The Broker

Proposed way forward for livestock, climate change and food security

Katrien van 't Hooft | 09 November 2010

Four interesting recommendations were formulated during the lively side-event on Wednesday 3rd November on 'Livestock, Climate Change and Food Security'. This event was organized by the Agri-Profocus partnership, together with ETC-Foundation, Cordaid, Heifer, SNV, and their partners working with livestock keepers in smallholder agriculture and pastoralism.

We had a full house with over 45 participants, as as well as music, film, lively presentations and discussions. All the presentations, as well as the list of participants, can be found here.

During the side event, the following four recommendations were formulated:

Differentiate between various livestock keeping systems
In the roadmap for livestock, climate change and food security, it is essential to differentiate between the various livestock keeping systems (smallholder, pastoralist, ranching, large-scale, specialized) that exist throughout the world. New policies need to build on field-based sustainable experiences in each system, in order to adequately take into account their specific function, characteristics and options for improvement.

Optimizing rather than maximizing livestock productivity
Agriculture, and especially livestock, is different from other sectors as it deals with living beings in complex soil-plant-animal-man interactions. Maximizing animal productivity (in terms of meat or milk per day or year) is not the only way to go in every place. Rather, we need long-term economically and ecologically sustainable agricultural development, in which livestock keeping is effectively supported to play its essential role in improving livelihoods, optimizing mineral efficiency as well as soil, plant and animal diversity and productivity. This entails mitigation through effective adaptation.

Recognition and effective support of pastoralist livestock keepers
Pastoralist livestock keepers are especially affected by climate change. At the same time, they have a special role to play for food security and climate change in the vast dryland areas of the world. It is essential to recognize this role and take steps to effectively support and revitalize pastoral indigenous knowledge and production systems, including the mobility that stands at its basis. Effective participation of pastoral civil society in policy making and implementation is required. The African Union policy framework on pastoralism needs to be implemented.

Payment for Ecosystem Services
Sustainable livestock keeping systems contribute to the resilience of ecosystems, as well as livelihoods, food security and climate change adaptation. Committed, new and additional public funding must come from industrialized countries for livestock keepers in developing countries, especially smallholder farmers and pastoralists, that put these sustainable livestock keeping systems in place.

The Agri-ProFocus partnership, the organizers of the side event ETC-Foundation, Cordaid, Heifer and SNV plus their partners working with livestock keepers in smallholder agriculture and pastoralism are committed to include these action points in their working plans for 2011 and 2012.

Comments

Your comment will not be automatically posted but first reviewed by the editor. If the editor has questions with respect to the content of your comment, you will be contacted.

 

Two side-events, two views on livestock??

During the It’s Down2Earth Conference, two side-events on livestock were organized. Katrien is reporting about th one organised by Agri-ProFocus.
The other side-event, organised by FAO yielded different - and in some way contradictory – conclusions.


We understand from the presentations that FAO - together with research partners from various countries – aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (or mitigation) especially through ‘intensification of livestock production’. This is based, amongst other studies, on recent research that greenhouse gas emissions per liter of milk of African milk producers (cattle) is 6-7 times higher than from intensive dairy systems in the US or the EU. Therefore it is proposed to raise productivity of ‘traditional systems’ using conventional technology, especially in genetics, feeding and disease control. Other mitigation win-win options proposed are energy-recovery from liquid waste (biogas), and carbon sequestration in degraded grasslands. This climate change mitigation strategy is now being promoted worldwide as the new panacea for livestock development. Support for livestock keepers to adaptation to climate change is embedded in separate programs.

During the Agri-Profocus side event entitled ‘Livestock, Climate Change and Foodsecurity’ several international organisations with long-standing field experience exchanged their views, and formulated other – and in some way complementary - solutions.

1. Differentiate between various livestock keeping systems.
Animals in low-input smallholder and pastoralist systems have multiple functions (milk, meat, draft, manure, social & cultural functions), while in high input animal production the focus is on one product, such as meat or milk. This requires different strategies for the different systems.

2. Mitigation through adaptation: optimizing rather than maximizing livestock productivity:
Mitigation and adaptation are linked, when livestock keeping is effectively supported to play it’s essential role in closing nutrient cycles, optimizing mineral efficiency and increasing crop production.

3. Recognition and effective support of pastoralist livestock keepers
Pastoralist livestock keepers are especially affected by climate change, while playing a special role for food security and climate change in the vast dry land areas of the world. It is essential to recognize this role, and to take steps to effectively support pastoral production systems, including the mobility on which it is based.

Past field experience has shown both positive and negative consequences of the conventional ways of intensifying livestock production. The Agri-Profocus partner organisations have gained valuable field-based experience with developing sustainable livestock farming systems over the past decades. This can provide the necessary support and expertise in finding the best ways forward in this situation, effectively complementing and improving the plans formulated by FAO and partners. Agri-profocus aims to bring the experience of the partners together in the APF Livestock & Development network. One of the first actions is to link up with the Dialogue on Livestock Food Security and Sustainability coordinated by FAO, which was also formulated in the Roadmap for Action of the Down2Earth Conference.

Wim Goris | October 07, 2011 | Respond