Consultation Process and Outcome
An electronic consultation was held during the month of February 2010 and involved over 400 subscribers. The outcome of the electronic consultation served as an input into the stakeholder Workshop held at the Embrapa Maize and Sorghum Institute in Sete Lagaos, Minas Geráis, Brazil, from 23 to 26 March 2010, co-organized by FAO, Embrapa, IICA and IFAD, and included one full day field trip to see innovative action on integrated crop-livestock systems in central or southern Brazil.
About 70 public, private and civil sector stakeholders across the above four themes from Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean as well as elsewhere participated. The importance given to integrated crop-livestock systems for development was visible in the participation from the main partner organizations, particularly FAO and Embrapa. The FAO delegation consisted of following officers: from AGA: Henning Steinfeld, Olaf Thieme, Tito Diaz (RLC); from AGE: Nguyen Minh-Long; from AGN: Irela Mazar; from AGP: Eric Kueneman, Theodor Friedrich, Amir Kassam (consultant), Constance Neely (consultant), Mohamed Hama-Garba (AGPP-FAO-Senegal); from AGS: Doyle Baker, Susan Minae (SFE). Jose Oscar Pacheco represented FAO-Brasil. Embrapa was represented by several Executive Directors, representing the president of Embrapa, most of them staying throughout the duration of the consultation, namely Kepler Euclides Filho and Tatiana Deane de Abreu Sá. The former Minsiter of Agriculture, Alysson Paolineli, participated in the opening session, as did Paulo Afonso Tomano, Secretario Adjunto da Secretaria de Agricultura do Estato de Minas Gerais. Derli Prudente Santana, adjunct Director of Embrapa CNPMS and the Director of Embrapa-CPA-FAC (Acre State), Judson Valentim, were fully involved throughout the entire consultation.
The meeting confirmed the importance of the role of integrated crop-livestock systems for sustainable development as well as the existence of well established and functioning integrated crop-livestock systems, including trees, pasture and fish, resulting in ecological as well as economic benefits on the crop- as well as on the livestock production side. Embrapa, ILRI, the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (focusing on Crop-Livestock interactions) and FAO will reflect on their respective roles in partnerships activities, including the possible establishment of a common platform (Facility) perhaps hosted by FAO/AG.
During a field trip, crop-livestock-tree systems adopted by medium and small scale farmers could be seen.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The meeting produced a number of recommendations for follow up actions. A draft Sete Lagaos Consensus was prepared and commented by the plenary with some immediate actions.. Further to this the participants elaborated on specific crop-livestock systems and prepared materials for policy briefs and follow up actions which will be consolidated into workshop proceedings.
For finalization the draft proceedings as well as the draft Consensus will be circulated to all participants and eventually to the Listserv subscribers. In addition to this, the electronic Listserv of the e-consultation and the crop-livestock website will remain operational for future communications on the topic.
It is foreseen to develop a “concept note” to set the basis for an AG-level action plan to seek extra-budgetary support. AGP will take the lead, on behalf of AG group, to get the draft “zero” elaborated.
