Welcome to Volume 9 Number 2 of Livestock
Research for Rural
Development, the twenty-fourth issue of the journal.
On Line Formats for Livestock Research for Rural Development
Email addresses of the Publishers and Editors of LRRD
Tropical America and Caribbean Information Network (GCP/RLA/116/FRA)
Better Use of Locally Available Feed Resources (GCP/RAS/143/JPN)
E-mail Networks in Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Philippines and Laos
Tropical animal feeding: A manual for research workers
The University of Tropical Agriculture
HTML ('HyperText Markup Language') is the native language for publishing documents on the World Wide Web and is understood by all Web browsing software. The journal, as the principal means of publication of developing world sustainable agriculture, needs to be easily available to the widest possible audience of interested people. Using HTML as the on online publishing format has two principal advantages. The first is that everybody who finds the journal will be able to read it with their Internet browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape are amongst the most common). Secondly, the Internet search engines such as Alta Vista, Infoseek and others will index the pages.
All previous issues of the journal will be converted to HTML format, to improve accessibility to what is now a library of nearly 10 years of research in the field of developing world sustainable agriculture. We hope to host as much of this as possible, starting with the most recent issues, through the CompuServe 'Our World' web pages to speed access for readers outside Europe, while continuing to mirror the pages on the server at the Oxford Forestry Institute.
This is the normal DOS version that has been the standard format up to the present and which runs from the DOS Prompt by typing "journal". It is appreciated that not all our readers have access to 486 and higher processors and that this Astandalone version of the journal continues to fulfil an important role. We will continue to produce this version in the CIPAV office in Colombia and distribute it to those contributors who wish to receive LRRD in the MS-DOS format. For those readers who have an Internet connection, the MS-DOS version can be downloaded by AFTP@ from:
This new Windows version is based on the Windows Help system (run with WINHELP.EXE). This works just like any Windows Help file and needs no special instructions. It is easy to run the Windows version of LRRD as the following example for Volume 8.3 shows:
This will open the Windows LRRD 8.3 version that runs under the Windows Help System. There is on-line Help available and the buttons at the top guide you through the journal.
For those readers who have an Internet connection, the new Windows help version can be downloaded by FTP from:
ftp://saman.unellez.edu.ve/pub/revistas/LRRD
This new version of the journal allows you to have graphics and pictures in the articles. It is fast and easy to use. If you have any questions or comments then please send them to the address below or by email to cipav@cali.cetcol.net.co
Issues 7.1 to 8.4 of LRRD are also available in Adobe Acrobat Format. However, with the advent of increasing easy to use tools for preparing papers in HTML and the general feeling that a native HTML version would be a more accessible format for online publishing, the decision has been taken to produce no further issues in this format. Existing Issues of 7.1 to 8.4 will continue to be available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, but will also be updated to HTML to make them more widely accessible. If you have any comments regarding this change please send email to Fundación CIPAV at the address cipav@cali.cetcol.net.co or to Editor at the address thomas%preston%sarec%ifs.plants@ox.ac.uk
The publishers of the MS-DOS and Windows help version, Fundación CIPAV based in Cali, Colombia can be contacted at the email address: cipav@cali.cetcol.net.co
The majority of the editing now takes place in Vietnam. The email address of the Chief Editor is:
thomas%preston%sarec%ifs.plants@ox.ac.uk
For readers in Vietnam, members of VietNet the shorter form of the email address can be used, which is: thomas%preston@sarec
Details of this network, funded by France, executed by FAO and coordinated by CIPAV, are given in a separate file (see "FAO Tropical America Feeds Network"). Comments and suggestions are invited from resource persons in Tropical America and the Caribbean interested in contributing and receiving information on this topic.
This network, executed by FAO and financed by the Government of Japan, became operational in February 1994. Details are given in the Newsletter of the FAO Regional Network on "Better Use of Locally Available Feed Resources in Sustainable Livestock-based Agriculture in SE Asia (GCP/RAS/143/JPN).
Electronic mail networks, to link resource persons working in sustainable rural development, have been established by CIPAV in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and South China. This has been as a result of initiatives (and financial support) from the International Foundation for Science (IFS), the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC), the Oxford Forestry Institute (OFI) and the FAO/Japan project (GCP/RAS/143/JPN). These operate as national networks in the individual country and are connected to the INTERNET by:
There is now an electronic edition of the book `Tropical Feeds', originally written by Dr Bo Göhl, and published by FAO in 1971. The database (program prepared by Dr A W Speedy and Nick Waltham) is available on diskette from: Rene Sansoucy, Senior Officer (Feed Resources), Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Via della terme di Caracalla, 00100-Rome, Italy. An updated version (February 1994) has been prepared and is now available in Spanish, French and English versions.
This new edition of the Manual for Tropical Feed Researchers, prepared for FAO by Dr T R Preston, has been restructured to reflect the changing role of livestock in a world committed to sustainable use of renewable natural resources.
Copies can be obtained from Rene Sansoucy, Feed Resources Group, AGA, FAO, 00100 Rome Italy (E-mail: rene.sansoucy@fao.org)
The Ecological Farm, also known as 'Finca Ecologica', now has a presence on the World Wide Web. The aim of the site is give a digestible overview of the technologies that are in use on the Ecological Farm. We hope to develop the site further, adding facts and figures, research abstracts and links to relevant papers, for those readers who want to follow up the subject more deeply. The URL for the site is:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ecofarm
At the end of 1996, the three-month residential period of the first two-year Msc course offered by the University of Tropical Agriculture began. This Msc course is funded by the Danish embassy in Hanoi. It was designed as a 'learning by doing' experience which encompassed the development of practical skills in natural resource management through to the use of modern computer technology replacing the teacher and the classroom with a dynamic global source of information. The use of computers and email allowed each of the students to achieve their full potential through access to the most experienced scientists throughout the world, most of who have access to email.