Sustaining intensification of smallholder livestock systems in the tropics

McDermott, John J.; Staal, Steven J.; Freeman, H. A.; Herrero, Mario; Steeg, J.A. van de

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2010.02.014

Cited by 309 publications

(225 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Apart from saleable livestock products, grasslands provide a variety of social and economic goods, and cultural services which constitute important components of the agricultural economy (Sansoucy, 1997;McDermott et al, 2010;Thornton and Herrero, 2010). Contributions of grazing livestock systems include:…”

Section: The Multifunctional Roles Of Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Solutions to such issues are complicated by the need to meet the short-term and long-term needs of those whose livelihoods depend on grasslands. There are more than 800 million in the world with very low income, and an additional 200 million in the more marginalarid and semi-arid areas, who are highly dependent on grasslands for their livelihoods Kemp and Michalk, 2007;McDermott et al, 2010;Ayantunde et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The importance of grasslands for animal production and other functions: a review on management and methodological progress in the tropics

Boval

Dixon

2012

Animal

185

106

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The global importance of grasslands is indicated by their extent; they comprise some 26% of total land area and 80% of agriculturally productive land. The majority of grasslands are located in tropical developing countries where they are particularly important to the livelihoods of some one billion poor peoples. Grasslands clearly provide the feed base for grazing livestock and thus numerous high-quality foods, but such livestock also provide products such as fertilizer, transport, traction, fibre and leather. In addition, grasslands provide important services and roles including as water catchments, biodiversity reserves, for cultural and recreational needs, and potentially a carbon sink to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions. Inevitably, such functions may conflict with management for production of livestock products. Much of the increasing global demand for meat and milk, particularly from developing countries, will have to be supplied from grassland ecosystems, and this will provide difficult challenges. Increased production of meat and milk generally requires increased intake of metabolizable energy, and thus increased voluntary intake and/or digestibility of diets selected by grazing animals. These will require more widespread and effective application of improved management. Strategies to improve productivity include fertilizer application, grazing management, greater use of crop by-products, legumes and supplements and manipulation of stocking rate and herbage allowance. However, it is often difficult to predict the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of such strategies, particularly in tropical developing country production systems. Evaluation and on-going adjustment of grazing systems require appropriate and reliable assessment criteria, but these are often lacking. A number of emerging technologies may contribute to timely low-cost acquisition of quantitative information to better understand the soil–pasture–animal interactions and animal management in grassland systems. Development of remote imaging of vegetation, global positioning technology, improved diet markers, near IR spectroscopy and modelling provide improved tools for knowledge-based decisions on the productivity constraints of grazing animals. Individual electronic identification of animals offers opportunities for precision management on an individual animal basis for improved productivity. Improved outcomes in the form of livestock products, services and/or other outcomes from grasslands should be possible, but clearly a diversity of solutions are needed for the vast range of environments and social circumstances of global grasslands.

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Section: The Multifunctional Roles Of Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of grasslands for animal production and other functions: a review on management and methodological progress in the tropics

Boval

Dixon

2012

Animal

185

106

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“…Ce constat n'est pas spécifique aux PEF bovins de la zone d'étudiée, comme l'ont montré les études sur les stratégies des exploitations familiales (McDermott et al, 2010 ;Udo et al, 2011) et sur le rôle-clé de la capacité d'autofinancement dans la réussite des projets des producteurs (Vall et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Le secteur de l'élevage est en plein essor en Afrique de l'Ouest en raison de la demande croissante en produits animaux (Club du Sahel, 2008 ;McDermott et al, 2010 ;FAO et al, 2013 ;Kagone, 2001) et des multiples rôles qu'il joue dans le domaine social, économique et environnemental (Alary et al, 2011 ;Lebacq et al, 2013). Pourtant, dans les exploitations familiales de polyculture-élevage de la zone des savanes subhumides, la contribution de l'élevage à l'approvisionnement du marché en viande et en lait, à la génération de revenu dans les exploitations ainsi qu'à la production de services (traction animale, fumure organique, épargne) n'est pas suffisante (De Ridder et al, 2015 ;Douxchamps et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Fragilité des projets d’élevage familiaux dans les exploitations de polyculture-élevage au Burkina Faso

