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Community-based breeding programs (CBBPs) have shown, at pilot scale, to be effective and beneficial in achieving genetic progress and in improving livelihoods of smallholder communities. In Ethiopia 134 sheep and goat CBBPs were operational producing their own improved rams and bucks. Based on experience the implementation of further programs is possible with appropriate private and public support. A different challenge is the efficient dissemination of the improved genetics produced in current CBBPs to create population-wide economic impact. We present a framework applied to the Ethiopian Washera sheep breed to meet this challenge. We propose the establishment of a genetic improvement structure that supports a meat commercialization model based on the integration of community-based breeding program cooperatives, client communities and complementary services such as fattening enterprises. We calculated that the recently established 28 community-based breeding programs in the Washera breeding tract can provide genetically improved rams to 22% of the four million head. To reach the whole population 152 additional CBBPs are needed. We simulated the genetic improvements obtainable in the current 28 CBBPs assuming realized genetic progress in CBBPs of a similar breed and calculated the expected additional lamb carcass meat production after 10 years of selection to be 7 tons and the accumulated discounted benefit 327 thousand USD. These benefits could be increased if the CBBPs are linked to client communities by providing them with improved rams: additional meat production would be 138 tons with a value of 3,088 thousand USD. The total meat production of the existing Washera CBBPs was calculated at 152 tons and the joint meat production of CBBPs if integrated with client communities would be 3,495 tons. A full integration model, which includes enterprises purchasing lambs for fattening, can produce up to 4,255 tons of meat. We conclude that Washera CBBPs cooperatives can benefit from a higher level of organization to produce population-wide genetic improvement and economic benefits. Unlike in the dairy and chicken industries, for low input sheep and goat smallholder systems the proposed commercialization model puts breeder cooperatives at the center of the operation. Cooperatives need to be capacitated and supported to become fully functional business ventures.

Increasingly frequent droughts, declining soil fertility, and poor plant-animal-atmosphere interactions are threatening the sustainability of integrated crop-livestock systems in the rainfed drylands of North Africa. Previous research from around the globe has verified that better integration of crop and livestock activities within agricultural production systems is promising in boosting food productivity, soil health, and overall farm profitability. This is especially relevant for rainfed drylands, particularly in areas with low rainfall where livestock production is predominant. Although integrated crop-livestock farming already exists in these regions, the decreasing integration between the two activities—induced by a variety of factors during the previous three decades—resulted in perennial depletion of soil fertility and an overall decrease of relative farm incomes. The North African region owes its sustainable intensification benefits to numerous synergistic interactions. This chapter, therefore, aims to highlight options for better integration of the crop-livestock system into the region's long-existing cereal-based livestock farming system, in order to help boost food and nutrition security, farmers' income and soil health. The chapter looks at case studies from Algeria and Tunisia. In particular, it considers as the key integrating factors for crop-livestock system: diversifying cereal monocropping by introducing of food and forage legumes; integrating alternative grazing/feeding systems; integrating tree-crops and livestock; adopting Conservation Agriculture practices in order to effectively address the crop residue tradeoff between providing feed for livestock and leaving residues as mulch; improving the management of herd health and increasing the availability of scale-appropriate mechanization. A combination of all is considered as the key integrating factor for the crop-livestock system. The combination of all or a few of these components helps improve overall farm incomes, crop productivity, and soil health, increases the efficiency of input use, provide healthy protein for human's diet and fodder for livestock, and also has the potential as a sustainable intensification strategy. For the wider adoption of these alternative options by smallholder farmers, it is important to consider different approaches; for example, participatory evaluation, field visits, farmers field schools and the use of information and communications technology, along with improving farmers' capacity to access and use these tools.

Présentation sur les changements climatiques et la création d'une base de données méditerrannéene.

Présentation sur le surra en Tunisie.