Sustainable livestock management for poverty alleviation and food security

205 Pages·2012·4.3 MB·English

by  Katrien van t́ Hooft

Sustainable Livestock Management
for Poverty Alleviation
and Food Security
Katrien yan't Hooft . Terry S. Wollen and Who P. Bhandari
Sustainable Livestock Management
for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security
MIX
Paper from
FSC responsible souroes
FSC" C018575
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Sustainable livestock Management
for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security
Katrien E. van't Hooft, DVM
Endogenous Livestock Development Network, TradiNova Livestock
Terry S. Wollen, DVM
Heifer International
Di lip P. Bhandari, BVSc & AH, MVM
Heifer International
www.cabi.org
CABI is a trading name of CAB International
CABI CABI
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Wallingford 7th Floor
Oxfordshire OX10 8DE Cambridge, MA 02139
UK USA
Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]
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E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cabi.org
K.E. van't Hooft, T.S. Wollen and D.P. Bhandari 2012. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by
any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library,
London, UK.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hooft, Katrien van t, 1956 -
Sustainable livestock management for poverty alleviation and food
security / Katrien E. van't Hooft, Terry S. Wollen, Dilip P. Bhandari.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84593-827-7 (alk. paper)
1. Livestock systems--Developing countries. 2. Food security--Developing
countries. I. Wollen, Terry S. II. Bhandari, Dilip P. III. Title.
SF55.D44H66 2012
338.1'62--dc23
2011029852
ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 827 7
Commissioning editor: Sarah Hulbert
Editorial assistant: Alexandra Lainsbury
Production editor: Fiona Chippendale
Typeset by SPi, Pondicherry.
Printed and bound in the UK by the MPG Books Group Ltd.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction ix
1 Trends in the Livestock Sector 1
2 Livestock Development Approaches 7
3 Methodologies, Organizations and Networks in Endogenous
Livestock Development 23
4 Differentiating Four Livestock Production Systems 36
5 Livestock-keeping Systems and Poverty 43
6 Characteristics of Smallholder Low-input and Diversified Livestock Keeping 53
7 Characteristics of Smallholder More Specialized Livestock Keeping 60
8 Changing from Smallholder Low-input and Diversified
to More Specialized Livestock Keeping 66
9 Recommendations for Optimizing Smallholder Low-input
and Diversified Livestock Keeping 76
10 Recommendations for Optimizing Smallholder More Specialized Systems 101
11 Finding Pathways to Markets 130
12 Challenges and Best Practices in Livestock Development Support 143
Case Study 1: A Story of Rubbish and Pigs in Cairo -
The Effects of Swine Flu Control in Egypt. Ellen Geerlings 143
Case Study 2: The Shepherds and their Black Sheep of the Deccan,
India. Nitya Ghotge and Segall Ramdas, ANTHRA, India 147
Case Study 3: Bio-cultural Community Protocols to Support
the Samburu Red Maasai Sheep and their Shepherds. Jacob Wanyama,
LIFE Network - Africa Region 151
v
vi Contents
Case Study 4: The Heifer Methodology of Supporting Sustainable
Livelihood in Kenya - The Story of Mr Laban Kipkernoi Talam.
Reuben Koech, Heifer International Kenya 159
Case Study 5: Ethno-veterinary Medicine in a Master's Degree
Programme on Tropical Agricultural Production. Ratil Perezgrovas
and Guadalupe Rodriguez, Instituto de Estudios Indigenas-UNACH, Mexico 164
Case Study 6: The Dairy Development Trap: How Developing Countries
can Learn from the Experiences of Dutch Dairy Farming.
Katrien van't Hooft, Dutch Farm Experience, The Netherlands
(www.Dutchfarmexperience.com) 166
Appendix Overview of Recommendations for Optimizing Smallholder
Livestock Keeping 181
Index 187
Acknowledgements
The initial idea for this book was generated during the June 2005 International Workshop
on Endogenous Livestock Development, held in Yaounde, Cameroon. This workshop,
hosted by Heifer International Cameroon, was an initiative of ETC-Compas, Heifer
Netherlands and Agromisa - with the aim to understand better the practical implications
of the Endogenous Livestock Development (ELD) concept.
This workshop was attended by 19 farmers from the north-west region of Cameroon -
Fulani pastoralists, ethno-veterinary healers, dairy farmers and goat farmers - as well as
staff members of Heifer Cameroon and government. International participation from India,
Ghana, USA and the Netherlands contributed to the inter-cultural exchange and facilita-
