acacia plantations in tropical Africa.

Discusses the considerations relating to economic policy, supporting institutions and marketing and consumer demand. Classifies and discusses market functions and analyses market organization and institutions of marketing. Looks into the purpose of marketing studies. Discusses some lessons from past livestock marketing studies.

Banana-legume intercropping systems are commonly practiced in the highland zones of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to maximize land use and intensify crop production. However, banana leaves are pruned during legume intercropping to improve sunlight penetration for the legume. On-farm experiments were conducted in South Kivu province to determine the effect of banana leaf pruning on banana (Musa sp.), bush and climbing beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L) and soybean (Glycine max L) yield.

Inefficient management and use of water is unanimously the most single constraint of agricultural production of Ethiopia. The study was conducted to assess the effect of livestock feed sourcing and feeding strategies on livestock water productivity (LWP) in mixed crop–livestock production systems of the Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopian Highlands. Three districts representing diverse agricultural farming systems were considered. Each district further stratified to different farming systems. Multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was employed to select farm households.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.), also called ‘broad bean, horse bean’ is an annual crop, which mainly grows in the highlands of Ethiopia for human consumption. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of intercropping faba bean varieties with oat fodder on forage biomass, straw, grain yields, and straw quality. For the household survey 108 households (HHs) were selected from two kebeles (53 from Upper Gana and 55 from Jawe kebeles). The average HH family size, land and livestock holdings were 5.53 heads, 1.39 ha and 6.73 heads, respectively.

Seedlings of Artemisia herba-alba grown in glasshouse were watered with differing salinities (0, 150, 250 or 350 mM NaCl) and watering frequencies of 3, 7, 14 or 21 days for a period of 6 weeks. At the end of the study, plant survival, dry matter yield, biomass allocation (shoot and root), leaf area, relative growth rate (RGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf area ratio (LAR) were recorded. When watered with 0 mM NaCl, Artemisia herba-alba plants had similar (P> 0.9) final dry matter weight and 100% survival regardless of watering frequency.