This is ‘Livestock Month’ on Agrilinks: USAID’s Andrew Bisson on sustainable livestock for sustainable development

‘A warm welcome to the Agrilinks Livestock month! Over the course of November, we will highlight some of the roles the livestock sector plays in transforming livelihoods.

Livestock provide brain-food for an expanding global population;

economically support over half a billion poor people . . .

dependent on livestock for their livelihoods;

and provide financial, risk management and environmental services.

‘Our journey will take us to several developing countries to learn of progress and innovation. . . .

‘This month we will hear from the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock, a multi-stakeholder platform which is spearheading sustainable livestock sector development through its cluster groups and action networks. We will gain insights from friends and colleagues in our wonderful implementer community, who engage every day in transformative livestock system change around the world, from thought leaders in the FAO and CGIAR agencies, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), our ground-breaking research community and the engine of sustainable growth, the private sector.

‘The livestock sector makes a substantial contribution to many of the SDGs, a point well-articulated in the FAO report, Transforming the livestock sector through the Sustainable Development Goals. The report presents credible approaches which indicate these goals are within our grasp but require livestock programming to take an integrated multi-disciplinary approach, avoid sector silos and ensure coordination and collaboration between all stakeholders– we are stronger together.

A critical feature of livestock is its multi-functionality.

Livestock . . .

build resilience of vulnerable households,

integrate with and enhance crop agriculture and

support sustainable landscapes, biodiversity and

the natural resource base when managed effectively. . . .

[O]ur approaches and strategies must focus on

smallholder farmers and pastoralists

who currently produce 72 percent and 75 percent

of animal derived foods in Africa and Asia respectively.

[For more on this, see the white paper co-published earlier this year by

the International Livestock Research Institute [ILRI] and

the World Economic Forum,

Meat: the Future series—

Options for the livestock sector

in Developing and Emerging Economies to 2030 and Beyond.]

‘. . . As we begin this month, and as a tonic to those of us who spend perhaps a little too much time at the keyboard, I invite you to draw inspiration from a couple of short 3 minute videos showing the richness of our sector and the positive change we can support—a beautiful photo-film produced by our CGIAR research partner, the International Livestock Research Institute, and a glimpse of productivity enhancing mastitis control action research in Rwanda, from our wonderful research team at the Feed the Future Livestock Systems Innovation Lab, University of Florida.’

Enjoy!