A woman milks one of her goats in Mali (photo credit: ILRI/Valentin Bognan Koné).

The Feed the Future Mali Livestock Technology Scaling Program is a three-year initiative (2016–2019) promoting inclusive growth of all actors adding value to the production and marketing of ruminant livestock in this large, and largely livestock-dependent, West African country. The program, led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) aims to increase the incomes and food and nutritional security of 266,000 people who keep cattle, sheep and goats, as well as  other actors in this value chain in three regions of southern and central Mali: Sikasso, Mopti and Timbuktu. Supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the US government’s Feed the Future initiative, this livestock program is helping to close productivity gaps in Mali’s ruminant production systems, enhancing both the volume and the value of these animals when marketed in the country.

Open day 

The Feed the Future Mali Livestock Technology Scaling Program team hosted an open day on 13 Feb 2018 in Mali’s southern city of Sikasso to increase the program’s visibility, share some successes of the project to date and ask for recommendations to improve the project.
More than one hundred people attended the open day including livestock producers (fatteners, forage producers, cooperative members, livestock traders) and representatives of USAID and network organizations of USAID-funded projects,  local authorities, national directorates and their local branches, decentralized communities, non-governmental organization partners, and print and broadcast media. After opening discussion, the participants visited Farakala, 40 km from Sikasso, where they were

invited to assess the level of technical expertise gained by agro-pastoralists.

They did so through interviews with promoters of facilities to store livestock forage crops (Brachiaria), fattening workshops, a pastoral farm and a cattle feed factory unit managed by women.

The day ended with a knowledge fair on the central themes of the program.

Recommendations
Among other recommendations, participants stressed the need to expand the program beyond its current funding lifetime, to strengthen links between farmers and financial institutions to make credit more accessible for farmers and other livestock value chain actors, to employ media to increase awareness of animal health issues, to support establishment of a sustainable Brachiaria seed system and avail feed grinders to women’s groups, and to support women’s groups’ promoting small-scale feed factory units supply multi-nutrient livestock feed blocs and compound feeds.

Progress on program interventions
It was reported that Mali’s Laboratoire central vétérinaire (LCV) had completed testing of the thermo-stability of three batches of vaccines against peste des petits ruminants (commonly known as ‘sheep and goat plague’). Results of analyses from the Pan African Veterinary Vaccine Centre of the African Union (PANVAC), in Ethiopia, indicated that two vaccines, produced according to the Xerovac protocol and the ILRI protocol, meet the latest thermo-tolerant requirements. ILRI, LCV and national partners will deploy the new livestock thermo-tolerant vaccines in the field in the coming weeks.

The program team also vaccinated 69,323 cattle against contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonea; 29,557 cattle and 8,143 small ruminants against a bacterial infection called pasteurellosis; and 39,435 small ruminants against peste des petits ruminants.

Jay Angerer, from Texas A&M University, visited Mali’s capital of Bamako 12–22 Feb 2018 to provide technical support for a Livestock Market Information System (LMIS). During his visit, Angerer upgraded LMIS software, established protocols for back up and data management, and trained local stakeholders on the use of LMIS and database maintenance. Together with ILRI staff, he joined a meeting to explore integrating LMIS data into an interactive voice response platform developed by Viamo, a social enterprise company for data collection and public service information via mobile.

Other activities reported in the last update continued, with various field visits by controllers to ensure regular market monitoring and data reliability, further dissemination of livestock market information on community radio and ongoing enumerator training.

More information
Read a brochure about the Feed the Future Mali Livestock Technology Scaling Program.
Read the latest quarterly progress report (Apr–Jun 2017) on this program.
Read more from the Feed the Future Mali Livestock Technology Scaling Program.

For more information, contact Abdou Fall, program manager, ILRI, a.fall@cgiar.org

ILRI senior livestock adviser Barry Shapiro (photo credit: ILRI).

A new livestock sector analysis from the Ethiopia’s Livestock State Ministry (LSM) and Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) was recently published. This work was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to help Ethiopia in its fact-based planning.

Lead author of the analysis, ILRI senior livestock advisor Barry Shapiro, had this to say about his team’s findings.

The results of the Ethiopia Livestock Sector Analysis clearly demonstrate that there are very attractive potential returns to investing in improving animal production in the country.

These potential returns, ranging from about 20 to 40% per year, signify that much higher investments in the sector by governments, development partners and the private sector are warranted.

That Ethiopia is ambitious to improve livelihoods in rural areas significantly makes increased investment in livestock essential. This is due not only to the high potential returns to investment but also to the many benefits livestock bring to the country’s food and nutritional security and the large numbers of livestock-keeping households in Ethiopia.

Livestock already are making significant contributions to Ethiopia’s national economic growth. The sector now makes up 40% of the country’s agricultural gross domestic product and 27% of its national GDP.

The Ethiopia Government has many development objectives for the sector, some of them that could be conflicting. For example, while ambitious to increase red meat exports (from beef, mutton and goat) to earn more foreign exchange, the government also wants to meet a rapidly growing domestic demand for meat. (The current deficit of meat on the local market already makes the price of Ethiopian beef two times that of the world market price.)

A way to create a ‘win-win’ in this area, as the livestock sector analysis shows, is to invest heavily in broiler and layer chicken production so that domestic chicken supplies increase rapidly and the prices of all meat in Ethiopia decline—allowing more red meat to be exported. To achieve this, a change in cooking and eating habits will be needed, requiring significant investments in advertising and dietary education to promote eating broiler meat and layer eggs rather than the traditional local ‘doro’ chicken and eggs.

Increasing chicken production with broilers and layers rather than increasing the numbers of cattle, sheep and goats could provide the additional benefits of increasing investment in, and employment of, women and youth while lowering the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the country’s livestock sector.

—Barry Shapiro, ILRI senior livestock economist

From the executive summary
To effectively launch and carry out its work, Ethiopia’s new Livestock State Ministry (LSM) requires a vision of what can and needs to be accomplished to develop the sector, built on a factual baseline and realistic targets and priorities, along with a realistic strategy and ‘road map’ or action plan—what the ministry calls a ‘livestock master plan’. This Ethiopia livestock sector analysis is a critical input into Ethiopia’s livestock master plan.

This report also seeks to inform other Ethiopian government policymakers involved in livestock development on the current status and future potential for poverty reduction and economic growth of the livestock sector. It is based on a quantitative analysis of the technical performance of the sector and its economic contribution to the household and national economy, using a set of tools from the Livestock Sector Investment Policy Toolkit (LSIPT). This toolkit was developed by a group of international agencies under the aegis of the Platform for the African Livestock Development & Sustainable Economic Growth (ALive) of the African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). The analysis is based on field surveys, literature and expert opinions, continuously validated through consistency tests.

