Keynote paper: The contribution of livestock to food security and sustainable development
Development support and livestock services
Impact of human activities and livestock on the African environment: an attempt to partition the pressure
Discussion summaryThis Keynote Paper incited discussion over a broad range of issues. Principal among these were the functions of livestock in mixed farming systems and their various roles in use of natural and other resources, the supply of and demand for livestock and livestock products, the development and transfer of technology to beneficiaries and policy issues.
Livestock functions and resource use
The functions of livestock and the need for using livestock for utilizing resources and for providing labour opportunities needs to be seen in relation to farm size, which is an indication of land availability, and labour availability. The relative importance of livestock in relation to other enterprises may change with farm size and other production factors. The implications to be drawn from this are important for assessing the importance of livestock for food production and for identifying research needs (Peters). It is true that issues of size, scale and structure as they relate to livestock in developing countries are not adequately known so they do need to be given adequate attention. These relationships do, however, vary across ecozones and regions. In South Asia, for example, landless people raise livestock by using feeds, which have no or very low opportunity cost, from roadsides and pathways and thus generate income and employment (Fitzhugh).
Attention needs to be given to the effects of livestock development on rain forest clearance and on wildlife species diversity (Young).
The role of manure in soil fertility should not be overemphasized because manure may not be enough to maintain fertility in some situations (Oram).
["Impact of human activities and livestock on the African environment: an attempt to partition the pressure" by de Leeuw and Reid (pp. 29-38) covers some of these issues in more detail]
Supply and demand for livestock products
The importance of income growth on demand for animal products given that such goods are essentially "superior goods" and that prices are now low needs to be studied. Caution is also needed in recommending expansion of livestock production to reduce import dependence without making reference to comparative advantage factors that might mitigate against expansion of livestock production (DeRosa). Relations among price, income, supply and imports are complex and multilayered and will be better understood in a systems framework that considers both micro and macro levels. Income is a major determinant of demand and if supply increases in relation to demand prices remain low. Research and development aimed at increasing supply will benefit both consumers and producers although the former will benefit more than the latter as has happened in the developed countries (Fitzhugh).
Promoting small farm production while trying to keep prices low may be counterproductive. Domestic dairy production in developing countries will be adversely affected by GATT (Chantalakhana). It is true that the dairy sector in developing countries does not always suffer because of comparative disadvantage but because of dumping by developed countries. Appropriate policies are required to support suitable production environments (Fitzhugh).
Adverse impacts that arise when developed countries protect producers from competition are less production because world prices are lower and income is also lower so there is reduced demand. Developing countries control prices to urban consumers, however, which also results in less production that works against both urban and rural welfare. Processing controls that affect efficiency also suppress production. It is not yet known if production will increase in response to removal of controls after structural adjustment policies are completed. As these factors have been entrenched for a long time there is potential to improve livestock's contribution to development but this needs to be seen in a general equilibrium context of who gains, who loses and what are the impacts that will induce further changes (Young).
The only way prices can be lowered to the benefit of both producers and consumers is by cutting costs per unit productivity. ILRI attempts to do this by generating and spreading new technology to allow production increases at lower costs. Conflicts between producer and consumer interests with respect to price level changes will not be an issue if lower prices are technology driven (Badiane).
Low prices should not be a concern because livestock products are both price and income elastic. Demand may be high when prices are low so that total production and revenue will increase (Ehui).
["Macroeconomic, international trade and sectoral policies in livestock development" by Williams, DeRosa and Badiane (pp. 45-68) and "Research and technology transfer for livestock development" by Ehui and Shapiro (pp. 69-78) cover some of these issues in more detail]
Technology and policy
Project failures are due not only to technology and policy but also to human capacity. There is a need to understand why problems have arisen and the goals of people in specific regions or under varying conditions. The meeting should look at approaches to research and development in formulating strategies for low income countries (Ostergaard).
Dependency on imports can be reduced though technology improvement, particularly in cases of subsistence animal husbandry with largely under-commercialized livestock sectors. By removing policy and institutional constraints and providing improved technologies production can be raised efficiently to meet higher consumer demand as economies expand and levels or rates of growth of imports are reduced (Badiane).
