Global Challenges and Opportunities Facing Production and Use of Livestock and Livestock Products

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Summary

(1) Livestock production is growing faster than other agricultural sub-sectors, and it is predicted that by 2020 livestock will produce more than half of the global agricultural output in value terms. The implications of such dynamic developments on national and international public goods, such as sustainability of the natural resource base, (veterinary) public health, and social equality are potentially very substantial; there are therefore commensurate risks to be dealt with, but also opportunities to be exploited.

(2) Increasing livestock densities in humid and warm ecologies contribute to higher frequency and exposure to animal disease agents, both endemic and epidemic, and including those of zoonotic nature. New diseases are likely to emerge and known diseases are likely to evolve biologically and epidemiologically in new and potentially dangerous ways.

(3) Intensification and industrialisation of livestock production bear the risk of soil, water and air pollution where environmental legislation is either not available or not rigorously enforced. Growing scales of production, often accelerated by the opportunity of unconstrained externalisation of societal and environmental costs of large-scale, capital intensive operations, contribute to the marginalisation of small-scale rural livestock producers despite overall expanding markets.

(4) In many parts of the world, extensive grazing systems are associated with environmental degradation due to overstocking and inappropriate herd and pasture management, with arable land encroachment and wildlife–livestock competition often exacerbating such pressure. Where rangeland is still being created through rainforest conversion, substantial environmental costs are often associated with this process.

(5) The substantial and rapid structural changes in the livestock sector require that governments and industry prepare for this continuing transformation with policies and investments that will satisfy consumer demands, improve nutrition, direct income growth opportunities to the poor, and alleviate environmental and public health stress. Such policies and investments would provide an enabling environment for enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of the livestock sector through technical interventions in the areas of animal disease management, animal production and post-harvest technology while providing a ‘level playing field’ through the removal of policy distortions that create and maintain barriers primarily to smallholders for entry into markets. Of particular importance are efforts to integrate technologies in the contexts of good agricultural practices and comprehensive farm to fork approaches.

(6) Selected examples are given of collaborative inter-institutional efforts of FAO’s Livestock Programme in addressing the issues highlighted: [1] the Diversification Component of the FAO Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS); [2] the Livestock-Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD); [3] the Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Facility (PPLPF); and the FAO/OIE sponsored Global Framework for the Progressive Control of FMD and Other Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs).


Livestock production by commodity: past and projected (FAO, 2003)

Examples of FAO’s collaborative efforts in livestock sector development

(7) FAO’s Strategic Framework 2000-2015 states the following five corporate strategies, to be pursued in efficient and effective partnership and alliance with its members and relevant institutions:

FAO’s Animal Production and Health Division serves these corporate strategies in a balanced manner, thereby strengthening those international public goods which are most affected by livestock, i.e. social equality, sustainability of the natural resources base and (veterinary) public health. Four selected examples of the FAO’s efforts in delivering on its programme in partnership with others and in support of strengthening the contribution of the livestock sector to the International Development Goals are outlined below.


(8) Livestock and Food Security [Livestock in the Diversification Component of the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)].

The main objective of the SPFS is to help countries, primarily LIFDCs, to improve food security both at national and at household levels - through rapid increases in food production and productivity, by reducing year-to-year variability in production - on an economically and environmentally sustainable basis and by improving people's access to food. The underlying assumption is that in most LIFDCs viable and sustainable means of increasing food availability exist but are not realized because of a range of constraints that prevent farmers from responding to needs and opportunities. By working with farmers and other stakeholders to identify and resolve such constraints - whether they are of a technical, economic, social, institutional or policy nature - and to demonstrate ways of increasing production, the SPFS should open the way for improved productivity and broader acces to food. A prominent feature of the SPFS is substantial South-South technical collaboration. The SPFS involves four complementary components: water control, intensification of crop production systems, diversification of production systems, constraints analysis and resolution. The livestock element is introduced in the diversification component and emphasises the use of short-cycled animals, such as poultry, small ruminants and pigs as they are more amenable to contributing to the target poor rural communities than large stock. The component activities encompass the entire range of technologies and processes from production and health to produce marketing. Of particular relevance is the livestock element in the Diversification Component of the SPFS in areas affected by HIV/AIDS where small animals often play a strategically important role in sustaining food security and providing income opportunities in households deprived of their active adult members. Currently 74 countries are involved in the programme with a total turn-over of 494 m$ since its inception in 1994.


(9) Livestock and the Environment.