Development of the Ethiopia livestock sector analysis
Using the most recently available data, from 2013, ILRI and the LSM employed the LSIPT2 to develop livestock herd and sector models and a baseline assessment of the current state of agricultural development in Ethiopia upon which to assess the potential long-term, 15–20 year, impact of proposed combined technology and policy interventions, referred to as the livestock sector analysis. The results of that analysis then formed the basis for the development of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) II targets and the Ethiopian Livestock Master Plan 2015–2020. The master plan is a series of five-year development implementation plans or ‘roadmaps’, to be used to implement in the GTP II period and beyond.

Interventions in the Ethiopia Livestock Sector Analysis and the Ethiopia Livestock Master Plan were tested using sector model measures of the Ethiopian Government’s livestock development and policy objectives for GTP I and II. The GTP objectives employed to assess the investment interventions of the Ethiopia Livestock Master Plan were to:

• reduce poverty
• achieve food and nutritional security
• contribute to economic growth (GDP) and agro-industry development
• contribute to exports and foreign exchange earnings and
• contribute to climate resilience

Using indicators for the above objectives, three key livestock commodity value chains—poultry, for chicken meat and eggs; crossbred cattle, mainly for milk; and ruminant livestock red meat and milk (from indigenous cattle, sheep, goats and camels)—were identified in the livestock sector analysis as those sub-sectors with most potential to contribute most significantly to the long-run development of Ethiopia’s livestock sector. In each of these commodity value chains, the analysis focuses on both smallholder family and specialized commercial production systems. These three value chains and six sub-value chains are found in one or more of the three major production typology zones of Ethiopia, officially categorized by the Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture as: lowland grazing, including both pastoral and agropastoral systems; mixed crop-and-livestock production systems in rainfall-deficient highlands; and mixed crop-and-livestock production systems in rainfall-sufficient highlands.

A summary of the findings of the report shows the following

• The national herd, consisting of about 55.2 million cattle, 29 million sheep, 29 million goats, 4.5 million camels and close to 50 million poultry, annually produces some 1,128 metric tonnes (MT) of meat, 174 million eggs and 5.2 billion litres of milk. This national herd also provides about 68 million MT of organic fertilizer and almost 617 million days’ worth of animal traction. The technical parameters, in particular for mortalities of young stock, are poor compared to data from similar production systems elsewhere in Africa.
• For the purposes of this study, a typology for the different livestock systems was developed, consisting at the first level of (a) the predominantly grazing or grassland systems of Ethiopia’s lowlands and (b) the rainfall-deficient and (c) the rainfall-sufficient mixed farming systems at higher elevations. Most of Ethiopia’s cattle are found in the mixed systems, sheep are about equally distributed between highland mixed and lowland grassland systems, and goats and camels are predominantly found in the lowlands.
• Ethiopia’s national livestock herd provides all or part of the livelihoods of more than 11.3 million rural households, of which 27–35% of the highland livestock keepers and a larger proportion of the lowland herders live below the national poverty line, which, based on a 2010/11 household survey conducted by Ethiopia’s Central Statistic Agency, is 3,781 Ethiopian birr (ETB) per adult equivalent per year, or about ETB20, or USD0.50, per person per day.
• The highest proportion of poor livestock-keepers in Ethiopia is in the lowland grassland systems and the lowest proportion (27%) is in the rainfall-sufficient mixed highland systems. The highest absolute numbers of poor people are found in the rainfall-deficient mixed highland systems. A more in-depth analysis shows that (a) cattle is the dominant species for 70–90% of the livestock holding households; (b) livestock’s contribution to total household income is higher in poorer households in the highlands than in other zones; (c) village poultry across all agro-ecological zones and goats in the lowland grasslands have the highest annual income per unit of tropical livestock units. A focus on reducing poverty would give priority to cattle, goats and village poultry in all systems, especially in the lowland grasslands and the moisture-sufficient mixed crop-livestock highland systems.
• The direct contribution of livestock to Ethiopia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated by LSIPT at ETB150.7 billion per year, which comprises 17% of Ethiopia’s GDP and 39% of its agricultural GDP. If livestock processing and marketing (estimated at ETB35.6 billion a year) is taken into account, this proportion rises to about 21% of national GDP and 49% of agricultural GDP. If the indirect contribution of livestock organic fertilizer and traction (estimated at ETB37.8 billion a year) is taken into account, the contribution livestock make to Ethiopia’s GDP rises to 25.3%.
• The direct contributions livestock herds and farms make to Ethiopia’s GDP are from milk (34%) and meat (32%), with the rest generated by other livestock services or products. In terms of livestock systems, these livestock contributions to Ethiopia’s GDP are about equally distributed over the countries’ three major agro-ecological zones, while the contributions of the specialized systems of urban dairy for milk and feedlots for red meat remain incipient.
• The demand for meat and milk in Ethiopia is currently met mainly from domestic production. But an exploding demand for meat and milk due to a growing population (estimated to reach 127 million people in 15 years) and rising per capita income, are expected to cause deficits of about 1.3 million MT (53%) of meat and 3,185 million litres (29%) of milk by 2028. Per capita meat consumption by that year should be about 24.5 kg/year, which is about on par with other countries at a similar stage of development. Meeting these meat and milk gaps will require substantial investments in the Ethiopian livestock sector.
• The livestock sector analysis projects that if the proposed investment interventions are put in place and successful, the country will have an annual 20% surplus of about 2 billion litres of milk by the year 2028. The analysis indicates that the projected milk surplus will be realized through investments in better dairy genetics, feed and health services for both traditional dairy farms and commercial-scale specialized dairy production units.
• Closing the projected gap in meeting meat consumption demands will require vast increases in both traditional backyard family poultry enterprises and commercial-scale poultry broiler and layer units.
• Investments in improving poultry production systems can also generate an overall surplus of meat production over projected consumption requirements by 2028. The surplus in 2028 is projected to be about 8%, or 181,000 MT of meat per year.
• Poor market access and lack of infrastructure limit the production of value-added livestock products (just 31.5% of farm/herd-level livestock products are ‘value added’ versus 100% or more of livestock products in member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Furthermore, relatively short supply channels lead to moderate post-harvest losses in livestock-derived foods. While the livestock sector analysis estimates Ethiopia’s post-harvest milk losses at just 3.4 %, post-harvest losses of all types of meat range from 11 to 24%.
• Price analysis along the meat and dairy value chains shows that the average price increases and gross margins are quite high for most of the actors in the chains, especially for processors and food service providers who are adding value through processing or transformation of livestock-derived foods. This implies that these livestock value chain actors are operating in a lucrative business environment with few competitors. Greater and easier entry into these livestock markets, however, will require policies improving access to land and credit.
• While improvements in animal health, genetics, feeding and management improve livestock performance substantially, the projected gap in Ethiopian milk supplies by 2028 remains large, implying that a broader effort will be required to close the milk gap.
• Inadequate feed supplies, of grass and fodder in particular, will most likely be the main physical constraint to further expansion of Ethiopia’s livestock population. The LSIPT feed resources module estimates that sufficient grazing and fodder in an average year is available only for the lower grasslands and is available for the rainfall-deficit mixed crop-livestock highland systems only in a ‘good year’. Furthermore, by 2028 all of Ethiopia’s agroecological zones except the lower grasslands are projected to be dramatically deficient in these livestock feeds if the current increases of the country’s stock numbers continue.
• The animal disease constraint analysis points to the following diseases that should be major priorities for Ethiopia: (1) foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), (2) peste des petits ruminants (PPR, also known as ‘ovine rinderpest’ and ‘goat plague’), (3) tsetse-transmitted trypanosomosis (often abbreviated to ‘tryps’), (4) external parasites (called ‘ekek’, the Amharic word meaning ‘itch’), (5) sheep and goat pox and (6) contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP).
• Clear policies exist regarding the roles of the private and public sectors in livestock development, in particular in the provision of livestock services and inputs, but implementation is limited. Unfavourable regulatory and fiscal frameworks for allocating land and producing livestock feed, respectively, lead to a reluctance of private operators to invest in livestock development and are constraints to further equitable growth of the sector.