tion. Nine months later, two participants of the workshop made a tour to all involved par-
ticipants and were surprised to find the positive effect of the ELD concept in their daily
lives. This was documented in a book with a DVD in four languages, entitled Endogenous
Livestock Development in Cameroon - Exploring the Potential of Local Initiatives for
Livestock Development, published in 2008 by the Agromisa Foundation.
In 2008, the three authors of this book came together during a Central and Eastern Europe
Area Program staff meeting of Heifer International in Vilnius, Lithuania. At this meeting,
Drs Bhandari and Wollen presented the 'Heifer's Animal Well-Being Recommendations and
Indicators' as part of the organization's Cornerstone on Improved Animal Management. This
led to encouragement to put the guidelines into clear practice. This was the moment when
the experiences of ETC-Compas, the ELD concept developed in Cameroon, and the Heifer
International Recommendations and Indicators came together.
From there, and strengthened by the commitment from CAB International, the authors
van't Hooft, Bhandari and Wollen started working on pulling these experiences together
into this practical guide. This would not have been possible without the effective input
from the participants of the various workshops, as well as others engaged in supporting
ELD. Special thanks go to the authors of the case studies that are presented in Chapter 12.
Moreover, the manuscript would not have come together without the generous allow-
ance of nights and weekends from our families, as well as the keen eye and diligent editing
of Gay la Sybert from Heifer's administrative staff. The artwork for the two circle drawings
are from the hand of Pooi Yin Chong, Senior Graphic Designer with Heifer. Finally, we are
especially grateful to all farming families whose realities and experiences have one way or
other contributed to the content of this book.
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Introduction
This practical learning guide is about supporting livestock within the smallholder mixed
farming systems around the world. It provides practical ways to understand and improve
smallholder animal husbandry under a variety of agricultural and ecological conditions -
based on the Endogenous Livestock Development (ELD) approach. Agriculture and culture
are two systems that must work together for the benefit of men and women in rural and
urban communities.
The title of this book could be livestock in a fast changing world. An estimated 70% of
the world's rural as well as urban poor rely on livestock for their livelihoods. Two-thirds of
all livestock are found in developing countries, while even developed countries find rural
and urban poor livestock keepers with similar needs. Most smallholder farmers under these
circumstances practise multi-purpose, low-input methods of livestock keeping.
All livestock and crop farmers today - especially those living in marginalized areas -
are faced with rapidly changing socio-economic and ecological conditions. These include
unexpected and recurring droughts, floods, extremes of temperature and other effects of
climate change. Social changes overlie these environmental impacts because of out-
migration of youth, larger production units owned by larger corporate units displacing the
small farmer, land grabbing; all of this while there is a trend for improved markets for live-
stock products and by-products because of growing urban populations.
The writers of this training manual acknowledge that improving animal health and
husbandry by rural and urban smallholder livestock keepers is not easily accomplished.
All too often the multiple needs of the farmers are often not understood by donors and sup-
port providers, traditional practices are too often ignored and the right approaches to train-
ing are not taken. Farmers often return from training with new knowledge that does not fit
their reality, or do not have the means to put the practices in place. It is commonly found
that short courses and demonstration farms are not the total answer and often do not result
in lasting change in animal health and production.
Thus, practitioners who provide training need to take a pause in order to see animal
rearing through the eyes of the men and women farmers. Training in basic animal hus-
bandry skills must start with that perspective and take into consideration the type of inputs
as well as the (traditional) practices and innovations of those who rear the animals.
Improved sustainable livestock management is much more than simply crossbreeding ani-
mals, providing feed and building shelters for the sake of increasing productivity.
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