01/04/2010There are already over 1 billion (about 15% of the human population) people hungry and living in poverty, and 75% of them as well as other less poor but vulnerable people live in rural areas and depend on farming for their livelihoods, with the majority relying on small scale crop-livestock systems, including those that are integrated with long haul pastoral systems. Food (primary and secondary), feed, fibre and fuel needs must be met from agriculture of a still expanding population that is expected to grow from the current 6.7 billion to some 9.2 billion by 2050 while available land for expansion of agriculture will become economically and environmentally unattractive. To meet the food needs of the population in 2050, production will have to expand by 70% compared to what it was in 2000. It is expected that 90% of the expansion will be through production intensification (i.e., increase in output per unit area), and 10% will be from area expansion mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. At the same time there is a shift to increased consumption of meat and livestock products as living conditions of people improve, increasing additionally the stress on the agricultural resource base. For this reason the environmental footprint of crop as well as of livestock production has to be reduced to improve sustainability. This poses both a development challenge as well as opportunities for livestock producers in crop-livestock systems to contribute to both overall food security and alleviation of their poverty as well as of non-agricultural rural population due to increasing employment opportunities in the input supply and output value chains.

Objectives

Several of FAO’s development partners have had recent intra-institutional consultations with primary focus on identification of priorities for research and the tactics to optimize their research processes with respect to the development of integrated crop-livestock production systems. This consultation process (both electronic and face-to-face) will build on these and other major stock-takings by pulling together ideas with a view to:

(a) assess what do we know about integrated crop-livestock systems for development, including where they are working or not working, and what can be done to harness the potentials of successful integrated crop-livestock systems for development through sustainable production intensification;

(b) define next steps for key stakeholders, and especially for the Agriculture Department and Consumer Protection Department of the FAO and its national and international collaborators; and

(c) guide and empower FAO to better support member counties to harness the development potential of integrated crop and livestock systems as one important entry-point for sustainable agriculture intensification for poverty alleviation and environmental stewardship.

While many of the issues to be addressed are relevant for all types and scales of agriculture and food systems, the principle focus will be on the needs and opportunities for family-farmers (small and medium-scale land holders) and the associated community and watershed-level development. The use of the concept of integration for the consultation will not be restricted to only on-farm integration; it will endorse also the concepts of area-wide input supply and output value chains and outcome oriented multi-stakeholder innovation systems.  In this context it is intended that the appraisal of an innovation and the associated innovation system also reflect on the issues related to the linking to the commercial and corporate sector (local, regional, and global) in order to strengthen the role of input supply and output value chain markets and the service providers while taking into consideration environmental and human health issues.

The outcome of this examination is aimed at the identification of principles, opportunities and issues and the way forward for stakeholders and FAO as defined in the objectives. The overall outcome of the Workshop will be the elements of an Action Plan including a statement on the next steps.

Consultation Agenda

The agenda for the electronic consultation and the stakeholder Workshop comprised four topics, namely:

1.    Promising integrated crop-livestock systems and innovations that merit mainstreaming and scaling, and the tactics for implementation (including: technical designs of integrated systems and their economical, environmental and social dimensions; functional biomass production for multiple use; Farmer Field Schools, Farmers Clubs, Cooperatives, Associations etc for participatory farmer learning and adoption, and for economies of scale and competitiveness; knowledge services and communication needs, common resource management issues etc).

2.    Input and output market linkage development for promising crop-livestock systems and associated input and output supply chain processes and public-private service providers for different production systems and diverse markets (including: constraints and opportunities in input supply chains covering production inputs of seeds, agro-chemicals, farm power, equipment and machinery, veterinary services, advisory and innovation systems on good farming practices, marketing infrastructure and organization forms etc; constraints and opportunities in output supply chains covering animals for meat, milk and other dairy products, hides and skins from cattle and small ruminants, and meat and eggs from poultry, and meat from pigs; and opportunities for processing in integrated production systems etc).  

