Abstract
The study was conducted with the objective of assessing constraints to the linkage between maize and livestock subsystems in the Ethiopian agriculture system or practices. The linkage between the maize and livestock subsystems towards an integrated maize-livestock production system has been constrained by several factors. These factors affect resource flows between the two subsystems. These included socio economic, biophysical and institutional constraints, ever increasing population pressure which influences the availability of land for maize production and grazing; and large family size of households motivating farmers to cultivate more land dictated by the demand for enough grain, affecting the linkage. Feed shortage coupled with disease problems cause continuously declining livestock number and productivity constraining the contribution of livestock to the maize subsystem. Unbalanced research and extension focus between the maize and the livestock subsystems, difficulties in the process of technology popularization and inefficient and ineffective input, credit and veterinary services are the important institutional bottlenecks for integrating the maize and livestock subsystems to the desired level. Continuous extension education on natural resource conservation along with lessons on family planning is desirable to limit the effect of population pressure on the ecology and natural resource base. Moreover, research and extension support focusing on the generation and adoption of agricultural technologies that would help maximize output per unit of land from maize and livestock operations is required.
Key words: Ethiopian agriculture, extension, linkage, livestock production, maize sub-system research, production constraints.
