Preface

John Walsh

Director General,
International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA),
P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

It is my pleasure to welcome on behalf of ILCA Dr Mlambo, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Water Development, Zimbabwe, Dr Kyomo, Director of SACCAR [the Southern African Centre for Cooperation in Agricultural Research], Dr Dolan and Dr Mukhebi from ILRAD [the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases] and our colleagues from national programmes throughout southern Africa.

Livestock are central to virtually au agriculture, including sustainable cropping systems. Livestock produce milk and meat, traction, fuel, hides and manure for crops. They also contribute to food security, provide a means of storing wealth and play a role in trade and barter.

These divergent and extended roles afford to the livestock researcher an opportunity not only to affect the output of milk and meat but also to influence regional development. The improvement of the livestock industry is a key to development in the economies of sub-Saharan Africa countries.

In the past few years, progress has been made through regional organisations, such as SACCAR, and in the networking of researchers from many nations. There now exists a sound technical understanding of the problems facing livestock development in sub-Saharan Africa and the likely effects of overcoming these problems. This progress must now be extended to include measurement of success based on the impact that the work is having and the extent to which researchers are improving sustainable livestock production systems. Are feeding and health packages available that will allow the livestock sector to grow faster than in the past? Scientists now have to ensure that the livestock sector plays a full role in promoting food security.

Future systems will, I believe, have to emphasise to a greater extent the integration of crops and livestock. There are clear needs for better livestock feeding systems (most especially in feed conservation), better storage and use in feeding of crop residues and more widespread use of livestock in sustainable cropping systems. In terms of the cash economy, pert-urban dairying is going to be of tremendous importance, not only in food security, but also in facilitating change in agricultural production by demonstrating the correlation of milk to the cash economy.