Extensive Pastoral Livestock Systems
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Extensive Pastoral Livestock Systems: Issues and options for the future prepared under the FAO-Japan Cooperative Project “Collection of Information on Animal Production and Health” TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY 4 SECTION I: SYSTEMS CONTEXT 1 1. Classification of pastoral systems worldwide 1 1.1 Overview..................................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Pastoral species ........................................................................................................................................2 1.3 Pastoral enterprises and movement ..........................................................................................................4 1.3.1 Nomadism 4 1.3.2 Transhumance 5 1.3.3 Agropastoralism 5 1.3.4 Enclosed systems and ranching 6 1.3.5 Pastoralism’s links with trade and warfare 6 1.4 Worldwide distribution of pastoralism.....................................................................................................7 1.5 Pastoralism and rangeland ecology ..........................................................................................................8 1.6 Sources of information on pastoralism...................................................................................................10 1.7 The discourse of pastoralism..................................................................................................................12 2. Pastoralism and the market 12 2.1 Selling pastoral products ........................................................................................................................12 2.2 Globalisation of the trade in livestock products .....................................................................................14 3. Meeting demand for protein: the role of pastoralism 14 3.1 Worldwide demand for protein ..............................................................................................................14 3.2 Evaluating productivity over time ..........................................................................................................16 4. The fate of pastoral populations and competing uses for rangelands 16 SECTION II: TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS 18 1. Feeding and Nutrition 18 1.1 Rangelands: opportunistic use of patchy resources................................................................................18 1.2 Silvo-pastoral systems............................................................................................................................18 1.3 Dry-season supplementation and non-conventional feeds......................................................................18 2. Breeding and Reproduction 19 2.1 Breeding and reproduction in pastoral herds..........................................................................................19 2.1.1 Controlling bloodlines 19 2.1.2 Castration 20 2.2 Hi-tech ex situ strategies.........................................................................................................................20 3. Animal Health 21 3.1 Pastoralists and the health of their animals ............................................................................................21 3.2 Traditional remedies...............................................................................................................................22 4. Management and the mitigation of vulnerability 22 4.1 Migration................................................................................................................................................22 4.2 Supplementary feeding...........................................................................................................................23 4.3 Changing herd composition....................................................................................................................24 4.4 Predation ................................................................................................................................................25 4.5 Theft .......................................................................................................................................................25 5. Processing technologies 26 5.1 Dairy products........................................................................................................................................26 5.2 Meat preservation...................................................................................................................................28 5.3 Hides, skins and other products..............................................................................................................28 6. Work animals 29 7. Environmental 31 7.1 The overgrazing debate ..........................................................................................................................31 7.2 Drought and drought management .........................................................................................................32 SECTION III: POLICIES AND ISSUES 33 1. How can the livelihoods of pastoralist families and communities be improved? 33 1.1 Sedentarisation and land tenure..............................................................................................................33 1.2 Rethinking pastoral organisation............................................................................................................35 1.3 Restocking..............................................................................................................................................36 1.4 Livestock banking ..................................................................................................................................38 1.5 Early warning systems: Idea and reality.................................................................................................38 1.6 Economic diversification........................................................................................................................39 2. Can rangelands land use and livestock offtake be sustainable? 40 2.1 Competing uses of the world’s rangelands.............................................................................................40 2.2.1 Pastoralists and the exploitation of mineral resources 40 2.2.2 Wildlife and conservation issues 41 2.3 Controlling grazing pressure ..................................................................................................................43 3. Maintaining livestock biodiversity 43 4. Who should address these policies and issues? 46 4.1 Pastoralists in national, regional and global perspective ........................................................................46 4.2 Key re-orientation of policy towards pastoralists...................................................................................47 4.2.1 Constructing policy: new paradigms or old lies? 47 4.2.2 Rethinking policy clusters 48 4.3 Who should be doing what? ...................................................................................................................49 4.3.1 Intervention versus information dissemination 49 4.3.2 Remedying uneven research 49 4.3.4 Practical support 50 5. Conclusion and recommendations 51 5.1 Why has pastoralism survived?..............................................................................................................51 5.2 Key trends in twentieth century pastoralism ..........................................................................................51 5.3 Where is pastoralism headed? ................................................................................................................52 APPENDIX I: THE ORIGIN OF PASTORAL SPECIES 54 APPENDIX II: PASTORALISM WITH MONOGASTRIC SPECIES 56 1. Ducks and geese 56 2. Pigs Error! Bookmark not defined. REFERENCES 57 ELECTRONIC RESOURCES 72 LINKS TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: 72 UNEP 72 UNDP 72 FAO 72 USAID 72 US Government 72 LINKS TO UNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH CENTRES 72 Links to other organisations 73 Satellite Images 73 Rangelands 73 TABLES Table 1. Main pastoral species and management systems, worldwide 3 Table 2. Regional zonation of pastoral systems 8 Table 3 Estimates of the area of the world’s rangelands 9 Table 4 Classes of grasslands 9 Table 5. Actual and projected meat consumption by region 15 Table 6. Source of increases in world meat supply 15 Table 7. Mongolian dairy products 26 Table 8. Dairy products by species* 27 Table 9. Livestock products other than dairy by species 29 Table 10. Working animals by species 30 Table 12 Kenya Rangeland Livestock and Wildlife Population Estimates: 1970–1990s 42 Table 13. Factors accelerating erosion of livestock biodiversity 44 Table 14. Key factors shaping twentieth century pastoralism 52 This report was commissioned by AGA with funding from the FAO-Japan Cooperative Project GCP/JPN/005/JPN “Collection of Information on Animal Production and Health. The Senior author is Dr Roger Blench, Research Fellow with the Overseas Development Institute and the views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect whose of FAO. SUMMARY 1 Extensive pastoral production used some 25% of the world’s land and produces some 10% of the meat used for human consumption, while supporting some 20 million pastoral households. Pastoral production is split between the extensive enclosed systems typical of North America, Australia and parts of South America and the open range systems in Africa, the Andes, Asia and Siberia which