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HLPE Report on Sustainable Agriculture Development for Food Security and Nutrition: What Roles for Livestock?
Agricultural development plays a major role in improving FSN: by increasing the quantity and diversity of food; as a driver of economic transformation; and, because agriculture is the main source of income for a majority of the people who live in the most extreme poverty. Earning sufficient income from agriculture is key for the 1.3 billion people who work in the sector, and directly determines their food security. Extensive experience across many countries over many years shows that both agricultural development and economy-wide growth are needed to improve FSN, and that the former can reinforce the latter.
Given the breadth of the topic, and as reflected in its title, this report focuses on the livestock sector because it is a powerful engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide, and a uniquely powerful entry point for understanding the issues around sustainable agricultural development as a whole.
Livestock production is central to food systems’ development and is a particularly dynamic and complex agricultural subsector, with implications for animal-feed demand, for market concentration in agricultural supply chains, for the intensification of production at the farm level, for farm income, land use, and for nutrition and health. Livestock has often set the speed of change in agriculture in recent decades.
Livestock is strongly linked to the feed crop sector, generates co-products including manure and draught power, and in many countries acts as a store of wealth and a safety net. It is integral to the traditional practices, values and landscapes of many communities across the world. Livestock has significant effects on the environment, both positive and negative, particularly when indirect land-use changes and feed crop production effects are taken into account.