April 2010

The good news is …

There are opportunities to improve livestock production without undue environmental damage

And the not so good news is …

People, Livestock and the Environment

In many cases, livestock production comes with an environmental cost, and mitigating this requires complex, new and innovative biophysical and social science

Livestock can have positive and negative impacts on the environment, on society and on health. These are vastly different depending on many factors, such as:

Developing or developed country Degree of intensification – from large scale industrial

production to intense smallholders through to extensive pastoralists and everything in between

Economic development – agricultural, transforming, urbanized

ILRI’s People, Livestock and the Environment theme seeks to understand how the transitions of livestock systems can occur in ways that do not damage the environment. Here we show examples of how our research identifies potential livestock “bads” and seeks to find opportunities to mitigate these through:

Feed block manufacturing: supplementation, densification

Ingredients % Sorghum stover 50

Bran/husks/hulls 18

Oilcakes 18

Molasses 8

Grains 4

Minerals, vitamins, urea

2

Courtesy: Miracle Fodder and Feeds PVT LTD

Identifying opportunities for

improved management of

water for livestock

Finding livestock feeds that make the most

use of natural variation

Sorghum stover - a valuable feed in Hyderabad

Understanding how livestock management in extensive systems

can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity

Optimizing ways to feed animals

using mostly locally available

resources