Science and Technology Mailing List Archive

["James BISCOE" <<address removed>>]

    I am curious that I see nothing in my reading of this e mail regarding 
communal ownership of grazing. In Southern Africa this is a big issue as it is 
claimed it leads to over stocking. Has progress been made on grazing management 
under these conditions and I missed it?
If not is this an area which DfID could do with giving support to as livestock 
are necessary in most circumstances to the improvement and intensification of 
arable agriculture, at least in Southern Africa, I guess similar conditions 
pertain elsewhere?
Thanks
James Biscoe
3/5/04
1700hrs 



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Freeman, Ade (ILRI) 
  To: <address removed> 
  Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 9:22 AM
  Subject: Livestock research for poverty reduction


  I am Ade Freeman working for the International Livestock Research Institute 
in Nairobi, Kenya. An emerging consensus that is emerging from this very 
interesting e-discussion is that the Millennium Development Goals must be the 
driving force for Agricultural Science and Technology policy. Some 
contributions have looked at engines of growth and identified key sub-sectors 
that can stimulate growth and reduce poverty in rural areas because of their 
income and employment effects. Livestock has been identified as one such 
sector. Recent livelihoods research (see the LADDER website 
www.odg.uea.ac.uk/ladder)provide empirical evidence that pathways out of 
poverty involve a cumulative process in which asset levels are raised, asset 
substitution occur, and vulnerability and risks are reduced by diversifying 
assets and activities across economic sectors and sub-sectors. Most 
importantly, the livestock sector presents an attractive growth opportunity in 
many parts of the developing world, given the increasing demand for livestock 
products expected in the coming decades. Because of its diverse contributions, 
livestock play multiple roles in successful livelihood strategies. 



  However, there are several challenges and opportunities facing research on 
the effective use of livestock in poverty reduction. A major issue is using our 
understanding of how livestock can reduce poverty to better target investments 
in research and development. We know that livestock play important and very 
varied roles in the lives of many poor people. We often state that livestock 
form a component of the livelihoods of 70% of the world's poor. But what 
precisely does this mean?  How will improvements in feeding, management, health 
and breeding practises, as well as new institutional arrangements and policies 
brought about as a result of research, affect poverty levels? And which 
particular intervention - targeted at which particular role of livestock - will 
have the greatest impact on our ultimate goal? And what will be the mechanisms 
involved? 



  In addition to the need to understand how livestock contribute to poverty 
reduction is the need to understand how major changes in the world, such as 
population growth, globalisation, climate change and market diversification, 
will affect these mechanisms. 



  The challenges are associated with three specific poverty reduction pathways. 
The pathways out of poverty relate to three major groupings of contributions 
that livestock research might make to poverty reduction. These are: 

  ·         Secure the capital assets (natural, social, physical, human, 
financial) of poor people who keep livestock, who consume livestock products, 
market livestock and livestock products, and who work as wage labourers with 
livestock, by reducing the risks they face through constraints in feeding, 
management, breeding and health issues. In some settings, this may be not so 
much a pathway out of poverty, but rather a buffering mechanism to prevent 
decline into greater poverty.  

  ·         Reduce the constraints experienced by the poor to the 
intensification of agricultural systems in which livestock play a key role. 

  ·         Enhance the opportunities of the poor to participate in 
livestock-related markets. 



  Within each pathway, research opportunities can be clustered according to 
three general contributions to the innovation process. These are:

  ·         Adoption of research products, including existing knowledge, 
technologies and policies

  ·         Improvement or adaptation of existing tools, methods and approaches 
to make them better or more applicable to the particular circumstances of poor 
livestock keepers

  ·         Development of new technologies, tools and approaches



  The major opportunities for international research to better target research 
are: 

  o        The characterisation and quantification of linkages between 
livestock development and poverty reduction through strategic studies in target 
production systems; 

  o        The application of predictive output-orientated studies to evaluate 
the effects of poverty reduction interventions that exploit these linkages; 

  o        The development of ex ante impact assessment models to determine the 
effect on these linkages and interventions of extraneous factors such as 
climate change and urbanisation; 

  o        The use of research products to inform research and development 
policies and investments.