Strategic policy recommendations

• Priority is given to increasing the productivity or production per animal by addressing feed deficits and improving animal health and genetics. Among the key policy and investment actions to support increased productivity are: (1) enhancement of veterinary coverage through private-public partnerships to reduce livestock deaths and disease, (2) promotion of fodder production through the revision of land allocation rules and (3) accelerated introduction of improved genetics once feed production and health services are in place.
• Convergence of Ethiopia’s livestock sector analysis with its climate-resilient green economy and livestock investment plan: The resilience of the livestock sector to climate change could be improved and other national development objectives could be met by dramatically decreasing the greenhouse gases (GHG) generated in chicken production and consumption and by regulating cattle and other higher GHG emitters through greater off-take. Furthermore, additional investments should be made to increase the productivity of all livestock species considered priorities in the livestock sector analysis.
• Since an increase in the numbers of ruminant animals in the national herd is still expected to occur, the environmental consequences of this increase will need to be closely monitored since it threatens resource degradation from overgrazing. Policies introducing disincentives to increasing herd sizes, especially of low-productivity indigenous breeds, rather than improving productivity and/or switching to lower emitting animals (such as a tax per animal head) could be considered.
• Success in modernizing the poultry subsector will require policy interventions that help ensure that sufficient land is allocated and put into poultry feed production (especially maize and soybean) and that the private sector is encouraged to invest in poultry agribusinesses—especially day-old chick production and meat and egg processing.
• If poultry can substitute for red meat, then red meat can be exported to meet the government’s export goals to earn foreign exchange. However, tastes and preferences for local chicken, or ‘doro’, would have to be changed through promotion of exotic chicken meat and changes in cuisine.
• While in the long run, government policy would have to focus on the threatening projected domestic supply gap, promotion of export beef can be the ‘pull’ factor for general improvement later. A dual policy of seeking broad animal health coverage for poor smallholders while increasing exports and gaining access to attractive and remunerative markets in the region is therefore needed. This will also require a major increase in investments to enhance the quality and safety of the animal-source food products.
• There is need for balanced policies to encourage investment in animal production and meat processing to meet rapidly increasing domestic demand for meat as well as for export to prevent the exploding domestic demand from constraining export potential.
• Special incentives are needed (review of the business climate, tax facilities, training) to promote more value adding through processing and product transformation combined with clearer roles of the public and private sectors.

This, in turn leads to the following scenarios that have been tested for their economic feasibility. The agents of change will be technology interventions supported by policy adjustments.

• Policy measures rationalizing public- and private-sector roles in the provision of veterinary services combined with investments in animal health, feeding and management to reduce young stock mortality in all livestock systems.
• Dairy breeding improvement interventions, combining artificial insemination (AI) using exotic semen with oestrus hormone synchronization in the rainfall-sufficient mixed highland systems. The investment scenario results of the livestock sector analysis show the rate of return on investment in AI and hormone synchronization is not attractive in the rainfall-deficient mixed highland systems.
• To reduce poverty, transform Ethiopia’s traditional backyard family poultry systems through massive importation and dissemination of improved semi-scavenging poultry breeds by the private sector and, where the private sector is reluctant to enter on its own, through public-private partnerships, with private animal health services providing critical vaccines and government extension services promoting better poultry feeding.
• In addition, mass introduction of ‘improved semi-scavenging crossbreeds’ or ‘improved indigenous semi-scavenging chickens’ to create a market-oriented improved family poultry system which produces far more eggs and meat when provided with supplemental feeding and adequate health services.
• Revision of the land allocation policy framework to enable investments in fodder production and trade.
• Promotion of feed efficiency through removal of the value-added tax (15%) and duty (53%) on feed mill ingredients and introduction of quality control measures.
• Enhanced livestock exports to more remunerative markets through introduction of a practical and affordable system of animal identification and traceability.

The livestock sector analysis shows attractive economic returns for these investments but, as stated, the resulting productivity increases have limited impact on closing demand-supply gaps. Closing the gap between Ethiopia’s meat supply and demand by 2028 requires both that the national herd grows and that additional productivity-increasing interventions are put in place. Achieving the required increases in milk productivity and milk production requires substantial genetic improvement of the national herd and concomitant improvements in animal feed, health and management practices.

Recommended follow-up actions

• Prepare action plans and start implementing the high-priority policies and investments identified in this report, i.e. in animal health, fodder and value adding.
• Use the LSIPT database and the Ethiopian ministry and ILRI staff trained in its use to further refine the options already tested and to assess new potentially attractive investments.
• Establish in the Ethiopian Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, in coordination with other relevant agencies, a livestock policy support unit with the staff, hardware, data and budget needed to support the ministry in policy formulation using the LSIPT database and other tools.
• Ensure that in all future surveys priority is given to closing the data gaps identified during this exercise, in particular for the lower grasslands, small ruminant systems and value chains.

Read the whole report: Barry Shapiro (ILRI), Getachew Gebru (Managing Risk for Improved Livelihoods-Ethiopia), Solomon Desta (Managing Risk for Improved Livelihoods-Ethiopia), Asfaw Negassa (ILRI), Kidus Nigussie (Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture), Gezahegn Aboset (Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture) and Henok Mechale (Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute of the Ethiopia Ministry of Industry), Oct 2017, Ethiopia livestock sector analysis: A 15-year livestock sector strategy, ILRI Project Report, Nairobi, Kenya: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Cover of a new report, The influence of livestock-derived foods on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life, by Delia Grace, Paula Dominguez-Salas, Silvia Alonso, Mats Lannerstad, Emmanuel Muunda and Nicholas Ngwili, all of ILRI, and Abbas Omar, Mishal Khan and Eloghene Otobo of Chatham House, 2018, ILRI Research Report 44. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

There is great potential for

food produced from livestock

to contribute to better health

in low-income populations.

