My name is Daniel Nkomboni and I work as a livestock & rangelands researcher in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe. My work encompasses developing research based technologies for small farms although it also caters for commercial farms. I am currently based in South Island of New Zealand. Defining small farms: In the southern African context, they may be rural family run farms with land areas of approximately 6 ha (this varies with agroecological regions). The definition should include land carrying capacities, livestock units and go beyond to include cultural & religious norms. Most of these farms are characterized by poor access to market information and markets. However, they are the drivers of rural economies and are supported by non-farm economies, e.g. formal employment and remittances play crucial roles in drought situations. These farms are normally non specialized (are crop-livestock systems with inter-dependency). Small peri-urban farms are also part of small farms but these differ from the those mentioned earlier as they are closer to markets and production could be market oriented & transportation costs are low. Daniel Nkomboni Livestock & Rangelands Researcher Matopos Research Institute P. Bag K5137 Bulawayo Zimbabwe E-mail: Dnkomboni (at) gmail.com Alternative e-mail: Dnkomboni (at) yahoo.com Phone: +64211244670 [To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/434322/ ]. ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the SMALL-FARMS-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SMALL-FARMS-L&A=1