et al. 2016

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Résumé -Dans les exploitations de polyculture-élevage du Burkina Faso, les producteurs ont des difficultés à mettre en oeuvre des projets d'élevage familiaux (PEF) qui répondent à leurs attentes en termes de revenus et de services. La présente étude vise à rechercher et à expliquer les causes de ces faiblesses. L'étude a été réalisée dans l'Ouest du Burkina Faso sur des PEF concernant des bovins. Elle a permis de montrer que tous les producteurs avaient des idées de PEF en tête. Un suivi a été réalisé sur des PEF de bovins de trait, de bovins à l'engraissement et de vaches laitières durant les étapes de conception puis d'exécution des PEF. Il en ressort que la majorité des PEF ont échoué avant même leur mise en oeuvre, par manque de réalisme et de préparation. Ceux mis en place présentaient d'importantes faiblesses dans la maîtrise de l'alimentation, ce qui diminuait leur rentabilité. Ce diagnostic a permis d'établir les principes d'une démarche de conception pas à pas des PEF impliquant fortement le producteur, lui permettant de mieux calibrer et de mieux préparer le PEF, et de mieux gérer l'alimentation des animaux durant la mise en oeuvre du PEF. Mots clés : projets d'élevage familiaux / conception / alimentation / Burkina FasoAbstract -Fragility of family livestock projects in mixed farming systems in Burkina Faso. In mixed farming systems in Burkina Faso, farmers have difficulty to implement family livestock projects (FLPs) meeting their expectations in terms of income and services. This study aims to investigate and to explain the causes of these weaknesses. The study was implemented in western Burkina Faso on cattle FLPs. It showed that all farmers had FLP ideas in mind. A monitoring was performed on draft animals, cattle for fattening and dairy cows FLPs during the design and implementation steps. It showed that the majority of FLPs failed even before their implementation, due to lack of preparation or unrealistic objectives. The implemented FLPs have important weaknesses concerning feeding control, which reduce their profitability. This diagnosis enabled us to set up the principles of a PEF step by step co-design method, to assist farmers to better prepare their FLP, to better manage animals feeding during their implementation and to better evaluate the outputs of the FLP.

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“…Often today's solutions are tomorrow's problems (Rittel and Webber 1973;Head 2008). Intensification of dairy farming in Africa, for instance, may further marginalise nomadic groups and create manure management problems (McDermott et al 2010). Third, an evolving set of stakeholders is involved, which results in a potentially unlimited number of issues that may be put on the agenda.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing food security through a multi-stakeholder process: the global agenda for sustainable livestock

2015

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Feeding the world is not only a complex technical matter, but also a demanding governance issue. As food security has all the characteristics of a wicked problem (variety of problem definitions, conflicting interests, interconnectedness across scales, inherent uncertainties), conventional governance arrangements do not seem to work. New ways of concerted actions are introduced to better link global challenges with local practices. One example of this is the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock: a partnership of public, private, social, and civil society actors, committed to the sustainable development of the livestock sector. It aims to enhance shared understanding of sustainability and its underlying development issues and to build consensus on the path towards sustainable food security through dialogue, consultation, and joint analyses. This article analyses the Agenda as a new type of governance arrangement to enhance food security. It relies on a theoretical framework that consists of five governance capabilities, which are considered crucial for coping with wicked problems: reflexivity, resilience, responsiveness, revitalisation, and rescaling. The aim of this paper is threefold: 1) to assess the Agenda and learn from that; 2) to evaluate the capabilities framework as a tool to assess governance arrangements; and 3) to reflect on the potentials of new governance arrangements to deal with food security. The article illustrates how the governance capabilities framework can be used as a tool to analyse the multi-stakeholder platform for enhancing food security. It concludes that the Agenda successfully encompasses many elements of these capabilities although improvements are possible.

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Sustaining intensification of smallholder livestock systems in the tropics

Cited by 309 publications

References 9 publications

The importance of grasslands for animal production and other functions: a review on management and methodological progress in the tropics

The importance of grasslands for animal production and other functions: a review on management and methodological progress in the tropics

Fragilité des projets d’élevage familiaux dans les exploitations de polyculture-élevage au Burkina Faso

Enhancing food security through a multi-stakeholder process: the global agenda for sustainable livestock

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