Introduction: "the elephant in the dark"

Attaining a full understanding the role of livestock in the economies of rural Africa remains one of the thornier problems confronting both researchers and development planners and practitioners. One of the reasons for this is given by Little (1980, pi) : "there are few development issues today which entail a greater complexity of sociological, economic and ecological variables than that of livestock development in sub- Saharan Africa".

A conference paper on the difficulties faced by researchers and development planners in getting a full grasp of the role of livestock to the rural economies of Africa with special emphasis on rural Zimbabwe's communal farmers.