Modules on Sustainable Agriculture MOSA

4 Livestock and Sustainability

Challenges to sustainable livestock production

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Learning Objectives

1. To be informed about livestock systems

2. To understand the importance of livestock for food security, poverty
reduction and resilience
3. To consider potentials from livestock for development
4. To understand the relation between livestock and sustainable land
management (SLM)
5. To be able to position livestock within the climate change debate
6. To start thinking about sustainable intensification

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Contents and Keywords
1. Definitions
• Importance of Livestock for Poverty Reduction
• Global Livestock Systems
• Livestock Systems and Production
• Demand for Livestock Products
• The Livestock – SLM Dynamics
• The Livestock – Gender Dynamics
• The Livestock – Climate Change Dynamics
2. Conclusion
3. References

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Livestock. Some definitions

 Living inventory.
Lebendes Inventar, Wörterbuch der Landwirtschaft. DLG Verlag. Frankfurt. 1993.

 The horses, cattle, sheep and other “useful” animals kept or raised on a
farm or ranch.
Webster’s Encyclopaedic Unabridged Dictionary. 1989.

 Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to

produce commodities such as food, fibre and labour. Livestock are
generally raised for profit. Raising animals (animal husbandry) is a
component of modern agriculture.
Wikipedia for LIVESTOCK.

 Livestock Unit (LU): are used, sometimes referred to as cow

equivalents (ce). These ratios are based on feed requirements of
different livestock. 

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Livestock. Some definitions

Ruminants
A multi stomached animal. Uses a set of stomachs.
Digests plant fibre and requires little plant protein. Instead, protein is build
up from ammonia in the form of rumen microbes which live and feed in the
rumen.

• Cattle, Goat, Sheep, Bison, Yak, Buffalo, Deer,

Camel and Dromedary, Alpaca, Lama, Vincunja

Non-ruminants:
Single stomached animal are monogastrics. Require high concentration
protein feed for production.

• Pig, Chicken and other Poultry (Equines)

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Importance of Livestock for Food Security, Poverty
Reduction and Resilience
Approx. 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion poor people live in rural areas
/3 of them keep livestock; 70% of them are women
2

Contributes to:
• Multiple benefit (milk, meat, eggs, labour, manure, wool, hides and
skins…)
• (Regular) income generation
• Human nutrition
• Use of marginal landscapes /
weed control
• Transfer of plants into food
• Financial security
• Socio-cultural importance
© Hoeggel.
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 Global Livestock Systems

Livestock‘s long shadow. FAO 2006.

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Livestock‘s long shadow. FAO 2006.

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 Global Livestock Systems

© von Morstein. Extensive mixed system, East Africa. © Hoeggel. More intensive mixed system, India. © Hoeggel. Extensive system of grazing, Southern Ethiopia.

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Which livestock systems do
you know from your working
context/experience?

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 Livestocksystems Grazing Mixed Systems Landless
and Production Systems Systems
Rainfed Irrigated Combined

Livestock numbers
(Mio heads)

Cattle & Buffaloes 406 27% 641 450 71% 29 2%

Sheep & Goat 590 33% 632 546 66% 9 1%
Total heads 996 1273 996 38
Production (Mio. tonnes)
Beef 15 30 13 4
Mutton 4 4 4 1
Milk 72 320 203 1
Total production 91 354 220 6
Production/Head coefficient 1/11 1/3.5 1/4.5 1/6
Adapted from: Rae, A. and Rudy Nagya. 2010.

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Livestock Systems and Production
Landless commercial urban livestock keeping
What? Highly diversified and very well established pig value chain
(pig producer , fattener, trader for feeds, abattoirs, butcher…)
Who? Coptic (non Muslim) garbage collecting families (Zabalin)
Where ? Cairo (approx. 20 Mio inhabitants)
How ? Collecting and feeding organic garbage / residues
How many? 350.000 animals
Benefit? Important source of income;
human nutrition re-cycling of
organic material

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What messages can you read
from the previous table?