—Review by the International Livestock Research Institute
and the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security

Global efforts to limit or reduce

the consumption of meat, milk and eggs

over environmental concerns

should exclude pregnant and breastfeeding women

and babies under the age of two,

especially in low-income settings

where other sources of protein and micronutrients

are not available or not customarily used.

An extensive review of research found demonstrable nutritional benefits of providing children, particularly in countries in Africa and South Asia where undernutrition is highest, with livestock-derived foods such as meat, milk and eggs. Consumption of livestock-derived foods was typically found to be very low among poor families in those countries.

The influence of livestock-derived foods on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life, published by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Chatham House, also concluded that it was possible to meet the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable through livestock-derived produce even if total global livestock production slowed down.

‘Intensification of livestock production should follow the principles of sustainability: economic, environmental, health and social. But it is also important to keep in mind the multiple economic and social contributions that livestock rearing gives many millions of smallholder farmers in poor countries’, said Osman Dar, director of the One Planet-One Health Project at the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security. ‘To this end, it would be irresponsible to fail to exploit the livestock resources in those countries for the benefit of improving diets of undernourished children and vulnerable mothers.’

‘The many health and environmental concerns around livestock-derived food production and consumption in high-income countries are of legitimate concern, but these should not be a reason to limit nutritional choices for the undernourished in poorer countries.’

Considering that global nutrient requirements in the first 1,000 days of life are a small proportion of total food production, the production of meat, milk and eggs for young children and new mothers could be prioritized even in the face of overall reductions in supply to reduce the global environmental pressure from livestock production.

The report makes four key recommendations:

• Increase the availability and affordability of safe livestock-derived foods in low- and middle-income countries with low levels of intake of these foods where economically feasible and culturally acceptable
• Base global livestock-derived food strategies on full sustainability assessments and recognize the particular needs at critical points in the human life-cycle (first 1,000 days)
• Better align nutrition, health, livestock and sustainability policies at national level in low- and middle-income countries
• Expand the evidence base through high-quality action research

Despite progress to tackle poor nutrition in children’s early years, undernutrition remains high, with one in four children under five in the world reported to be stunted in 2014, according to UNICEF.

Deficiencies in key micronutrients, such as iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc, are also common among children and pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries.

But consuming livestock-derived products such as meat, milk and eggs in the first 1,000 days of life are a viable option to improve a child’s prospects of growth, cognition and development, the report said.

Livestock-derived foods are among the richest and most efficient sources of necessary micronutrients, macronutrients and fatty acids. For example, a woman would have to eat eight times more spinach than cow’s liver to get the same levels of iron.

Yet livestock-derived food represented just 20 per cent of the total protein supply across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in 2013. In North America and Europe, as much as 60 per cent of the protein supply came from meat, milk and eggs.

The report highlighted a research gap with only two studies on breastfeeding women, in Sri Lanka and Burma. Both studies indicated supplementing new mothers’ diets with milk or other animal protein might have a positive effect on breast milk.

Meanwhile, a trial in Ecuador found that simply adding an egg a day to the diets of six- to nine-month-old babies improved their growth and the levels of an essential nutrient called choline, which is associated with cognitive development.

‘The role of meat, milk and eggs is complex and markedly different between high and low-income countries and populations. Whereas animal protein is severely lacking for poor people, it can be over-consumed by the affluent’, said Delia Grace, Animal and Human Health Program Leader at ILRI.

‘Our extensive review suggests that livestock-derived foods have unmet potential to contribute to better health and nutrition wherever current intake is low, malnutrition is high, and social and cultural norms permit their intake. This is especially important for new and expecting mothers and their babies. But this potential will be fully realized only if environmental and health concerns are well managed.’

The report called for more high-quality research into both the role of nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life as well as improving food safety, given the associations between livestock and food-borne disease.

‘Considering that meat, milk and eggs are an excellent source of high-quality protein and micronutrients, measures to improve the availability and accessibility of livestock-derived foods should be promoted among populations with very low intakes and where social and cultural norms permit’, said Paula Dominguez-Salas, nutrition scientist at ILRI.

‘This is particularly relevant for pregnant and lactating women and young children, whose high nutrient requirements and limited intake demand nutrient-dense foods. However, strategies to increase the availability of livestock-derived food should be coupled with interventions to promote good and healthy diets and monitor consumption levels in different segments of society.’

The report is available online.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security, to reduce poverty and to protect the environment in developing countries through research on better and more sustainable uses of livestock by the poor. ILRI is a member of CGIAR—a global research partnership for a food-secure future. ILRI advocates science- and evidence-based approaches to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute based in London that engages governments, the private sector, civil society and members in open debates and private discussions about the most significant developments in international affairs. Each year, the institute runs more than 300 private and public events in London and internationally with partners.

Understanding livestock yield gaps for poverty alleviation, food security and the environment is a report published by the LiveGAPS Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), in Dec 2016. The report was written by Mario Herrero (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO]), Di Mayberry (CSIRO), Jeannette van de Steeg (research consultant), David Phelan (University of Tasmania), Andrew Ash (CSIRO), Kanar Diyezee (CSIRO), Tim Robinson (ILRI), Ben Henderson (CSIRO), Marius Gilbert (Leuven University), Mark van Wijk (ILRI), Cecile Godde (CSIRO), Michael Blummel (ILRI), Di Prestwidge (CSIRO), Elle Stephenson (CSIRO), Brendan Power (CSIRO) and David Parsons (University of Tasmania).

From the Executive Summary
‘The BMGF and other donors and development agencies need to target investments in the livestock sector in ways that are likely to maximize the impacts for broad numbers of producers and consumers. Estimating and understanding how to measure and trigger productivity changes in livestock systems is essential for better defining the technological and investment needs in the livestock sector.

Estimates of livestock yield gaps are not available and these are necessary for developing feasible scenarios of how the production of different livestock commodities might evolve in the future, how systems might change and what would be the resource use implications and their costs, both for donors and for public and private entities in target countries.

Productivity and yield gap analyses will also help define the most appropriate technology entry points for different livestock species: health, nutrition, genetics, policy levers, others.

This information will contribute to making informed investment decisions and target technologies in the livestock sectors of developing countries.

From Main Findings
‘1. DAIRY: Our study suggests that dairy yield gaps in Ethiopia and India range between 65-350% depending on the type of intervention package implemented. In both cases, benchmarking production against the top 10% of producers demonstrated that yields could be tripled. However, when implementing efficiency frontier studies, we found that potentially more modest gains would be achievable at the herd level.

