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.

A community-based sheep breeding program has been implemented in the highlands of Ethiopia to improve the body weight and reproductive performance of Menz sheep. This study adopts system dynamic methodology to develop a dynamic stochastic simulation herd model to evaluate the effect of genetic improvement and additional feed sources (forage production) on herd dynamics and profitability. The study also explores the opportunities of system dynamics approach in the context of designing breeding programs to predict annual genetic gain of traits.

The effects of supplementation with graded levels of tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) leaves on feed intake, digestibility, and body weight gain (BWG) and carcass characteristics were studied using thirty yearling and intact male Menz sheep. The sheep were blocked into six blocks of five sheep based on their initial body weight and animals from each block were randomly assigned to five treatment groups with six replications per treatment in randomized complete block design (RBCD).

The study aims to estimate the livestock water productivity (LWP) and to examine the effect of grazing area closure and feeding strategies on LWP at farm household level under wealth and intervention categories at Lencha Dima watershed. Results are based on survey of 120 sample households and focus group discussion. Beneficial outputs of livestock and depleted water for producing them were estimated then livestock water productivity as the ratio of the beneficial out puts and depleted water was estimated.