The Livestock, Environment And Development (LEAD) Initiative is an inter-institutional project with the secretariat in FAO. The work of the Initiative targets at the protection and enhancement of natural resources as affected by livestock production while alleviating poverty. Earlier work of LEAD has identified, at a global scale, the consequences of increased pressure on grazing and mixed farming systems and the dangers of the shift to industrial modes of production. It has highlighted the close and complex interaction between government policies and the environmental impact of livestock production, and identified a large number of technologies which are available to mitigate the negative effects in all different production modes, provided the appropriate policy framework is in place. The project has as objectives

The LEAD Initiative has implemented the project "Decision Support on Livestock and Environment Issues" to provide decision-support on maximising positive and minimising negative interactions of livestock and environment. The project’s main goals are to increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of livestock and environment interactions; to identify appropriate options for livestock and environment management at regional and national level and to convey livestock and environment concepts into government and donor policies and projects.


(10) Livestock and Poverty Alleviation.

More than half of all the world’s rural poor predominantly rely on livestock for their livelihood. Whether livestock is their poverty trap or whether livestock can be an instrument for them to get out of poverty is not only dependant on whether there is overall scope for economic growth but also on whether the policy and institutional environment enables the participation of the poor in the benefits of such growth. The Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Facility (PPLPF), hosted by FAO, addresses these questions and endeavours to contribute to poverty reduction through the formulation of international and national livestock policies that will ensure equitable, safe and clean livestock farming. Unfortunately, in many countries the livestock sector is heavily distorted in favour of large-scale producers. The opportunities for broad-based poverty reduction through livestock can only be fully exploited within a policy environment which reduces existing financial, technical and cultural barriers faced by small-scale livestock keepers, and which at the same time reduces their risks and vulnerability.
The Facility will therefore, through strategic alliances that capitalize on the comparative advantage of the FAO and different partner organizations, encourage and facilitate conceptual shifts in policy objectives that:

Five regional platforms of the Facility are envisaged for S-E Asia, S-Asia, E-Africa, W-Africa, and the Andes as fora for facilitating the knowledge exchange and for networking key stakeholders with the objective of forming and nurturing the coalitions of change and expanding the range and effectiveness of pro-poor livestock policy interventions at subnational, national regional and international levels.



(11) Livestock Diseases Limiting Sector Productivity and its Contribution to International Development Goals – Global Framework for the Progressive Control of FMD and Other TADs (GF-TADs).

Devastating economic losses to livestock farmers all over the world due to major outbreaks of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) such as FMD (1997-2001), classical swine fever in the Caribbean and Europe (1996 - 2002), rinderpest in the Somali plains (2001) and Rift Valley fever in the Arabian Peninsula (2000) have been the main stimulus for the initiative of FAO and OIE to propose the creation of a Global Framework for the progressive control of FMD and other TADs (GF-TADs).

Several international processes and institutions have emphasized the need of controlling TADs due to their devastating impact on livestock agriculture, trade and food security. The World Food Summit (WFS), November 1996, recognised the pivotal, constraining role of TADs and as result the Heads of State and Governments pledged to ‘seek to ensure effective prevention and progressive control of plant and animal pests and diseases, including especially those which are of transboundary nature, such as rinderpest, cattle tick, foot and mouth disease and desert locust,.....’. The OIE International Committee (2002), called on the OIE and the FAO to pursue an international concerted action against a number of diseases having significant effects on food security, poverty alleviation, food safety, public health and access to formal markets. The 31st Session of the FAO Conference (2001) recognized the widespread and increasing impact of epidemic animal diseases, like FMD, and stressed the need to continue the work to combat the disease at the national, regional and international level involving all relevant stakeholders. The WFS:fyl (2002), reiterated the 1996 WFS commitment and called for specific action and voluntary financial contribution to the FAO Global Trust Fund to facilitate food security programmes and combat TADs.

There is ample evidence from various studies that the risk of spread of TADs will increase unless a concerted international action is put into place for effective prevention and progressive control. This conclusion is predominantly based on predictions of an unprecedented growth of the livestock sector and consumption of livestock products, particularly in TAD-endemic developing countries. The predicted growth in livestock is expected to result in increased livestock farming in the tropical/sub-tropical zones, with trend towards large farming units, and increase in trade in livestock and livestock products through informal and formal markets regionally and internationally.

The goals of the initiative, agreed through extensive consultations with regional organisations, regional commissions and offices of FAO and OIE and partners from national agriculture systems are the following:

It is suggested that the such goals can only be achieved if the major TADs are controlled at source, which is mainly in the developing countries.

The GF-TADs programme will be developed along four main thrusts:

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