‘2. DAIRY: Our projections demonstrate that it would be possible to increase production further that the existing baseline projections to 2030 for India and Ethiopia would suggest. For example, dairy production in India is projected to increase by a factor of 65% to 2030. Our results show that with improved feeding and promoting changes in the herd structure towards more cross-breeding and or buffalo production, milk production could increase between 112-130% by 2030.

‘3. DAIRY: Ethiopia has higher yield gaps than India, but also as a result of a lower baseline. Ethiopian dairy production is expected to grow by 84% to 2030 under baseline conditions. Alternative scenarios demonstrated a positive, but more variable production response, ranging from 97-242% depending on the improvement strategy selected. Packages of interventions including better feeding, crossbreds and others led to the highest potential gains. These results were confirmed by our benchmarking studies.

‘4. MARKET ACCESS: A very strong and statistically significant link between market access and farm performance was found for most sites. This suggests that efforts to improve market access should be an important component of policies to close yield gaps.

‘5. BIOMASS: Biomass constraints could be critical for the development of the ruminant livestock sector in India and Ethiopia. In these situations achieving production targets with less, more productive animals might be desirable.

‘6. MILK: Increasing milk production will require both an increase in the quantity of feed available and more efficient use of existing resources. This is especially important as the smaller indigenous livestock breeds are replaced by larger crossbred cattle and buffalo with higher energy requirements.

‘7. DRAUGHT POWER: A shift away from the use of cattle and buffalo for draught purposes will make more feed resources available for dairy production in India. However, a decrease in the total size of the national dairy herd may still be required to increase total production.

‘8. CROSS-BREEDING: Cross-breeding is a good option to increase milk productivity, but this will only work if higher quality feed is available.

‘9. HERD MANAGEMENT: Herd management and species composition for milk production is a key strategy to maximize milk production in India.

’10. SMALL RUMINANTS: There is significant potential for increasing small ruminant production through practices to reduce mortality and strategic sowing of improved fodders. Cross-breeding in these systems was shown to be relatively ineffective, but a package with the three interventions demonstrated to have the potential to increase productivity five-fold. These results translated in a potential doubling of small ruminant meat production to 2030 relative to 2010.

’11. ANIMAL NUTRITION: The interactions between improved nutrition and improved reproduction and reduced mortality could be used as a way of increasing total system productivity while protecting livestock assets.

’12. FEEDS: The most profitable feeding interventions tested are not necessarily those with the highest productivity. This needs to be accounted for when designing dairy improvement programmes.

’13. INTERVENTION PACKAGES: In all cases and for all species and location, packages of interventions performed better than single interventions for increasing productivity and profitability of livestock production.

’14. POULTRY: The smallholder poultry sector in Ethiopia could potential supply a significant amount of meat and eggs, especially if improved interventions are applied. In contrast, the strength and the accelerated growth of the industrial poultry sector in India is likely to dominate poultry production in the next 20 years. Nevertheless, localised livelihoods benefits of improved extensive poultry production are likely to be continue to be important in places.

’15. POULTRY: Ethiopia: The regional mean annual egg offtake for a small sized farm for the baseline was 21.7 eggs. The largest increases in regional egg offtake rates were from the dual interventions of vaccination and supplementary feeding (48.4) and crossbreeding and housing (46.2).

’16. VACCINES & FEEDS & HOUSING: The dual intervention of vaccination and supplementary feeding consistently returned the greatest percentage increase in net profits above the baseline value for each of the different sized farms. However, the cost of providing supplementary feed can be highly variable, dependent on many localized issues. The dual intervention of vaccination and housing frequently provided the greatest increases concerning total bird offtake rates, however the percentage increase in net profits as a result of this intervention was relatively much lower, due to the cost associated with providing daytime housing.

’17. VALUE CHAINS: Market incentives and value chain development will be essential to ensure farmers can intensify their production.

’18. FEED MANAGEMENT: Investment in projects targeting improved feed management should be a priority. Without these, the impacts of many other interventions (genetics, health) will be small. This should include fodder markets and biomass value chains, apart from on-farm interventions on improved fodders.

’19. HERD MANAGEMENT: Further research on herd management and manipulation of herd structures is necessary.

From the Introduction (omitting references)
‘Livestock play a significant role in rural livelihoods and the economies of developing countries. They are providers of income and employment for 1.3 billion producers and others working in, sometimes complex, value chains. They are a crucial asset and safety net for the poor, especially for women and pastoralist groups, and they provide an important source of nourishment for billions of rural and urban households. These socio-economic roles and others, are increasing in importance as the sector grows due to increasing human population, incomes, and urbanisation rates.

‘The demand for livestock products in developing countries is projected to double in the next forty years as a result of the drivers mentioned above. There is a need to ensure that the smallholder sector is able to respond to sustainably supply the volumes of livestock products required to meet the increased consumption, thus increasing their incomes, protecting their assets and consuming wholesome diets. We need a sustainable livestock revolution in action. Therefore, understanding how the contribution of smallholders livestock farmers might evolve in the future is needed for better implementing poverty reduction and nutritional security strategies.

The developing world produces 41% of the milk, 72% of the lamb, 50% of the beef, 59% of the pork and 53% of the poultry globally.

These shares are likely to increase significantly to 2050 as rates of growth of livestock production in the developing world exceed those in developed countries (>2%/yr and <1% /yr, respectively).

Mixed extensive and intensive crop-livestock systems produce 65%, 75% and 55% of the bovine meat, milk and lamb, respectively, of the developing world share.

‘The productivity of livestock in the developing world is low, relative to its potential. There are significant opportunities to increase it via adequate mixtures of technologies, policies and investments in farms and product value chains. However, until recently, the baseline data needed to adequately characterize livestock productivity levels in different parts of the developing world was either not available, nor at the level of disaggregation necessary to make informed decisions on the upscaling potential of key interventions and their impacts on productivity and household nutrition and income. This is quickly changing due to new data sources but there is a significant need to study and synthesize the potential for productivity increases in smallholders systems for improved programmatic decision making and for targeting poverty and food security strategies.

‘The BMGF and other donors and development agencies need to target investments in the livestock sector in ways that are likely to maximize the impacts for broad numbers of producers and consumers. Estimating and understanding how to measure and trigger productivity changes in livestock systems is essential for better defining the technological and investment needs in the livestock sector. . . .

