Brooke is an organisation with 80 years of experience working with smallholder livestock keepers in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. We would like to see a strong focus on the needs and priorities of smallholder farmers who produce nearly 70% of the food consumed in the world, primarily through agroecological approaches. These approaches are referred to as innovations in the proposed draft scope, even though they are largely (albeit not exclusively) built on traditional knowledge and age-old agricultural practices. The HLPE report should ensure these knowledge systems and practices are adequately recognized and that solutions are put forward to support and enhance them in the interests of small-scale food producers. In particular, we believe special attention should be paid to the resource systems used by agroecological producers. When it comes to livestock, these systems include food producing animals, as well as food-facilitating animals used for traction and transport. We believe that understanding of these resource systems can be improved through multi-stakeholder engagement and the development of a more comprehensive body of knowledge. We will also be contributing our experience to the HLPE process by supporting the work of the CSM Agroecology working group.
Andreea Petre-Goncalves