Importance of Livestock in agricultural, rural economies

M Moba Maring *

pigs at a piggery :: Pix - TSE

Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food fibber and labour. And it may be defined narrowly or broadly, on a broader view, livestock refers to any breed or population of animals kept by humans for useful, commercial purpose.

This can mean domestic animal, semi-domestic animals, or captive wild animal. Semi-domestic animals refer to animals which are only lightly domesticated or of disputed status. These populations may also be in the process of domestication. Some people may use the term livestock to refer to only domestic animals or even to only red meat animals.

Livestock play a vital role in the agricultural and rural economies of the developing world. Not only do they produce food directly, they also provide key produce food directly, they also provide key inputs to crop agriculture. Most farms in the developing world are too small to justify owning or using a tractor, and the alternatives are animal power or human labour.

For many small holder farmers, livestock are the only ready source of cash to buy inputs for crop production – seed, fertilizers and pesticides. Livestock income also goes towards buying things the farmers cannot make for themselves.

Income from cropping is highly seasonal. In contrast, small stock with their high rates of reproduction and growth can provide a regular source of income from sales. So can milk and milk products like butter and cheese.

Larger animals such as cattle are a capital reserve, built up in good times to be used when crops are poor or when the family is facing large expenses such as the cost of a wedding or a hospital bill. Animals are a crucial link in nutrient cycles, returning nutrients to the soil in forms that plants can readily use. They can bring nutrients from pasture and rangeland and concentrate them on crop land through their manure and urine.

The animal manure and urine that people in the developed world see as pollutants are vital fertilizers in the developing world. Few smallholders can afford enough mineral fertilizers. Animals give farmers a reason to plant legumes as pastures and cover crops that protect the soil and restore its structure and fertility.

Intensive animal production in the developed world uses resources that could serve direct human uses – grain that could be eaten by people, land that could produce food crops, and electricity that could illuminate and heat peoples’ homes. But in the developing world livestock add value t o resources that would otherwise go to waste.

Marginal land that cannot – and indeed should not – be ploughed; straw, stovers, groundnut, haulm, household wastes, all go to feeding livestock in smallholder systems. Livestock have an image problem in the developed world. They are blamed for everything from global warming to increasing heart disease.

Livestock are seen as wasteful, growing fat on grain that people could eat and polluting the environment with their faeces and urine and the gases they give off. But these charges are not true of livestock in the developing world. Livestock maximize the benefits to smallholders while minimizing any harm livestock can inflict on the environment. Well managed, the benefits to smallholder of keeping livestock are overwhelming.