From the Terms of Reference

This one-year investment, commissioned to CSIRO in partnership with ILRI and UTAS, and codeveloped with the BMGF Livestock Programme, aimed to:

‘1. Improve the existing livestock baseline productivity data in selected BMGF target countries and in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in general. We developed a framework for assessing productivity in livestock systems, particularly those owned and managed by smallholder farmers. Part of this work included updating existing productivity maps for dairy, small ruminant (milk and meat) and poultry (eggs, poultry) for the year 2000 to the year 2010 for the specific countries and continents. We used new information from surveys and livestock monitoring systems for improving this effort. Additionally we updated the distributions of animal numbers and the share of smallholder production as part of this effort for regional level assessments, while at the farm level we used household-level analysis for estimating the productivity of dairy, small ruminants and poultry. This enabled us to determine baseline hotspots of production, shares by production system, feed demand and supply and contribution of livestock to livelihoods in the regions of interest.

‘2. As a second step, using state of the art livestock and household simulation models like CSIRO’s IAT, RUMINANT, APSFARM and other models from partners, we estimated the impacts of best bet packages of interventions provided by key informants (genetics, nutrition, health) on livestock productivity, and farmers’ incomes and nutrition in different types of production systems in two selected BMGF target countries (India and Ethiopia). This is a practical way of getting a better sense of how to exploit yield gaps in these systems, rather than assessing technical potentials. Additionally this can lead to a prioritization of key interventions in terms of production potential, costs and others.

‘3. The study would also assess the potential impacts of these practices if they were up-scaled broadly throughout the individual countries to 2017 and 2030. This kind of information would enable BMGF to assess the feasibility and investment needs of selected practices and would enable us to assess country level impacts on consumption of livestock products and farmers’ incomes.

‘4. Additionally, the project would develop a dissemination portal for the data and would organize a small workshop for setting the foundations for establishing a community of practice in the field of livestock modeling and data sharing. . . .’

The full report is available online.

Some of the work going on at an end-of-project GLAD workshop held last week at ILRI, in Nairobi (photo credit: ILRI/Judy Kimani).

This article was written by Judy Kimani, communications and knowledge management specialist for ILRI’s Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods program.

Global Livestock Advocacy for Development (GLAD) has been a two-year project whose main objective has been to raise investor interest in livestock-related research-for-development issues. It has done this largely by distilling and presenting evidence and creative content about smallholder livestock systems and their critical roles in sustainable food systems and development. GLAD has also undertaken strategic engagement around sustainable livestock issues at targeted high-profile events and has strengthened capacity in livestock advocacy communications.

Members of the GLAD project, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, believe that underfunding of the livestock sector in developing countries is partly due to a global lack of awareness and understanding of livestock as well as negative views of livestock put forward in the media in industrialized nations. Effort has therefore been made to address three related problems:

• A growing negative view of livestock in industrialized nations that threatens sustainable livestock-based livelihoods in poor countries.
• Despite livestock’s importance to development, at global, regional and national levels, the sector is typically paid scant attention in wider agricultural and broader development discussions and policymaking, with cereal and export crops as well as large-scale food production and urban food consumption issues receiving the lion’s share of attention.
• The absence of a strong community of advocates for sustainable livestock working at different levels to communicate livestock-related evidence in compelling ways to key stakeholder audiences and influencing important decision-making processes.

Led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the GLAD project developed products and engaged in activities to advocate for increased funding for sustainable smallholder livestock priorities. The means GLAD employed to achieve this included:

• better, more communications-focused use of evidence to help change the conversation around livestock to focus on the importance of livestock development to smallholder livelihoods and the contribution of a sustainable livestock sector to delivering on the 2030 Agenda
• direct engagement with policymakers at relevant regional and global policy fora
• coordination of a community of practice for livestock stakeholders interested in advocacy work.

Specific project work included distilling evidence about smallholder and pastoral livestock systems in developing countries and assembling, synthesizing, presenting and communicating big opportunities for those livestock systems to contribute to sustainable development in three main areas.

Growth and equity: Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of an estimated one billion poor. Evidence was assembled, synthesized and presented through creative content products on: livestock and livelihoods, livestock and gender (equity), the competitiveness of smallholders in ensuring food supply, and ways that increasing demand for meat, milk and eggs in the developing world is creating to economic growth opportunities.

Nutrition and health: Livestock play both positive and detrimental roles in human nutrition and health. Evidence was assembled, synthesized and presented through creative content products on links between livestock and emerging diseases, human health and nutrition and demographic change.

Environment and climate change: Livestock are the main source of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions; equally important, future climate and land use change will affect the viability and sustainability of livestock production. Evidence was assembled, synthesized and presented through creative content products on: greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector, climate change impacts on livestock, and ecosystem services provide by the livestock sector.

The evidence distilled by project scientists was translated into a set of messages and options backed up by links to evidence and published online at http://whylivestockmatter.org.

Project associates also made targeted interventions in high-impact events to make prominent how sustainable livestock development influences and benefits wider development issues. These interventions were supported by a series of media outreach activities drawing attention to significant evidence-based messages. The project’s communication tools and information products helped strengthen the capacity of those working within the project to advocate for sustainable livestock issues.

This project has used advocacy to help ensure that livestock’s central contributions to sustainable development are not overlooked and are adequately funded. Effort has been made to prioritize advocacy in the right fora by showcasing the many contributions livestock make to societies across the globe.

Going forward, members of the project hope to establish productive virtual communication networks and to moderate a vibrant community of practice that will help scale up the project’s impacts.

The two-year GLAD project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock. Overall leadership of the project was provided by ILRI’s assistant director general, Shirley Tarawali, and by the project’s principal investigator, Peter Ballantyne. The wealth of scientific content generated by the project was spearheaded by ILRI’s Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods program under the guidance of its leader, Steve Staal. Many of the project’s advocacy events and products were developed in close partnership with the international agricultural, food and health consulting firm EmergingAg, based in Canada and led by Robynne Anderson, and the global development communications company Marchmont Communications, based in the UK and led by Michael Hoevel.

For more information, please visit the following:
WhyLivestockMatter website
ILRI news items about, or generated by, the project
Third-party news associated with the project
Community of practice on sustainable livestock advocacy

In much of Africa, milk is not only an important dietary component, but a vital livelihood activity. Dairying provides income to many people, up and down the dairy value chain. In Nairobi’s peri-urban resource-poor areas, informal milk trade dominates the market: most residents rely on it to source milk for consumption, and dairy traders rely on it to support their livelihoods.

FIPS VBDA Lillian Ochieng cleaning her cow’s udder in preparation for milking in Usaha village Siaya County, Kenya (Photo credit: FIPS/Raymond Jumah)

A recent study shows that women and men informal milk traders in peri-urban Nairobi experience different constraints in their business. Alessandra Galiè, a Senior Gender Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Emily Camille Myers, Research Analyst from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), presented key findings from this study in a webinar held on 17th December 2018. The presentation discusses the gendered differences in women and men milk traders’ participation along the dairy value chain…

For more, see here.

Some of the livestock sector’s numerous roles (credit: ILRI).

