Overview and FAO contribution

The sustainable development of livestock is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Communities).

The sustainable development of livestock has the potential to enhance the livelihoods of the 18 percent of the world’s population who depend on livestock to make a living. It can provide affordable proteins and micronutrients to the 800 million people who go undernourished, improve public health (with more than six in ten infectious human diseases originating in animals) and even help tackle climate change, as livestock systems can be environmentally friendly. It also can generate broader benefits to society through consumption and production spillover effects.

Shaping the future of the sustainable livestock sector

From the nutrition point of view, livestock make a necessary and important contribution to global calorie and protein supplies. Meat, milk and eggs in appropriate amounts are valuable sources of complete and easily digestible protein and essential micronutrients.

Livestock production can help stabilize the food supplies and provide individuals and communities with a buffer against economic shocks and natural disasters related to climate change.

Climate change affects the ecosystems and the natural resources upon which the livestock sector depends through competition for natural resources, quantity and quality of feeds, livestock diseases, heat stress and biodiversity loss.

Climate-driven fluctuations in environmental conditions, such as droughts, fires, floods, heat stress and unpredictable weather, influence the physiological and immune responses in livestock. Moreover, climate change affects the incidence, spread and predictability of animal diseases.

Therefore, the challenge is to maintain a balance between productivity, household food security and environmental preservation. Livestock plays a central role in adaptation to climate change, through such practices as organic matter and nutrients management and income diversification.

Europe and Central Asia

The activities on animal health and production carried out by the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia aim at improving livelihoods and food security in rural areas by improving animal health and husbandry practices.

Improving animal health and production practices among smallholders and other producers requires using evidence-based, multidisciplinary and coordinated approaches and interventions to empower both the private and public sectors to take ownership of the envisioned actions.

FAO has published an animal health and production strategy for Europe and Central Asia, A wake-up call for impact, which urges the private and public sectors to take the initiative on evidence-based, multidisciplinary and coordinated actions.

The strategy, covering 2020–2025, presents FAO’s work in the region in three main priority areas – animal health, animal production, and antimicrobial resistance – along with seven cross-cutting issues, among them gender, environmental sustainability, community farming as a business, and coordination with other international organizations.

As a critical step for animal health, the strategy helps countries in the region apply the One Health approach to clearly understand which disease or diseases have major economic and public health importance. The strategy advocates for involving veterinary services, farmers and other players along the value chain, and it calls for the enhanced use of innovation technology, such as “smart” farming and digital animal monitoring.

The strategy also elaborates on the principles of good emergency practices related to animal disease, including preparedness, prevention, early detection, and rapid response in relation to disease-specific responses and other actions such as biosecurity, compensation and carcass disposal.

Livestock production depends on many factors, including the quality of feeding, animal health, genetic potential and farming practices. To this end, the strategy describes the primary aspects of FAO’s related work in the region, particularly related to feeding and the key factors involved: sustainable pasture management, main feeding resources, reducing feed waste, improving the quality of feed such as hay and silage, and the importance of taking advantage of crop residues and agroindustry by-products.

With respect to cattle breeding, the document outlines support to dairy production for small and medium farmers, artificial insemination, the National Animal Identification and Traceability System, and performance recording. The region is rich with indigenous livestock breeds, and the strategy presents opportunities for the conservation of these breeds to capitalize on local traits, such as disease resistance, to help boost productivity.

The document points at the importance of developing small ruminant production, family poultry farming, and apiculture for increased production efficiency and sustainability and to enhance child nutrition, women’s income-generating potential, and ecosystem services.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the greatest challenges of our times, is closely linked with the livestock sector. In this regard, the new regional livestock strategy blends with the global fight against AMR, foreseeing the raising of awareness, improvements to surveillance and monitoring, and strengthened governance of antimicrobial resistance and use in food and agriculture. The strategy also promotes good practices that reduce the need to use antimicrobials.

The proper use of antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance are not well-established concepts in most countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and capacities to prevent, control and reduce the related risks are limited. In almost all countries, antimicrobials for livestock are sold without a certified veterinary prescription; this is one reason why ensuring more visibility and training on this issue became part of the strategy.

Through the improvement of animal health and productivity, while reducing the threat of AMR under the One Health approach, the strategy supports the realization of the SDGs.

FAO–GCF project: Improved livelihoods and enhanced climate resilience of pasture and livestock communities through climate-smart livestock management in vulnerable provinces

To reduce soil degradation, increase adaptive capacity to climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by implementing climate-smart livestock management practices, the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia has carried out a project, in the framework of the Green Climate Fund, aimed at reducing emissions intensity by increasing productivity through the transfer, deployment and implementation of technologies and practices for climate-smart livestock management.

As livestock depends primarily on natural resources, in particular on the availability of feed and water, this FAO project aims at ensuring that adaptation technologies and practices are adopted in degraded livestock areas, particularly focusing on (i) pasture and grazing management, (ii) animal and herd management, (iii) water management, (iv) improved feed and feeding practices, (v) sustainable management of animal genetic resources, and (vi) analysis of the livestock value chain and increasing the market potential of producers.

To achieve this objective, this FAO–GCF project also aims at strengthening existing incentives and financing mechanisms for sustainable land management in the livestock sector in provinces with degraded areas or risk of desertification.

Additionally, it promotes extension actions with livestock producers’ networks that can spread climate-smart livestock management technologies and practices.