Improvement of the world's livestock industry necessitates input from many directions. Planning by a host of national and international agencies is required in order to provide optimal stimulus in very diverse areas ranging from formulation of laws and incentives that stimulate competition yet prevent undue competition, to the optimal provision of credit. Planning is needed to carry out a complex array of interrelated research. The purpose of this book is specifically tasked with setting forth frameworks and methods for evaluation of investments and associated economic decision-making in the livestock industries of developing countries. Economists will find this book useful because it synthesizes .much material into a cohesive whole--material that is often presented in a cursory manner or overlooked as emphasis has shifted to sophisticated quantitative techniques.

The book provides critical information and knowledge on the importance of livestock in the global effort to alleviate poverty and promote human health. It describes and evaluates case studies, examines theoretical frameworks, and discusses key global policy development issues, challenges and constraints related to smallholder livestock-production systems around the globe. The book is written for academic professionals, industry experts, government officials and other scholars interested in the facts and issues concerning the contribution of livestock to the social and economic progress of developing countries.

Based on a review of the literature, examines the gender division of labour and access to resources and benefits in smallholder livestock production systems and investigates the impact of livestock ownership and technology use on child nutrition. Presents two case studies which show how gender concerns are included in research to improve smallholder livestock systems.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) produced a 2011 report on women in agriculture with a clear and urgent message: agriculture underperforms because half of all farmers—women—lack equal access to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. This book builds on the report’s conclusions by providing, for a non-specialist audience, a compendium of what we know now about gender gaps in agriculture.

Persistent problems with poverty, rapid population growth and malnutrition in many developing countries are among the most serious issues facing the world today. This book examines the causes, severity and effects of these problems, as well as potential solutions. The authors consider the implications of globalization of goods, services and capital for agriculture, poverty and the environment; and identify linkages in the world food system, stressing how agricultural and economic situations in poor countries affect industrialized nations and vice versa. Focusing on the role that agriculture can play in improving economic and nutritional wellbeing and how that role might be enhanced, this book is essential reading.

Part one: Background papers - Keynote paper: the contribution of livestock to food security and sustainable development; Development support an livestock services; Impact of human activities and livestock on the African environment an attempt to partition the pressure; Part two: Issues, constraints and opportunities for livestock development; Macroeconomic, international trade and sectoral policies in livestock development an analysis with particular reference to low income countries; Research and technology tansfer for livestock development; Part three;Options for increasing livestock contribution from the major production systems; Redesigning for risk, tracking and buffering environmental variability in Africa rangelands; Mixed farming systems in subSaharanAfrica; Livestock, feeds and mixed farming systems in West Asia and North Africa; Constraints, and opportunities for livestock development in mixed farming systems in tropical; Mixed farming and intensification of animal production systems in Asia; Part Four: Working grooooooooooooup sessions.