The World Economic Forum’s Shaping the Future initiative published a white paper prepared by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on livestock’s role in the developing world

The World Economic Forum (WEF) invited ILRI to prepare a white paper on the future of livestock. Published under the auspices of the WEF’s Shaping the Future of Food initiative, which focuses on how to develop inclusive, sustainable and nutritious food systems, ILRI’s paper addresses opportunities for the livestock sector to sustainably meet the growing demand for animal source foods in developing and emerging economies to 2030 and beyond.

The paper focuses on four critical issues related to livestock in the developing world: First, the continuing rapid growth of demand for animal-sourced foods, especially in Africa and Asia; second, the multiple roles that livestock play, not just as food but as ‘living animal assets,’ essential livelihoods and critical nutritional sources; third, the pros and cons for development of the four main pathways by which that growing demand is likely to be met; and finally, the many issues that stakeholders within and beyond the livestock sector need to address to ensure that all of the world’s people today and in the future are fed in ways that are sustainable, safe, equitable and healthy.

While the potential harms of raising livestock and consuming meat, milk, and eggs are frequently discussed in the Western media, their benefits for people in developing countries get less attention. This paper was written in part as a reminder that there are many opportunities for livestock to be part of a sustainable, broad-based and environmentally friendly agricultural sector. Its message is straightforward: ‘The good news is this: Partly because of the multiple roles livestock play in developing and emerging economies, there are “win-win-win” opportunities to harness the diversity of the developing world’s livestock production systems to meet rising demand, improve incomes and livelihoods, and alleviate threats to human and environmental health.’

A few highlights from the paper:

• Aggregate demand for livestock-derived foods is rising fast across Africa and Asia, driven largely by population growth in Africa and rising incomes in Asia, but remains low by western standards. For example, the average per capita consumption of meat in Africa is less than one-sixth that of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (other estimates place it as low as one-tenth).
• In the developing world, livestock are much more than just food: They are central to local economies, contribute significantly to agricultural GDP, provide critical protein and nutrients otherwise unavailable, and support viable livelihoods for nearly a billion people, allowing them to make better dietary and health choices.
• Livestock are raised in widely different ways around the world. This diversity can be a source of strength, enabling farmers to develop livestock/animal production, processing and marketing systems that are safer and more sustainable, responsible and efficient. For emerging and developing nations, where farms of less than 20 hectares supply most of the livestock-derived foods as well as the cereals consumed in these countries, four main options are available for increasing production: Intensification of existing systems; development of western-style, industrial farms; importation of more livestock-derived foods; and possibly in the longer-term future, use of alternate forms of protein, such as lab-based meat.
• As the access to and availability of milk, meat and eggs increases for poorer populations, policymakers will need to promote sensible, balanced consumption as well as messaging that incorporates dietary, environmental, public health and animal welfare dimensions. Governments will face a plethora of trade-offs in implementing policies that support a vibrant transformation of the livestock sector.

The paper concludes by exhorting the entrepreneurs, philanthropists and policymakers assembled at Davos to consider livestock not as a problem to be solved but rather as an essential part of the solution to our protein and other needs. The diversity of livestock systems and the multitude of enablers for transformation mean that there will not be a single silver bullet. But making use of that diversity along with the many ‘enablers for transformation’ creates opportunities to make rapid progress in sustainable and equitable development. Some of those opportunities are already coming into view—others are as yet unimagined. Sustained cooperation and consultations, guided by wise investments from donors, policymakers, the private sector—and not least, farmers themselves—will move the sector forward along multiple paths. These paths can and should lead us to the same end goal, the paper concludes: ‘Towards more nourishing, accessible, affordable, safe and sustainable food systems for all the world’s people.’

Download the full paper: Meat: the Future series–options for the livestock sector in developing and emerging economies to 2030 and beyond

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99006

Pipetting in ILRI’s bioscience laboratories (photo credit: ILRI/David White)

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a silent pandemic that is a growing threat to public health leading to approximately 700,000 deaths each year and this number could increase to nearly 10 million deaths by 2050. The latest World Bank AMR report ‘Pulling together to beat superbugs: knowledge and implementation gaps in addressing antimicrobial resistance’ looks at seven case studies across the world which illustrate the critical need for contextualization in the efforts to curb AMR.

According to the report, ‘countries can make AMR-related investments more efficient and cost-effective by improving both technical capacity and data quality as well as enhancing inter-agency coordination and building public awareness of the AMR challenge’. By using country-based case studies and identifying the key knowledge and implementation gaps, the report lays out an agenda for the research community to move AMR knowledge from the laboratory to the real world by focusing on improving the effectiveness of interventions through policies, programs and practices. It calls on the development community to focus on ‘AMR-smart’ solutions that go beyond technical efforts that solely focus on the misuse of antimicrobials.

The CGIAR AMR Hub, which is led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has been applying a holistic approach to support the efforts of low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs) who bear the greatest burden of the AMR challenge.

Of the 23 key knowledge and implementation gaps identified in the World Bank report, ‘Limited capacity to identify and measure potential co-benefits across a broad array of AMR-sensitive interventions in country-specific contexts’ stands out. While this is true, the CGIAR AMR Hub is already researching interventions that would reduce antimicrobial use in aquaculture systems in LIMCs.

The external group of experts who provided inputs to this landmark report included individuals working at the CGIAR AMR Hub. Evelyn Wesangula (Ministry of Health, Kenya), Dieter Schillinger (ILRI/CGIAR), Jeff Waage (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) contributed to the report. Philip Amoah (IWMI/CGIAR) and Hung Nguyen (ILRI/CGIAR) reviewed the case studies in the report.

Download the full English version report: World Bank. 2019. “Pulling together to beat superbugs: knowledge and implementation gaps in addressing antimicrobial resistance.” Washington, DC: World Bank. 

Review Jonathan Wadsworth presentation on fighting superbugs: https://www.slideshare.net/ILRI/amr-jonathan

The core business of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is to undertake livestock research for development. However, ILRI, along with other CGIAR centres and research institutions, is being held accountable by its funders for ensuring that research outputs are translated into outcomes and ultimately to impact at scale for end users including farmers and policymakers. 

To make scaling concepts and tools more accessible to ILRI researchers and their partners, ILRI’s Impact at Scale program (I@S) reviewed the landscape of scaling with the aim of summarizing relevant approaches and tools that livestock projects can benefit from, and providing those projects with a detailed process on how they can scale more effectively. The resulting ILRI framework provides an overview of the steps along with short summaries and assessments of nine tools related to scalability assessment.

The scaling tools, which were developed by research institutes, development agencies, non-governmental organizations and private companies include Scaling readiness, Scaling scan, Agricultural scalability assessment tool (ASAT), Operational framework for scaling up results, Nine steps for developing a scaling up strategy, Assessing scaling potential tool, Scalability assessment and planning toolkit, Scaling up: from vision to large-scale change and Scaling assessment map.   

