"A National Feed Assessment System (NFAS) is a complete set of procedures, facilities, tools, personnel, organizations, and institutions involved in the collecting, handling, processing of data necessary to calculate and report the supplies of livestock feeds from all sources and for all livestock types in a country. It is comprised of numerous components which interact in an integrated manner to achieve a common outcome, the National Feed Assessment (NFA). A NFA is a data- and computation-based analysis of the supplies and demands for livestock feeds in a country. Accurate assessments of current and future supplies and demands for livestock feed are needed for national food security policy and planning, as well as the setting of environmentally sustainable stocking rates. Feed resources must be assessed and monitored to provide information for the development and implementation of policies that will contribute to the sustainable growth of national livestock sectors. Assessments will provide information on feed resource availabilities that will enable optimal policy decisions regarding the use of national feed resources. This document provides guidance to countries in developing NFASs. Members of governments and research organizations who wish to establish NFASs will likely seek guidance on the technical issues and procedural aspects of building and institutionalizing NFASs. A set of recommended step-wise procedures is given for implementing NFASs, including procedures for planning, establishing, and updating a NFAS. It is hoped that using the information provided in this document countries will initiate activities to establish and maintain the NFA."--Publisher's description.