Harnessing benefits from improved livestock water productivity in crop–livestock systems of sub-Saharan Africa: synthesis

Abstract

The threat of water scarcity in sub-Saharan Africa is real, due to the expanding agricultural needs, climate variability and inappropriate land use. Livestock keeping is the fastest growing agricultural sector, partly because of increasing and changing demands for adequate, quality and diverse food for people, driven by growing incomes and demographic transitions. Besides the economic benefits, rising livestock production could also deplete water and aggravate water scarcity at local and global scales. The insufficient understanding of livestock–water interactions also led to low livestock productivity, impeded sound decision on resources management and undermined achieving positive returns on investments in agricultural water across sub-Saharan Africa. Innovative and integrated measures are required to improve water productivity and reverse the growing trends of water scarcity. Livestock water productivity (LWP), which is defined as the ratio of livestock outputs to the amount of water depleted, could be improved through: (i) raising the efficiency of the water inputs by integrating livestock with crop, water and landscape management policies and practices. Improving feed water productivity by maximising transpiration and minimising evaporation and other losses is critical; (ii) increasing livestock outputs through improved feed management, veterinary services and introducing system-compatible breeds; and (iii) because livestock innovation is a social process, it is not possible to gain LWP improvements unless close attention is paid to policies, institutions and their associated processes. Policies targeting infrastructure development would help livestock keepers secure access to markets, veterinary services and knowledge. This paper extracts highlights from various papers presented in the special issue of The Rangeland Journal on technologies and practices that would enable improving water productivity at various scales and the premises required to reverse the negative trends of water depletion and land degradation.

The Importance of Social Support and Communities of Practice: Farmer Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities of Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems on Organically Managed Farms in the Northern U.S.

“…Such a study may provide insight into how farmers remedy this infrastructure challenge, or if it proves to be an obdurate barrier to widespread integration of crops and livestock on organically managed farms in the U.S. Considering the sociopolitical constraints within with which all farms operate, it would also be beneficial to investigate transitions to ICLS through a cross-country comparison examining the U.S. context alongside developing countries where ICLS remains common, particularly in the context of water and other resource scarcity [1,99]. Likewise, deep ethnographic investigation of ICLS systems in situ through a case study approach would further aid understanding of these complex systems in differing contexts.…”

Nurturing Agricultural Productivity and Resilience in Drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa

“…The threat of water scarcity in SSA is real, due to the expanding agricultural needs, and is exacerbated by the increase in climate variability and inappropriate land use (Amede et al 2009). Competition for water between different uses and users is increasing at global, national and community scales although agriculture will remain the largest water user.…”

“…The better-off households can afford dozens of cattle and goats and large numbers of chicken (Amede et al 2014a). Livestock numbers in SSA are projected to increase by 2.5-to 5-fold, from 200 M head in 2005 to 500-970 M head in 2050 (Cork et al 2005), which will put huge pressure on water and land resources unless productivity per unit of water investment increases significantly (Amede et al 2009). Although the livestock revolution offers a chance for smallholders to benefit from the rapidly growing market and raise their incomes, it may have negative environmental, social and health impacts if not managed well (Steinfeld et al 2006).…”

Strategies for improving water use efficiency of livestock production in rain-fed systems

“…Livestock production is one of the major consumers of fresh water (Amede et al, 2009b;Peden et al, 2009;Diogo et al, 2010;Molden et al, 2010). Globally, livestock production accounts for about 20% of agricultural evapotranspiration (ET a ) (Molden et al, 2010).…”