Iddo Dror, leader of ILRI’s Impact at Scale program, said, ‘When we started looking at what is out there, we realized that there are a lot of useful tools and approaches around, so we deliberately avoided developing more tools.  Rather, we focused on “curating” a process that can be implemented by ILRI and its scaling partners, using existing tools that can help us better deliver on our mandate.’

Out of these tools, Scaling readiness, Scaling scan and the Agricultural scalability assessment tool (ASAT) have been identified as most suitable for the ILRI/CGIAR operational context. The tools focus on assessing agricultural innovations, are conceptually relatively developed with supporting documentation and approaches and have feasible workload and resource demands.

After reviewing the tools, I@S came up with a scaling framework for the ILRI projects and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock. The proposed scaling process takes into consideration that some ILRI projects have integrated scaling from their inception phase while others develop it later. The process also considers that as ILRI projects advance along the R4D ‘discovery-to-delivery’ pathway, the role played by partners increases in importance, and ILRI’s role transitions to a more facilitative one. Given that ILRI’s portfolio includes projects at various stages of the research cycle, the proposed process provides the choice to conduct either light or in-depth analysis for scaling, as well as a process to ensure that the required human and managerial support is met.

The process follows the steps outlined in the figure below. The approach is iterative, agile and focuses on practical steps and facilitating skills and approaches that allow projects to identify and adapt to changes quickly. It offers flexibility on the tools used to suit the specificities of projects. The proposed process hinges on the close involvement and expertise of ‘scaling champions’ and project teams across ILRI to ensure ownership and a shared understanding of scaling objectives. It also depends on the contributions of ‘scaling coordinators’ who help facilitate smooth implementation of scaling assessments, assist with data collection and analysis, tracking scaling trends, and can offer support to scaling activities in projects. The process is detailed in the document.

Iain Wright, deputy director general of research and development at ILRI, said, ‘Agricultural research for development is increasingly being held accountable to demonstrate that research goes beyond successful pilots and improves the lives of millions of households. ILRI has been ambitious about scaling its research outputs. The systematic review of existing scaling tools and processes is a further step in guiding and speeding up ILRI’s scaling efforts.’

Read the full report: Scaling better together: The International Livestock Research Institute’s framework for scaling

● COVID-19 is just one example of the rising trend of diseases—from Ebola to MERS to West Nile and Rift Valley fevers—caused by viruses that have jumped from animal hosts into the human population.
● A new assessment offers 10 recommendations and identifies One Health as the optimal way to prevent and respond to future pandemics.
● The rising trend in zoonotic diseases is driven by the degradation of our natural environment—through land degradation, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction, climate change and other stresses.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take lives and disrupt economies across the world, a new report warns that further outbreaks will emerge unless governments take active measures to prevent other zoonotic diseases from crossing into the human population, and sets out 10 recommendations to prevent future pandemics.

The report, ‘Preventing the next pandemic: zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission,’ is a joint effort by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

It identifies seven trends driving the increasing emergence of zoonotic diseases including increased demand for animal protein, a rise in intense and unsustainable farming, the increased use and exploitation of wildlife and the climate crisis. The report finds that Africa, which has experienced and responded to a number of zoonotic epidemics, including most recently to Ebola outbreaks, could be an important source of  solutions to quell future outbreaks.

‘The science is clear that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our ecosystems, then we can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases jumping from animals to humans in the years ahead,’ said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen. ‘Pandemics are devastating to our lives and our economies, and as we have seen over the past months, it is the poorest and the most vulnerable who suffer the most. To prevent future outbreaks, we must become much more deliberate about protecting our natural environment’.

A ‘zoonotic disease’ or ‘zoonosis’ is a disease that has passed into the human population from an animal source. COVID-19, which has already caused more than half a million deaths around the world, most likely originated in bats. But COVID-19 is only the latest in a growing number of diseases—including Ebola, MERS, West Nile fever and Rift Valley fever—whose spread from animal hosts into human populations has been intensified by anthropogenic pressures.

Every year, some two million people, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, die from neglected zoonotic diseases. The same outbreaks can cause severe illness, deaths and productivity losses among livestock populations in the developing world, a major problem that keeps hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers in severe poverty. In the last two decades alone, zoonotic diseases have caused economic losses of more than USD100 billion, not including the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to reach USD9 trillion over the next few years.

African countries have an opportunity to lead pandemic prevention efforts

Zoonotic diseases are on the rise everywhere on the planet, and African countries—a number of which have successfully managed deadly zoonotic outbreaks—have the potential to leverage this experience to tackle future outbreaks through approaches that incorporate human, animal and environmental health. The continent is home to a large portion of the world’s remaining intact rainforests and other wild lands. Africa is also home to the world’s fastest-growing human population, leading to an increase in encounters between livestock and wildlife and, in turn, the risk of zoonotic diseases.

‘The situation on the continent today is ripe for intensifying existing zoonotic diseases and facilitating the emergence and spread of new ones’, said ILRI director general Jimmy Smith. ‘But with their experiences with Ebola and other emerging diseases, African countries are demonstrating proactive ways to manage disease outbreaks. They are applying, for example, novel risk-based rather than rule-based approaches to disease control, which are best suited to resource-poor settings, and they are joining up human, animal and environment expertise in proactive One Health initiatives’.

The report’s authors identify the One Health approach—which unites public health, veterinary and environmental expertise—as the optimal method for preventing as well as responding to zoonotic disease outbreaks and pandemics.

Ten recommendations

The report identifies 10 practical steps that governments can take to prevent future zoonotic outbreaks:

• investing in interdisciplinary approaches, including One Health;
• expanding scientific enquiry into zoonotic diseases;
• improving cost-benefit analyses of interventions to include full-cost accounting of societal impacts of disease;
• raising awareness of zoonotic diseases;
• strengthening monitoring and regulation practices associated with zoonotic diseases, including food systems.
• incentivizing sustainable land management practices and developing alternatives for food security and livelihoods that do not rely on the destruction of habitats and biodiversity;
• improving biosecurity and control, identifying key drivers of emerging diseases in animal husbandry and encouraging proven management and zoonotic disease control measures;
• supporting the sustainable management of landscapes and seascapes that enhance sustainable coexistence of agriculture and wildlife;
• strengthening capacities among health stakeholders in all countries; and
• operationalizing the One Health approach in land-use and sustainable development planning, implementation and monitoring, among other fields.

The report launch comes on World Zoonoses Day, observed by research institutions and non-governmental entities on 6 July, which commemorates the work of French biologist Louis Pasteur. On 6 July 1885, Pasteur successfully administered the first vaccine against rabies, a zoonotic disease.

Learn more about ILRI’s new One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre for Africa here. Learn more about ILRI’s work on zoonotic diseases here. For further information about the report, see here; key messages are summarized here in several languages.