To support a comprehensive international livestock research program, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a $13.8 million grant to the University of California, Davis. The grant will be paid over five years to the UC Davis-based Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program, which is coordinating seven research projects in East Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. The program, which addresses new topics in international livestock development, involves researchers from 13 U.S. universities, three international research centers and 69 foreign institutions. "The program focuses on human nutrition, economic growth, environment and policy issues, all linked by the global theme of agriculture at risk in a changing environment," said Montague Demment, director of the global livestock program and a UC Davis agronomy and range science professor. "We've chosen to work in ecosystems and regions where human populations and resources are most vulnerable and, in most cases, where biodiversity is threatened." Demment added that the researchers hope the results of their studies will make it possible to better predict and mediate the risks related to livestock production in politically and ecologically fragile environments. Among the seven projects are: • A study of the importance of micronutrients supplied by animal products in sub-Saharan Africa. Micronutrients are particularly critical to children's survival, and physical and mental development. • Research on the role that rangelands in regions of the former Soviet Union may play in absorbing atmospheric carbon and tempering global warming. The researchers suggest that large quantities of carbon could be pulled from the atmosphere if ecosystems in the vast plains of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are restored to their original vegetation. • A study of how satellite-guided technology might help national parks managers and the Masai herders in Africa's Serengeti region to balance livestock production while conserving valuable wildlife. The other projects involve helping Central Asians to adapt their livestock systems to the new post-Soviet market reforms, predicting drought in East Asia using animal indicators, diversifying assets and investments for Kenyan and Ethiopian livestock producers, and developing community-based livestock systems in Latin America. The seven projects are headed by researchers at UC Davis, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, Texas A&M University System, Utah State University and Colorado State University.