Domestic buffalo production in Asia

Buffalo production has a crucial role to play in the rural farming systems of Asia. The region contains some 120 million water buffaloes, which provide draught power, milk, meat, hides and other by-products to the millions of peasant farmers. Despite the undisputed importance of buffaloes, there are several factors which limit realization of their full potential. Climatic and nutritional stresses as well as diseases which are inherently more acute in their native tropical environment often result in poor growth, low reproductive efficiency, poor milk yield and high mortality. In 1978, the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture initiated a 5 year Co-ordinated Research Programme (CRP) to determine the constraints to buffalo production in terms of nutrition, reproduction and disease. On the basis of the experience gained and the scientific results obtained during this programme, a second CRP (Phase II) was initiated in 1984 to address the more applied aspects of alleviating the constraints which limit the productivity of buffalo. These Proceedings report the results of the second 5 year programme of research. The papers are essentially a synthesis of those presented by the participants of the programme at the Final Research Co-ordination Meeting held in Rockhampton, Australia, from 20 to 24 February 1989. Refs, figs and tabs