awareness and understanding are key to using water more productively in CWANA agriculture.

5.2.1.2 Livestock

Livestock is an integral part of most traditional production systems in dry areas, as it is in CWANA. Nevertheless, CWANA is importing large amounts of meat to keep up with the growing demand for livestock products, because of population growth, increased urbanization and higher incomes. Expansion of livestock production has so far been achieved mostly by increasing the number of animals— an approach that raises concerns about public health and environmental sustainability. Therefore, other options to increase productivity have to be explored to meet the expected increased demand (Delgado et al., 1999).

Livestock production systems are changing in CWANA as they are at a global scale with three linked factors at play: intensification of livestock production (in some places with stronger crop–livestock integration); increased commercialization of livestock production, particularly in peri-urban areas; and the gradual overcoming of animal diseases as a constraint on production (Morton and Matthewman, 1996).

Three major types of farming systems may be distinguished: grazing systems, mixed systems and industrial systems. These systems may be characterized by different stocking rates—grazing systems having the lowest rates and industrial systems the highest. In mixed systems livestock farming is combined with crop farming, where part of the crop or its by-products are used as feed resources (Chapagain and Hoekstra, 2003).

Traditional pastoralism (based mainly on sheep and goats) and to a limited extent mixed farming still exist in CWANA. However, in the grazing and small mixed-farming sectors of the region, little technological change has occurred (Delgado et al., 1999). Pastoralists are being driven into ever more marginal areas as arable terrain gradually expands. But these marginal lands are increasingly coming into focus as reserves of biodiversity, and thus pastoralism is likely to disappear in many regions where it competes with agriculture (Blench, 2000). In ecologically more favorable environments, notably the Nile Valley in Egypt, competitive dairy systems have emerged that use a mixture of domestic and imported feed resources and intermediate labor-intensive technology (Delgado et al., 1999).

Industrial production units, mainly for poultry and dairy, that have emerged based on oil revenues and the resulting economic expansion have state-of-the-art technology but require imported inputs and the domestic production of others, such as forage production for dairy cows. Most of these systems cannot compete with world markets but are maintained through protection as a matter of political choice. This is due to a certain extent to the fact that CWANA, as does most of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, lacks the capacity to produce substantial amounts of feed grain at competitive prices. Given that many countries in the region cannot expand their crop area, two possibilities remain to increase feed grain availability: intensification of production on existing land resources and importation of feed. Because much of the gain from intensification will probably be used to meet the increasing demand for food

crops (and possibly biofuel), many CWANA countries will have to import substantially more feed grains in the future (Delgado et al., 1999).

In the grazing and mixed farming systems in CWANA, productivity gains still seem possible. Animal nutrition can be improved through different technical interventions, such as dry-season supplementation, unconventional feeds or increased use of silvopastoral systems. Making better use of livestock manure may not only be of interest for mixed systems; by fertilizing fodder shrub plantings it may also improve fodder production and help conserve land in grazing systems. Another way of increasing productivity is through animal breeding, by improving local breeds or introducing high-yielding breeds for crossbreeding schemes. However, the latter approach bears the threat of progressively eliminating rare livestock breeds by genetic introgression, representing a corresponding loss of valuable genetic traits and biodiversity (Blench, 2001).

With regard to animal health, the control of serious diseases is becoming increasingly effective through better understanding of epidemiological aspects such as prevalence, risk factors and transmission mechanisms. Treatment is more easily accessible with easy-to-use control agents such as thermostable vaccines, and with the increased effectiveness, safety and ease of application of veterinary products. As farmers gain confidence that diseases can be controlled, reducing economic risk, they are prepared to invest more in animal production (Morton and Matthewman, 1996; Perry et al., 2005). This important fact will considerably increase livestock productivity in both grazing and mixed systems. Aspects of hygiene are important not only with regard to animal health but increasingly also for marketing livestock products, and they will thus receive more attention. However, institutional aspects related to delivering required animal health services in CWANA need to be evaluated in terms of (1) achieving a balance between public and private roles and (2) finding a mutually acceptable balance between regulatory standards to be maintained and the benefits accruing to those who keep livestock.

Preventing degradation and rehabilitating marginal and degraded land are possible with technical options for improved rangeland management: using rotational grazing, corralling to rehabilitate degraded spots, seeding and planting possibly supported by fertilization and water harvesting, practicing agroforestry with fodder shrubs such as Atriplex (saltbush), maintaining livestock biodiversity, reducing the number of artificial water points. However, experience to date suggests that technical inputs alone will have only a limited effect on rangeland productivity and conservation. This experience has been particularly so in completely different ecosocial regions such as the more stable environments of high-potential areas in North America, Australia or New Zealand (Sidahmed, 1996; ALAWUC, 2002).

Improving rangeland management to reduce or reverse land degradation in dry areas is a complicated and tricky issue. Most rangelands in CWANA are commonly owned, often by the state, and their profitability is rather limited, which discourages pastoralists from investing in pastures. Furthermore, traditional ways and authority systems regarding their management have been lost to a great extent(Blench, 1998). The traditional wisdom and knowledge of