Meat & VegLivestock and vegetable researchers are natural, high-value,

partners in work for the well-being of the world’s poor

Jimmy Smith ILRI Director General

Presented at the World Vegetable Center, Taiwan, 18 November 2012

Meat & Veg: Natural, high-value, partners

One of the things that distinguishes Homo sapiens is that we’re omnivores.

Unusually, we’ve evolved toeat both meat and vegetables.

Indeed, 'meat and two veg’is the traditional English meal.

‘A kiss without a moustache’,say the Spanish,‘is like an egg without salt.’

‘A kiss without a moustache’,we’re saying,‘is like meat without veg.’

Livestock in developing countries/Asia70% of the world’s livestock (18.5 billion head) are in developing countries:• 15 billion poultry (70% in Asia)• 1.6 billion shoats (44% in Asia)• 1.2 billion bovines (49% in Asia)• 0.6 billion pigs (84% in Asia)

FAO

Livestock keepers in developing countries

Density of poor livestock keepers

One billion people earning <$2 a day depend on livestock:• 600 million in South Asia• 300 million in sub-Saharan Africa

0 or no data

Density of poor livestock keepers

ILRI, 2012

Livestock and livelihoods

Livestock production and marketing are essential for the livelihoods of almost 1 billion.

Two-thirds are women.

1.3 billion people employed in livestock value chains globally.

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Livestock and livelihoods

• 70% of the world’s rural poor rely on livestock for important parts of their livelihoods.

• Of the 600 million poor livestock keepers in the world, around two-thirds are rural women.

• Over 100 million landless people keep livestock.

• Up to 40% of benefits from livestock keeping come from non-market, intangible benefits, mostly insurance and financing.

• In the poorest countries, livestock manure comprises over 70% of soil fertility amendments.

Livestock for nutrition

• In developing countries, livestock contribute 6−36% of protein and 2−12% of calories.

• Livestock provide food for at least 830 million food-insecure people.

• Small amounts of animal-source foods have large benefits on child growth and cognition and on pregnancy outcomes.

• A small number of countries bear most of the burden of malnutrition (India, Ethiopia, Nigeria−36% burden).

ILRI Offices

Mali

Nigeria

Mozambique

Kenya

Ethiopia

India

Sri Lanka

China

Laos

Vietnam

Thailand

Nairobi: HeadquartersAddis Ababa: principal campus In 2012, offices opened in:Kampala, UgandaHarare, ZimbabweGaborone, Botswana

Office in Bamako, Malirelocated toOuagadougou, Burkina FasoDakar, Senegal

ILRI Resources

• Staff: 700.

• Budget $60 million.

• 30+ scientific disciplines.

• 100 scientists from 39 countries.

• 56% of internationally recruited

staff are from

22 developing countries.

• 34% of internationally

recruited staff are women.

• Large campuses in Kenya and Ethiopia.

• 70% of research in sub-Saharan Africa.

ILRI’s competencies – integrated sciences

Now Future opportunities

Gender and equity Policy, investment and trade

Resilience Animal health delivery

Value chains and innovation Payment for ecosystem services

Zoonotics and food safety Conservation of indigenous animal genetic resources

Feeds

Livestock and environment

ILRI’s competencies – biosciences

Now Future opportunities

Vaccines Genomics and gene delivery

Genomics Feed biosciences

Breeding Poultry genetics

BecA

Opportunities forresearch synergies

Livestock support vegetable farming,and vice versa

• Farm animals remain essential to small, mixed crop-and-livestock farming systems across the developing world.

• Livestock manure fertilizes crop soils on mixed farms,in developing countries supplying 23% of the nitrogen inputs required for vegetable and other crop production.

• The residues of vegetables (e.g., soy beans, fodder beet, sweet potato) provide feed for farm animals.

Livestock and vegetables enhance nutrition

• Livestock incomes enable poor households in poor countries to buy cheap grains and tubers for the bulk of their meals, as well as some highly nourishing vegetables.

 • Consumption of even very modest amounts of vegetables

and milk, meat and eggs helps nourish people subsisting largely on cheap grains and tubers, particularly very young children and women of child-bearing years.

• The point is to enable poor households to diversify the foods they consume and to incorporate modest amounts of more nourishing foods in cheap, starchy staple diets.

Smallholder livestock and vegetable productionoffers similar opportunities:

Nutritious foods for the malnourished. Market opportunities to meet high urban demand. Income opportunities for women and youth. Expands household incomes. Generates jobs. Makes use of organic urban waste and wastewater. Can be considered ‘organic’ and supplied to niche markets.

Livestock and vegetables suitan urbanizing, warming world

Opportunities forrefined integration

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Meat & Veg: Research partnerships

University of Kassel, Germany: 2007-10Urban Food: Nutrient efficient agriculture in West African CitiesAssessed nutrient flows in 3 cities and ruminant livestock practices for safer urban livestock and vegetable products.

CORAF & ILRI: 2009-13Integrated dairy horticulture systems in semi-arid West AfricaEstablishing integrated processes for identifying, testing, adapting,and scaling out dairy horticulture systems.

IWMI & ILRI: 2005-8Wastewater for forage & veg production in Hyderabad, IndiaIdentified contamination pathways and intervention points in

wastewater vegetable crop/fodder production.

ILRI & AVDRC in CGIAR Research Programs

• (1) ILRI leads the CGIAR Research Program onLivestock and Fish.

• (2) ILRI leads Agriculture-associated Diseasescomponent of the CGIAR Research Program onAgriculture for Improved Nutrition & Health

• ILRI participates in five otherCGIAR Research Programs:(3) Drylands(4) HumidtropicsAVDRC is a partner with ILRI in this CRP(5) Policies, Institutions & Markets(6) Water, Land & Ecosystems(7) Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Research is needed on:

Ways to manage the perishable nature of these products. Innovative technological and institutional solutions for food safety

and public health problems that suit developing countries. Processes, regulations and institutional arrangements regarding use of

banned or inappropriate pesticides, polluted water orwastewater for irrigation, and untreated sewage sludge for fertilizer.

Innovative mechanisms that will ensure accessby the poor to these growing markets.

Ways to include small-scale producers in markets demandingincreasingly stringent food quality, safety and uniformity standards.

Opportunities forlivestock & vegetable research

Role of animals in provision ofmanure for vegetable production Safe practices Appropriate amounts Appropriate storage Regulatory environment

Role of dual-purpose food-feed crops Producing vegetables and residues for animal feed Cowpea and other pulses

Use of vegetable waste for livestock feed From household waste to waste from large scale processing. Could be pursued in value chain research in CRP 3.7 or CRP 1.2.

Opportunities forrefining integrated production systems

Meat & Veg: Natural, high-value,partners for a better world

Steven Mwamvana.42 years old.• Pesticide sprayer.• Potato, bean, chicken

and guinea fowl farmer.• Vegetable grower.• Lead livestock farmer.Khulungira Village,central Malawi.

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