Much can be done to serve producer and consumer interests simultaneously by an intelligent choice of production systems. Whether all tropical low income countries should aim to increase livestock production is questionable but there is an overall obligation to rationalize production systems in order to make the most efficient use of resources for the long term benefit of the whole community (Vaccaro).
["Research and technology transfer for livestock development" by Ehui and Shapiro (pp. 69-78) covers some of these issues in more detail]
Discussion summaryThe discussion on this paper again covered a broad range of questions. The relative roles of the public and private sectors were considered very important. There was general consensus that clear distinctions must be made between the role of the state in public good areas and that of the private sector in private good areas. Privatization should not be pushed too fast where a private sector was not yet able to perform efficiently in the interests of producers and consumers. The role and timing of credit were also considered important.
Private and public sectors
The private sector needs to be defined. Individuals form producer cooperatives in which the private element is the farmer. The status of the cooperative in this schema needs clarification (Peters). Private initiatives to form associations are an important instrument for development and these are "private". This is not an area for public intervention but such associations may become partners with the public sector in development activities (de Haan).
Division of responsibility between private and public sectors is important for developing countries but moving too fast towards privatization of essential services may not be to the advantage of small holders (Chantalakhana). It is true that moves toward the private sector should not be too fast but private/public task sharing needs to be promoted. Where the private sector has an advantage government policy should support private initiatives (de Haan).
In Eastern Europe, both private and public sectors are competing for research funds. Consideration should also be given to both public and private institutions in research in developing countries (Oram). Research contracts may be given to universities, NGOs and private institutions. In the developing countries universities and NGOs are targets for research funding but the "pure" private sector is still largely undeveloped (de Haan).
Giving entire responsibility to the private sector for genetic improvement is not advisable (Vaccaro). It is agreed that genetic aspects should not be given to the private sector (de Haan).
Poor infrastructure is a major problem in many developing countries and will not help privatization (Oram). Roads are important and will remain mostly a public sector activity. In some cases construction is related to development projects including dairying. Processing and collection of milk is mainly in the public sector but with improved roads these are better done by the private sector. The World Bank will emphasize this aspect of development (de Haan).
Credit
Credit for small holders is generally important Timing may, however, be more important than credit per se. Pastoralists usually sell animals at difficult times when prices are low and allowing them credit at these times may save them from loss and increase their buffering capacity (Williams).
Small holders have a poor record of repayment of public funded credit. Group pressure may not be the best way to ensure repayment. Credit may not be as critical for technology adoption as was originally thought. Collateral for credit does remain a problem but group responsibility has been shown to be a workable alternative for poor households (de Haan).
Credit may be given to input supply agencies and intermediate marketing agents who will ensure supply of inputs and purchase of products: both of these are essential for increased production (Shapiro). Input supplies and market agents need short term credit while farmers often need medium to long term credits. Both needs are important and one cannot be fully substituted for the other (de Haan).
Discussion summaryThere was general consensus during discussion that the role of livestock in resource degradation was skill largely misunderstood in the broader world but that this ignorance resulted in negative effects being exaggerated. Methodologies need to be developed to study environmental issues. Proper presentation of results is also needed to avoid adverse criticism.
The effects of livestock on the environment may vary across ecoregions and care must be taken not to generalize. Degradation induced by fire, for example, is more important in savanna than in humid environments (Toutain).
Stock and flow concepts are important in degradation measurements. An area may appear degraded now but it is important to know when the degradation actually took place. In order to calculate the effects of livestock on the environment some objectives need to be set. These objectives may include changes in animal productivity, maintenance of soil status, net carbon stock and unchanged biodiversity. The state of each objective or criterion could then be measured as could the public and private sector response to such changes. Threats leading to pressures that are likely to change the state of an objective should also be identified. This needs to be done to increase the understanding of intervention capacities (Young).
A methodology needs to be developed to study environmental issues. Keeping silent is not the solution because others will keep on raising these issues (Peters).
