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Sustainable farming of livestock essential for achieving food security
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Monday, 31 December, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Raghavan Sampathkumar
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Global demand for animal products is expected to double by 2050, based on estimates for growth of the world population, increasing incomes and further urbanisation. In India, almost half of the population will live in urban areas.
Furthermore, the world population is expected to increase from 5.4 billion to at least 7.2 billion within the next two decades, mainly in developing countries. This increase in human population, with the resulting increase in pressure on land and changes in composition of the livestock population, will have a major effect on both available natural resources and future demand for commodities, and this will consequently determine the type of livestock feeding and production systems to be adopted.
Dynamic and complex
The sustainable development of agriculture, including livestock sectors, is essential for poverty reduction and the achievement of food security and nutrition. Livestock production is central to food systems’ development and is a particularly dynamic and complex agricultural subsector, with implications for animal-feed demand, for market concentration in agricultural supply chains, for the intensification of production at the farm level, for farm income, land use, and for nutrition and health. Livestock has often set the speed of change in agriculture in recent decades.
Drawing upon the pathways
The following recommendations draw upon the pathways towards sustainable livestock development identified by CLFMA of India based on the four principles of profitable farming, improving resource efficiency, strengthening resilience and improving social equity/ responsibility outcomes:
- There is a need to align with relevant international and regional intergovernmental organisations like Codex, WHO and OiE and agreements as appropriate, the work of multi-stakeholder platforms like IFIF (International Feed Industry Federation) and partnerships (e.g., with FAO)
- Many of these problems are a result of the inability to identify appropriate technologies and define strategies for livestock development that are applicable to individual agro-ecosystems. Often, technology is transferred from developed countries unmodified, rather than generating appropriate technologies within the developing countries themselves. Imported technologies have almost always failed to overcome the constraints imposed on local farming systems or to meet the socio-economic requirements of the local farmers
- As the opportunities, challenges, sizes, etc. for this industry vary a lot between and within regions and countries in the world, an attempt to categorise the farms in some way is essential in order to be able to have a discussion that is not too general
- There is a need to encourage appropriate intake of animal protein wherever as culturally acceptable, as part of balanced and healthy diets for improved nutrition, including through consumer awareness and education programmes
- We must ensure that the working and living conditions of all workers at all stages of the value chain with due compliance to all the relevant laws
- We must promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, ensuring equal access to livestock productive resources, capacity building and education for women and foster women’s equal participation wherever possible
- There is a need to develop and implement policies and tools to facilitate farmers. So far, only a few investments in livestock development projects have been marginally successful in increasing productivity and these have had a limited impact on agriculture. Tools to facilitate farmers need to be implemented with better strategy for these investments to eventually show fair returns
- Careful analysis and assessment are required so that livestock development strategies can be reoriented towards better use of local resources, contribute more effectively to food security, improve the living standards of poor farmers and ensure sustainable animal agriculture development
- There is a need for easy access to finance, markets and easy credit to help improve their livelihoods
- Lastly, resource management must be given utmost attention. Use efficiency of water, land and other resources are to be bench-marked against the global standards and improved
(The author is executive director, Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturers Association)
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