ASSESSMENT, CONTRIBUTIONS AND MANAGEMENT OF RANGELANDS: A REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.7247Keywords:
Assessment, Contribution, Management, RangelandAbstract
Rangelands are regarded as the cheapest sources of forages, supporting over 200 million pastoralists living in close association with about 960 million ruminants. Despite the significant contribution of rangeland to the socio-economic lives of the inhabitants of developing countries, the resource is often abused and neglected in terms of planned utilization, development and management for sustainability. Range improvement programme involves evaluating the contributions of forage species to animal nutrition. Therefore, this review was aimed at assessing and highlighting the contributions of rangeland to sustainable animal production through planned management in terms of stocking rate,
grazing capacity as grazing affects multiple rangeland characteristics including biomass, soil nutrients, soil carbon, plant species composition, and forage quality.