Make African grasslands climate-change resilient

Abstract

Climate change has negatively impacted grassland productivity in Africa. Climate-smart technologies such as forage grass, legume, and herb mixtures could enhance grassland productivity and resilience, offering a sustainable solution for African pasture-based livestock systems. Grasslands (intensive and extensive) are Africa’s dominant land use type, accounting for 44.8% of the total land area, which provides feed for livestock and wild animals. Approximately 70% of people in rural Africa depend on livestock for their livelihoods. As human populations increase, grasslands are increasingly being transformed into arable land and other uses. The remaining grasslands often experience overgrazing due to livestock production, resulting in significant land degradation. This is exacerbated by climate change, with shifting weather patterns and increased frequency of extreme weather events (e.g. drought and flooding), the spread of invasive species, and bush encroachment. Consequently, there is a significant reduction in forage quality and quantity, increased livestock disease vulnerability, and mortality rates, threatening regional food security. Given the importance of livestock production to smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Africa, we believe in adopting sustainable practices that could enhance the productivity of intensively and extensively managed African grasslands for economic, social, and environmental benefits. The Global Farm Platform initiative, a community of collaborative practitioners investigating sustainable ruminant livestock systems around the globe (www.globalfarmplatform.org), highlighted management strategies for sustainable livestock systems. Here, we argue that various forage species mixtures could enhance the sustainability of agricultural grasslands in Africa