3.    Political will, and policy and institutional support for the adoption and enabling the spread of innovations and practices associated with promising crop-livestock systems for food and nutritional security (including: sector policies, goals and strategies; strategic planning; enabling environment including infrastructure, credit, marketing, insurance, land tenure etc; tactics for action, incentives, regulations, strategic directions for change in extensive and intensive crop-pasture-livestock systems etc).
 
4.    Research needed to generate knowledge and innovative practices to underpin farmer adoption and scaling of promising crop-livestock systems for sustainable production intensification (including: technical, biological, nutritional, landscape, economic, environmental and social dimensions of integrated systems and practices; on-farm and area-wide integration of crop-livestock systems; functional biomass production and prioritization of its multiple role and use; feed and nutritional formulations; animal health management; effective innovations systems and processes; linking research result to policymaking etc).

Consultation Process and Outcome

The electronic consultation was held during the month of February 2010 and involved over 400 subscribers. The outcome of the electronic consultation served as an input into the stakeholder Workshop held at the Embrapa Maize and Sorghum Institute in Sete Lagaos, Minas Geráis, Brazil, from 23 to 26 March 2010, co-organized by FAO, Embrapa, IICA and IFAD, and included one full day field trip to see innovative action on integrated crop-livestock systems in central or southern Brazil.

About 70 public, private and civil sector stakeholders across the above four themes from Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean as well as elsewhere participated. The importance given to integrated crop-livestock systems for development was visible in the participation from the main partner organizations, particularly FAO and Embrapa. The FAO delegation consisted of following officers: from AGA: Henning Steinfeld, Olaf Thieme, Tito Diaz (RLC); from AGE: Nguyen  Minh-Long; from AGN: Irela Mazar; from AGP: Eric Kueneman, Theodor Friedrich, Amir Kassam (consultant), Constance Neely (consultant), Mohamed Hama-Garba (AGPP-FAO-Senegal); from AGS: Doyle Baker, Susan Minae (SFE). Jose Oscar Pacheco represented FAO-Brasil. Embrapa was represented by several Executive Directors, representing the president of Embrapa, most of them staying throughout the duration of the consultation, namely Kepler Euclides Filho and Tatiana Deane de Abreu Sá. The former Minsiter of Agriculture, Alysson Paolineli, participated in the opening session, as did Paulo Afonso Tomano, Secretario Adjunto da Secretaria de Agricultura do Estato de Minas Gerais. Derli Prudente Santana, adjunct Director of Embrapa CNPMS and the Director of Embrapa-CPA-FAC (Acre State), Judson Valentim, were fully involved throughout the entire consultation.

The meeting confirmed the importance of the role of integrated crop-livestock systems for sustainable development as well as the existence of well established and functioning integrated crop-livestock systems, including trees, pasture and fish, resulting in ecological as well as economic benefits on the crop- as well as on the livestock production side. Embrapa, ILRI, the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (focusing on Crop-Livestock interactions) and FAO will reflect on their respective roles in partnerships activities, including the possible establishment of a common platform (Facility) perhaps hosted by FAO/AG.

During a field trip, crop-livestock-tree systems adopted by medium and small scale farmers could be seen.  

Conclusions and Recommendations

The meeting produced a number of recommendations for follow up actions. A draft Sete Lagaos Accord was prepared and commented by the plenary with some immediate actions (see annex). Further to this the participants elaborated on specific crop-livestock systems and prepared materials for policy briefs and follow up actions which will be consolidated into workshop proceedings.

For finalization the draft proceedings as well as the draft Accord will be circulated to all participants. In addition to this, the electronic Listserv of the e-consultation and the crop-livestock website will remain operational for future communications on the topic.

It is foreseen to develop a "concept note" to set the basis for an AG-level action plan to seek extra-budgetary support. AGP will take the lead, on behalf of AG group, to get the draft “zero” elaborated.  Eric Kueneman will prepare a note-for-the-file on possible ways forward from his perspective in his capacity as Task Manager of the Consultation.

http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/core-themes/theme/spi/iclsd/en/