Pro-Poor Livestock Policy: Initiative Status and Prospects for Smallholder Milk Production A Global Perspective

This Pro-Poor Livestock Policy: Initiative Status and Prospects for Smallholder Milk Production A Global Perspective report is 16 Mb. The Executive Summary is relayed below. Click here or on the image to download.

Of an estimated 2.6 billion people in the developing world surviving on less than US$2 per day, some 1.4 billion are classified as ‘extremely’ poor inasmuch as they live on less than US$1.25/day. Although the incidence of extreme poverty is highest in sub-Saharan Africa (50 percent), Asia is home to the majority of the extremely poor (933 million). Poverty is closely associated with malnutrition, particularly undernutrition; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that, in 2009, some 1.02 billion people, or one sixth of the world’s population, were undernourished.

More than three quarters of these 1.4 billion extremely poor live in rural areas and partly or wholly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods; almost half a billion of them also partly depend on livestock. Given that it is impossible for the expansion of agricultural land to keep pace with population growth in most developing countries, it is not easy to expand agricultural production horizontally. Rather, productivity gains that result in increased value of output per hectare of land are essential for the purpose of improving rural incomes.

Livestock have a number of characteristics that contribute to sustainable rural development: among other things, livestock provide marketable products (generally of a higher value and less vulnerable to critical harvest timing than many crops)

that can be produced by small-scale, household production systems. Judicious development of the livestock sector could thus make a substantial contribution to raising nutrition levels, increasing agricultural productivity, improving the lives of rural people, contributing to growth of the world economy and achieving the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

It is estimated that almost 150 million farm households, i.e. more than 750 million people, are engaged in milk production, the majority of them in developing countries. Annual milk consumption growth rates in these countries averaged 3.5 to 4.0 percent over the decade 1995-2005, at least double the growth rates of 1.4 to 2.0 percent for major staple foods over the same period. Therefore, if properly directed, dairy sector development could serve as a powerful tool for reducing poverty.

The aim of the present publication is to provide an overview of the global dairy sector and of the forces shaping its development vis-à-vis the characteristics of ‘typical’ dairy farming systems. In this way, it is hoped to facilitate a better understanding of the opportunities available for improvement, as well as the constraints/threats faced by smallholder dairy producers in a rapidly changing world.

It also attempts to chart an approach to dairy sector development that will allow smallholder producers to participate in the growing market for milk and milk products.

 

Samuel Jutzi

Director, Animal Production and Health Division

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2010

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