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Demand for Livestock Products – An Opportunity

2010 2020 2030 2050 2050/2010

Global In Mio. Tonnen In %
Total meat consumption 268,7 319,3 380,8 463,8 173
Beef 67,3 77,3 88,9 106,3 158
Mutton 13,2 15,7 18,5 23,5 178
Pork 102,3 115,3 129,9 140,7 137
Poultry 85,9 111 143,5 193,3 225
Dairy products (without butter) 657,3 755,4 868,1 1038,4 158

Developing countries
Total meat consumption 158,3 200,8 256,1 330,4 209
Beef 35,1 43,6 54,2 70,2 200
Mutton 10,1 12,5 15,6 20,6 204
Pork 62,8 74,3 88 99,2 158
Poultry 50,4 70,4 98,3 140,4 279
Dairy products (without butter) 296,2 379,2 485,3 640,9 216

Adapted from: FAO (2011a). World Livestock 2011: Livestock in food security. Rom: FAO

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Livestock Products – A Question of Wealth

Steinfeld. 2010. Livestock’s Emergence from the Long Shadow

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The livestock revolution
Present trends
• Growing global demand for
livestock products
• Intensification and
industrialization
• Globalization is boosting trade in
livestock inputs and products
• Human’s ability to control
production environments
• Shifts from subsistence-level
livestock keeping to market-
oriented production
• Modern reproduction techniques
like AI (Artificial Insemination)
• Global availability of genetic
material
• Extensive grazing still occupies
vast areas of land
• Shifts towards sedentarization
and disintegration of pastoralism
• Niche markets and specialty
markets for high-value livestock
products from local breeds have
emerged
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In which way do you think the ‘Livestock Revolution’ could benefit livestock production,
especially at small-scale level?
What might be the influence of the increased demand for livestock products on natural
resources?

© Hoeggel.
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The Livestock – SLM* Dynamic

• Land used for livestock production, including

grazing land and cropland dedicated to the
production of feed, represents approximately
70 percent of all agricultural land in the world.
• Overgrazing is the greatest cause of
degradation of grasslands.
• 35% of total world cereal use is fed to
livestock and more than 90% of the global
soybean production is used as animal feed.

*= Sustainable Land Management © Hoeggel.

FAO 2013. Climate Change and Integrated Crop Livestock Systems.

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The livestock - bees

• Honey is produced since more than 15.000 years

• As pollinators they strongly influence ecological relationships,
ecosystem conservation and stability, genetic variation of plant
community
• Important source of income
• Niche production
• Storage of honey with low risk

LITTLE RECOGNITION

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The Livestock – Gender Dynamic

• Sustainability in livestock production

has a strong gender based
determinant
• Often women and men occupy
socially determined roles in the
livestock sector in many countries
• This makes development
interventions in the livestock sector
gender sensitive © Hoeggel.

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 The Livestock – Gender Dynamic
Women
Releasing and tethering animal
Cleaning sheds
Feeding and watering
Bringing fodder
Milking and boiling milk
Managing calves
Administering houshold remedies,
calling Vet. if required
Giving advice to men in the sale of
animals
Safekeeping of money after animal
sale
 
Men
Working animals in the field
Building sheds
Milking
Getting animals crossed
Administering medicine,
calling Vet. if required
Sale of animals
Castration of animals,
slaughtering
Children A work schedule of a
livestock system in India.
It reflects differing
Grazing responsibilities in the
sector. Such
responsibilities will be
 
affected differently by
development interventions
 
as well as impact from
  climate change.
 
Ghotge, Nitya S. 2004. Livestock and Livelihoods –
The Indian Context. Centre for Environment
Education. Ahmedabad. India.
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 Please consider examples of
gender determinants in a livestock
sector you know.

What aspects need to be

considered when planning
interventions towards sustainable
development in such sector?

http://www.langevin.com/blog/2013/08/29/3-ways-to-
maximize-brainstorming

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The Livestock – Climate Change Dynamic
With GHG emissions along livestock supply chains estimated at
7.1 gigatons CO2 equivalent per annum, representing 14.5% of all
anthropogenic emissions. The livestock sector plays an important role in
climate change.
Sources of sector emissions:
• Processing and enteric
fermentation 45 %
• Feed production 39 %
• Manure storage and processing 10 %
• Processing and transportation of
animal products 6 %
© Hoeggel.

Source: FAO. 2013. Tackling Climate Change though Livestock.

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 GHG emissions
from global
livestock supply
chains, by
production activities
and products

Source: FAO. 2013. Tackling Climate Change though Livestock.

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 The Livestock – Climate Change Dynamic
Relationship: total greenhouse gas emissions and milk output
12.00
A case for sustainable intensification?
10.00
kg CO2-eq. per kg FPCM

8.00

6.00

4.00

2.00

0.00
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000
Output per cow, kg FPCM per year

Steinfeld. 2010. Livestock’s Emergence from the Long Shadow.

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Keywords

• Importance of Livestock for Poverty Reduction

• Global Livestock Systems
• Livestock Systems and Production
• Demand for Livestock Products
• The Livestock – SLM Dynamics
• The Livestock – Gender Dynamics
• The Livestock – Climate Change Dynamics

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 Conclusion

Revisiting livestock
production and sustainability.
What are issues at stake?

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Thank You

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