This paper is concerned with understanding cattle production in Zimbabwe's Communal Lands, in so-called communal farming systems. Although commercial offtake from Zimbabwe's communal cattle herd is low, communal farmers are productive and rational in their cattle herd management. The economic rationale for cattle ownership is firstly to provide draught power and manure for tillage and secondly to provide milk and meat for local consumption, although the role of livestock in the farming system varies significantly from one part of Zimbabwe to another.

The paper is divided into four chapters. The frist chapter is the introduction. Chapter two discusses the conceptualisation of the farming system with reference to the livestock component and reviews some alternative typologies that have been employed or proposed. A typological framework that is consistent with ILCA's objectives is then outlined. Chapter 3 develops a regionalisation of the semi arid zones of sub-Saharan Africa in four orders of increasing scale. The first order sub-division is between "West and North" and "East and South" geographical regions.

Over millions of years, nature has built up an intricate system of relationship of exchange and mutual dependence among its elements - land, water, air, forest, sunlight and living things - to create what we call the ecosystem. It is the life support system of all living things on this planet and provides not oniy the daily needs but also saves resources for future generations. But this very life support system is endangered by man's aggression against nature. In the last few decades, the aggression has reached unprecedented levels.

Generally discusses policy and institutional issues related to the topic in post-revolution Ethiopia. The first part of the paper summarizes the physical resource base and the farming systems of the central highlands. Part two highlights the performance of the livestock sector and provides a very brief picture of the institutions involved in livestock development in these institutions with particular reference to the dairy sector. The third part surveys livestock investments made available by government, non-government organizations and formal credit institutions.

The purpose of this review is to discuss major measures for improving agricultural marketing extension in North Africa. In view of the special conditions of each individual country in the sub-region, the recommended measures are by necessity of general nature and are meant as general guidelines for discussions, The review is divided into four parts. The first part is introductory, giving a brief review of the economic and agricultural situation. The second part is an over view of the agriculture marketing and extension situation.