Naturally occurring salt tolerant and halophytic plants (trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs) have always been utilized by livestock as a supplement or drought reserve. Salt tolerant forage and fodder crops are now being planted over wide areas. Increasingly, large-scale production of fodder on formerly abandoned irrigated cropland has allowed salt tolerant and halophytic feedstuffs to be mainstreamed into the supply chain for feedlots. Feeding salty feeds to livestock has been evaluated in many countries with good outcomes especially as a way to improve livestock nutrition and productivity. Better ways have been devised to use these potentially valuable feed resources. These feedstuffs are best fed in mixed rations. Substituting conventional fodder with up to 30 percent of the diets comprising halophytic feedstuffs have proved most successful for ruminant livestock but special formulations have been devised for poultry and rabbits. There are big savings on the import of costly feedstuffs and benefits to livelihoods of those dependent on scattered, sparse and unreliable forage/fodder in the world's drylands that cover about 40 percent of the world's land surface. This book is written by leading authorities from many different countries. It reviews past and current work on the animal-oriented aspects of the utilization of feedstuffs derived from salt tolerant and halophytic plants. It brings to the reader (scientist, researcher, academics and their students, policy makers, and livestock operators) an up-to-date analysis of the important issues related to salt-rich feedstuffs (nutrition, productivity, and reproduction).

Naturally occurring salt tolerant and halophytic plants (trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs) have always been utilized by livestock as a supplement or drought reserve. Salt tolerant forage and fodder crops are now being planted over wide areas. Increasingly, large-scale production of fodder on formerly abandoned irrigated cropland has allowed salt tolerant and halophytic feedstuffs to be mainstreamed into the supply chain for feedlots. Feeding salty feeds to livestock has been evaluated in many countries with good outcomes especially as a way to improve livestock nutrition and productivity. Better ways have been devised to use these potentially valuable feed resources. These feedstuffs are best fed in mixed rations. Substituting conventional fodder with up to 30 percent of the diets comprising halophytic feedstuffs have proved most successful for ruminant livestock but special formulations have been devised for poultry and rabbits. There are big savings on the import of costly feedstuffs and benefits to livelihoods of those dependent on scattered, sparse and unreliable forage/fodder in the world's drylands that cover about 40 percent of the world's land surface. This book is written by leading authorities from many different countries. It reviews past and current work on the animal-oriented aspects of the utilization of feedstuffs derived from salt tolerant and halophytic plants. It brings to the reader (scientist, researcher, academics and their students, policy makers, and livestock operators) an up-to-date analysis of the important issues related to salt-rich feedstuffs (nutrition, productivity, and reproduction).

This book Drylands: Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, edited by Victor R. Squires, Mahesh K. Gaur and Salah Attia Ismail, fills a gap in the literature admirably. It gets away from 'species lists' and designation of species and habitats as 'endangered' or 'at risk'. Instead, it opens up discussion on a range of issues relating to the important matters of biodiversity, land management and efforts at conservation (wise use) of natural resources that support an area's biodiversity. Dryland ecologists, land use change specialists, policy makers from UN agencies or from bilateral and multilateral donors and other natural resource management agencies will find the book very useful. It is also a valuable reference book for university students in ecology, geography, environmental studies and development studies in general. Key points aProvides a synoptic overview of the current problems and prospects for biodiversity conservation in a changing world based on a focus on selected ecosystems across Africa, Asia and the Middle East aDiscusses the path forward to maintain and improve dryland ecosystems, conserve biodiversity and achieve land protection This edited volume is devoted to the examination of the implications of the inevitable changes wrought by global change on the welfare and livelihoods of tens of millions of people who live in dryland-dominated regions on all continents except Antarctica. Global change is more than just climate change. The shift to the market economy and demographic factors (population growth, urbanization and resettlement) receive attention here. The implications of change (including an analysis of the drivers of change) and the role of humans as agents of these changes are canvassed. Chapters by leading experts who live and work in lands focus on examples that are drawn from a number of sources including previously unpublished studies. The key purpose is to provide an up to date and in-depth global overview of drylands and give readers insights into the status of these vulnerable biomes and to alert readers to the consequences of a loss of biodiversity to the tens of millions of people, their livestock and the myriad of plants and animals that make up dryland ecosystems across the globe. Maintenance of biodiversity ensures the continued flow of ecosystems' goods and services on which most of us depend!

This multi-author book by experts in Central Asia draws together the key issues that confront the peoples of these lands as the New Silk Road takes shape. The Editors provide an overview of information and background about rangelands, grasslands and pasturelands in nine Silk Road countries as well as their productivity and ecological function. The authors discuss the status, future prospects and strategies to achieve sustainable management of rangelands and grasslands in the context of the infrastructure developments and other New Silk Road building activities in Central Asia. They identify problems and hazards associated with global change, including climate change in Silk Road countries. This book will act as a vehicle to promote knowledge useful for managing rangelands, grasslands and pasture lands along the Silk Road, from Mongolia in the East to Iran in the West. No region of the world has such vast and largely undeveloped areas of land that is so strategically placed between Europe to the west, Asia to the east, and Russia acting as huge presence to the north. For ages, these vast lands have been the conduit through which trade, commerce, learning and religious beliefs have spread. For millennia, the resource base (rivers, lakes, and various types of land including vast steppes, grasslands and other forms of rangelands) have supported lives and livelihoods of millions of people, as goods and ideas flowed in both directions along the vast network of trade routes that came to be known as the Silk Road. In the past, there have been many challenges, not the least of which was the issue of distance (over 6000 km. from China to the eastern edge Europe). In modern times, there has been a renewed interest in these vast lands that contain the worlds highest mountains, some of the driest deserts and provide sustenance for millions of people and their livestock as well as an irreplaceable wealth of plant and animal diversity. Accelerated economic activity, which is mainly infrastructure development (pipelines, highways, railways), is both a threat and an opportunity especially when set against a background of global change, including climatic shifts that threaten water supplies and livelihoods on a scale never before experienced. The focus of the authors' is on the extensive rangelands and grasslands, as well as the peoples whose livelihoods depend on the development of sustainable land management. In particular, they analyse and provide commentary of the transformative adaptations that are required if the Silk Road and its inhabitants are to survive into the twenty-second century and beyond.

The mid-latitude regions of the world are those with the greatest development of agriculture industry, and with burgeoning demands on natural resources. Management of the rivers and the surrounding landscape is one of the important tasks for today and for the foreseeable future. Lessons learned from centuries of management (and mismanagement) have been distilled into principles and practices which form the subject matter for this book. It provides both a global perspective and an entree to the special problems associated with management of transboundary rivers."