The inter-linkages between rapid growth in livestock production, climate change, and the impacts on water resources, land use, and deforestation

Livestock systems globally are changing rapidly in response to human population growth, urbanization, and growing incomes. This paper discusses the linkages between burgeoning demand for livestock products, growth in livestock production, and the impacts this may have on natural resources, and how these may both affect and be affected by climate change in the coming decades. Water and land scarcity will increasingly have the potential to constrain food production growth, with adverse impacts on food security and human well-being. Climate change will exacerbate many of these trends, with direct effects on agricultural yields, water availability, and production risk. In the transition to a carbon-constrained economy, livestock systems will have a key role to play in mitigating future emissions. At the same time, appropriate pricing of greenhouse gas emissions will modify livestock production costs and patterns. Health and ethical considerations can also be expected to play an increasing role in modifying consumption patterns of livestock products, particularly in more developed countries. Livestock systems are heterogeneous, and a highly differentiated approach needs to be taken to assessing impacts and options, particularly as they affect the resource-poor and those vulnerable to global change. Development of comprehensive frameworks that can be used for assessing impacts and analyzing trade-offs at both local and regional levels is needed for identifying and targeting production practices and policies that are locally appropriate and can contribute to environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, and economic development

Climate change adaptation in mixed crop‐livestock systems in developing countries

Mixed crop‐livestock systems produce most of the world’s milk and ruminant meat, and are particularly important for the livelihoods and food security of poor people in developing countries. These systems will bear the brunt of helping to satisfy the burgeoning demand for food from increasing populations, particularly in sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia, where rural poverty and hunger are already concentrated. The potential impacts of changes in climate and climate variability on these mixed systems are not that well understood, particularly as regards how the food security of vulnerable households may be affected. There are many ways in which the mixed systems may be able to adapt to climate change in the future, including via increased efficiencies of production that sometimes provide important mitigation co‐benefits as well. But effective adaptation will require an enabling policy, technical, infrastructural and informational environment, and the development challenge is daunting

Climate change, agriculture and food security: a comparative review of global modelling approaches

The dual relationship existing between land-based activities and climate change has long been established. Land-based activities are responsible for about 30% (IPCC) of global GHG emissions and are at the same time particularly impacted by climate change as they are strongly dependent on weather patterns. Although physical and technical considerations may help to investigate these two kinds of issues, economic considerations are crucial to understand how agricultural producers react to climate change and to climate policies. Quantitative economic models are appropriate tools to examine these interactions and to understand how they influence human activities and ecosystems. However, there are many different economic models with different characteristics regarding the way economies are modelled, the way climate change is considered in the models and the way GHG emissions are accounted for. All these specificities determine the type of uses that each model can be employed for. This paper describes the different characteristics and uses of 13 economic models that are currently used to investigate issues concerning land-based activities and climate change

The role of personal information sources on the decision-making process of Costa Rican dairy farmers

The attitudes of farmers in relation to the importance of different people as information and opinion sources (InfS) for different phases of the decision-making process were studied in 91 Costa Rican dairy farmers. The InfS studied were: Family members, Other farmers, Technical advisors, Farm staff and Commercial agents, while the phases were: Problem detection, Seeking for problem solutions, Seeking for new practices and Seeking for opinion. A Multidimensional Preference Analysis (MDPREF) was used to obtain a two-dimensional map of preference of the farmers. A factor analysis was used to define new variables representing the farmers' predilection towards the InfS. A canonical correlation analysis was performed to find-out simple and canonical correlation between farmers'/farms' characteristics and the InfS preferences. Informational profiles in the population were defined through a Cluster Analysis. The MDPREF suggests that Family members and Technical advisors were the most preferred InfS. However their relative importance changed throughout the phases. Farm staff were rated in third place and their role became more important in the ‘Problem detection’ phase. Other farmers and Commercial agents were, in general, the less preferred information sources. The former became slightly more important in the ‘Seeking for new practices’ phase. The canonical correlation analysis found three low-medium correlations between the farmers'/farms' characteristics and the InfS factors. These correlations showed that the farmers' age, educational level and dedication and the farms' characteristics of area, herd size and distance to population centres had significant influence on the preference of the farmers towards different information sources. The cluster analysis found nine groups of similar farmers according to their preferences towards informational sources. Some implications mainly for extension activities are also stated and discussed. The importance of different informational sources slightly change throughout the decision-making steps, the family and farm staff being the most preferred information sources

Livestock development and climate change in Turkana District, Kenya

The main purpose of the study presented here is to shed some light using simple and aggregated methods on the following question: In view of the expected climate change, is there also a long-term perspective for livestock development in the area, i.e. will the Turkana ecosystem be able to sustain livestock production during the next few decades? In our search for an answer to this question, we looked at the current pressure on the environment, tried to interpolate the predicted climate change to the Turkana District scale and started exploring some of the possible impacts of climate change on the environment and the people depending on it. Due to the simplistic nature of the analyses performed, we consider these figures to be indicative only. This study goes hand in hand with another one focussing on market access and opportunities

Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa

Dairy development provides substantial potential economic opportunities for smallholder farmers in East Africa, but productivity is constrained by the scarcity of quantity and quality feed. Ruminant livestock production is also associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, high water consumption, land-use change, and loss of biodiversity. Improved livestock feeding and forages have been highlighted as key entry point to sustainable intensification, increasing food security, and decreasing environmental trade-offs including GHG emission intensities. In this perspective article, we argue that farming systems approaches are essential to understand the multiple roles and impacts of forages in smallholder livelihoods. First, we outline the unique position of forages in crop-livestock systems and systemic obstacles to adoption that call for multidisciplinary thinking. Second, we discuss the importance of matching forage technologies with agroecological and socioeconomic contexts and niches, and systems agronomy that is required. Third, we demonstrate the usefulness of farming systems modeling to estimate multidimensional impacts of forages and for reducing agro-environmental trade-offs. We conclude that improved forages in East Africa are at a crossroads: if adopted by farmers at scale, they can be a cornerstone of pathways toward sustainable livestock systems in East Africa.</p

Profit efficiency among Kenyan smallholders milk producers: A case study of Meru-South district, Kenya

Production inefficiency is usually analyzed by economical efficiency, which is composed of two components-technical and allocative efficiencies. This study provided a direct measure of production efficiency of the smallholder milk producers in Kenya using a stochastic profit frontier and inefficiency model. The primary data were collected, using IMPACT (intergrated modeling platform for mixed animal crops systems) structured questionnaire and includes four conventional inputs and socio-economic factors affecting production. The result showed that profit efficiencies of the sampled farmers varied widely between 26% and 73% with a mean of 60% suggesting that an estimated 40% of the profit is lost due to a combination of both technical and allocative inefficiencies in the smallholder dairy milk production. This study further observed that level of education, experience, and the size of the farm influenced profit efficiency positively while profit efficiency decreased with age. This implies that profit inefficiency among smallholder dairy milk producers can be reduced significantly with improvement in the level of education of sampled farmers