This desk study presents a framework for examining the effect of escalating demand for livestock productions, and an expansion of cropping, on the livelihoods of the poor who rear livestock, and their relationship with the environment. Our analysis suggests that the livestock production systems of the poor, with some exceptions (summarised in Table 2), generally confer positive environmental benefits and that from an environmental perspective it is desirable to ensure that many of these systems endure.
The systems of the poor have a number of comparative advantages over the more rapidly expanding industrial systems, in that they capitalise on cheap labour and low quality feed resources, and turn waste products into an agricultural asset rather than an environmental problem. Such systems are however vulnerable to a range of threats, which include the appropriation of CPRs, and unfair competition from other, subsidised systems. Although in some areas niches for livestock production by the poor remain, in other areas livestock reared by the poor are likely to be squeezed out. The potential loss of these livestock systems would jeopardise not only the livelihoods of a very large number of poor families, but also have implications for the sustainability of intensifying agriculture.
We have identified a number of policy recommendations that could support the ongoing development of livestock systems by the poor, and ensure that these systems benefit from the emerging 'livestock revolution'. Foremost among these are polices that protect and uphold the rights of the poor to access CPRs, and that remove subsidies and other distortions that undermine the relative comparative advantage of the systems of the poor.
At this stage, ways forward will of necessity be tentative. Further testing of findings and assumptions will be needed to assess the generalisation made. In particular the environmental, social and institutional differences between the four main stages of change: encroachment of cropping, sedentarisation, crop/livestock integration and finally, confinement, need further investigation. The findings of this desk study need to be tested across a range of agro-ecological zones and socio-economic potential hotspots, before definitive policy recommendations can be made.
Such comparative case studies could:
Explore local perceptions of degradation and environmental change, differentiated by socio-economic group, gender and use of the environment;
Gauge reactions to changes in the environment by different groups and the role of institutions (local, national and international) in supporting these actions;
Further examine patterns of livestock intensification that are occurring (by whom and in what form) and the influences behind such intensification (land shortages, crop intensification, market influence)
Seek social and technical innovations which permit the sustainable intensification of agriculture, elucidate principles upon which they operate and use these in the future as the basis upon which to develop strategies with growing communities vulnerable to the impact of environment degradation.
The outcome of such a study would be a summary of environmental change from a number of different perspectives and a map of the consequences and ameliorative actions, including perhaps intensification of livestock keeping, taken by different households and groups differentiated by wealth, gender and reliance on the environment. These actions would be set in an institutional and policy context and would present a step in highlighting areas of interventions by Governments, donors or NGOs.
Possible locations for case studies would concentrate on new hotspot areas identified through this study. These would include:
Impact on the poor of increased CPR competition in pastoral areas;
Impact of sedentarisation and / or cropping in semi-arid areas
Impact of loss of CPR within mixed farming systems, especially in areas where populations are rising
Impact of confinement in areas of high population density
A separate study might look at market mechanisms and how these are affected by trends in the livestock industry. Questions asked might include:
What is the effect of industrialisation and concentration of the livestock industry on informal market mechanisms traditionally used by the poor?
What are the interactions between the informal market and marketing mechanisms of large-scale industrial units?
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