Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
crop-and-livestock farming systems (on sustainable intensification, see Nelson and Coe,
this volume).
Concluding Thoughts
Livestock livelihoods, a mainstay of small-scale farming in poor and developing coun-
tries, have become highly politicized in recent years. One result is a notable lack of focus
on coherent solutions to knotty dilemmas.
With livestock foods offering high-quality nourishment and income opportunities
for the poor, and with demand for livestock products skyrocketing in the developing
world (levels of production are expected to double over the next 20 years, offering new
pathways out of poverty for up to 1 billion people), and with livestock issues located
at the intersection of much aid, development, environmental, and globalization issues
in poor countries, one might expect high levels of funding, research, and development
work on livestock-associated issues. That is not the case; livestock remain marginalized
in terms of funding, research, and development work alike.
One observes a low policy and planning profile of agriculture overall and livestock
in particular. As an implication, livestock production and marketing were not included
in most developing-country poverty-reduction strategies and had to be added later
to the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Plan (CAADP) of the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). A higher profile of bread and rice for
the urban poor relative to livestock benefits for the rural poor reflects in part a weaker
evidence base for the latter. Weak evidence links to weak advocacy.
It is also true that the ways forward lack not only consensus and clarity, but also
feasibility. Developing countries are dominated by smallholder systems, especially in
sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. This structural fact creates special
policy challenges. First, parameters for measuring success and corresponding policy
mechanisms are more complex (income, assets, productivity). Second, large numbers
of smallholders are harder to organize and transaction costs for input supply, market-
ing and other activities are much higher. These factors have made investments in small-
holder livestock improvement (as for some crops) more challenging; outcomes have
worked well in only for a few systems (particularly dairy) in which smallholders are
more competitive and easier to organize.
We end with the following thought: Livestock matters, and matters even more. It
does matter to the large number of people who continue to remain dependent on ani-
mals for their livelihood and food, but it also matters to those who have the luxury of
other options. When we look at livestock production through an environmental lens,
we see threat, but one that may have solutions manageable with better science and pol-
icy, including better management of implications such as zoonotic diseases and threats
to climate. And when we look through the livelihood lens, we recognize that ethical
issues are seldom black and white. Whereas it may well be unethical to treat animals
 
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