Livestock Play A Vital Role In The Agricultural

Livestock have an image problem in the developed world. They are blamed for everything from global warming to increasing heart disease. Britain’s `mad cow disease’ – or bovine spongiform encephalopathy – hasn’t helped. 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.

True, ruminants produce methane gas, one of the `greenhouse gases’ – but methane from ruminants accounts for only some 2.5 percent of the total greenhouse gases. Pastures grown to feed livestock take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, tying it up in plant material above and below the ground, just as forests do.

True, eating too many animal products may increase the risk of heart disease – but this is a problem of the developed world, not the developing world. People in developing countries generally eat much less meat than those in the developed world, and the meat they eat is less fatty. Indeed, recent studies from Kenya, Egypt and Mexico show that children who do not get enough meat and milk in their diets may grow up physically and mentally compromised.

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 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 labor.

For many smallholder farmers, livestock are the only ready source of cash to buy inputs for crop production – seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Livestock income also goes towards buying things the farmers cannot make for themselves. And that includes paying for school fees, medicine and taxes. 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.