Opportunities for a sustainable and

competitive livestock sector in Africa

Jimmy Smith, ILRI Director General

African Livestock Conference and Exhibi on (ALiCE), Nairobi, 26−28 June 2013

• The global livestock sector is growing rapidly and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

• Major opportunities exist forAfrica’s livestock sector.

• Africa recognizes the central importanceof agriculture for development − butlivestock are still often under-represented –we must change that.

• Research solutions are needed totransform Africa’s livestock sector.

• New investments and institutional reforms arealso needed to take these successes to scale.

• Acting now, together and coherently,we can ensure that Africa’s livestocksector is competitive and sustainable.

Key messages

The global livestock sector is growing rapidly -- 40% of

agriculture GDP but receives very little public investment

4 out of 5 of the highest value

global commodities are livestock

Population growthOver 9 billion people

to feed by 2050

Income growth7 of the 10 fastest-growing

economies in the world

over the next five years are in Africa.

UrbanizationAfrica’s current population of 1.1 billion

is expected to double,

to 2.3 billion, by 2050,

and over half will live in urban areas.

Drivers of global livestock sector trends

Rosegrant et al. 2009

The 4 billion people who live

on less than US$10 a day

(primarily in developing

countries) represent a food

market of about $2.9 trillion

per year. (Hammond et al. 2007)

• 17 billion domestic animals

• Asset value $1.4 trillion

• Employs 1.3 billion people

Economic opportunities in the livestock sector

Provides food and nutritional securityBUT overconsumption can cause obesity

Powers economic developmentBUT equitable development can be a challenge

Improves human healthBUT animal-human/emerging diseases

and unsafe foods need to be addressed

Enhances the environmentBUT pollution, land/water degradation,

GHG emissions and biodiversity losses

must be greatly reduced

Opportunities and challenges

in the livestock sector

ILRI Spearheading a

New Way Forward

Major opportunities for Africa’s livestock sector

3 out of 6 of the highest value

African commodities are livestock

Source: FAOSTAT, 2013

FAO, 2012

Annual % growth in consumption of livestock

products between 1995 and 2005

11

FAO, 2012Based on anticipated change in absolute tonnes of product comparing 2000 and 2030

Percentage growth in demand

for livestock products: 2000−2030

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

1961 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Qu

an

tity

(T

on

ne

s)

Africa total meat trade

Imports

Exports

Calculated from FAO data (FAOSTAT, 2013)

• Production has notkeep pace with consumption growth

• Thus, Africa expected to continue being a net importer of animal-sourced foods –except we do more

• Global trade share: 3%

• Intra-regional trade (2009): 10%

Africa is a net importer of animal-source foods

• Developing, not developed, countries (Africa significant)

• Critical intervention point is smallholder producers

• Transforming the sector to meet demand

in environmentally sustainable and healthy ways:

� take to scale research based successes

> facilitate access to markets

> technology (feeds, breeds, health)

> enabling policies, and new institutional and business

models

Future livestock sector

markets and opportunities

Smallholders dominate the livestock sector

--attaining the twin goals--

• Small and medium enterprises dominate

(70% of current production) can be made

competitive with large ones –some are

already

• Attention to this sector (as well) will

contribute, not only to attaining food

and nutrition security but to reducing

rural poverty as well --twin goals

ILRI Spearheading a

New Way Forward

Africa recognizes the central importance of agriculture − but livestock are still often under-

represented

Africa’s livestock sector is complex

Inherent complexities

of the livestock sector

• Intersects with all other smallholder

agricultural production systems

• Impinges on key environmental

and human health issues

• Forces hard trade-offs, such as

food, feed or biofuels?

Africa’s agricultural commitments: Comprehensive

Africa Agriculture Development Programme

CAADP seeks to:

•Employ agriculture-led growth to achieve

MDG1 of halving poverty and hunger by 2015

•Pursue 6% average annual sector growth at national level

•Allocate 10% of national budgets to the agriculture sector

•Exploit regional complementarities

and cooperation to boost growth

•Support evidence-based policymaking

•Include farmers, agribusiness, civil society

in partnerships and alliances

CAADP and the livestock sector

• Role of the livestock sector (including the dairy sector)

not fully appreciated in original 4 CAADP pillars but later

articulated in CAADP Companion Document.

• Contribution of livestock sector generally downplayed

partly due to lack of empirical evidence.

• Emerging empirical evidence ==> potential contribution

of livestock sector is much larger than currently believed.

• Livestock sector has big potential to contribute to economic

growth, poverty reduction and food security.

New investments and reforms are neededto take these successes to scale

Both investments and reforms

needed in Africa’s livestock sector

• Investments as well as policy and institutional reforms

that target African livestock markets are needed.

• These can ensure that the business opportunities

generated by the growing demand for animal-sourced foods

translate into widespread benefits for the population.

• Research, development, investment, businesses and farmers

themselves need to be better aligned and connected.

• To meet the growing demand with sustainable

African production systems rather than imports,

we’re going to have to do things differently.

Joint public-private testing of innovations:

• Innovative franchise models are providing smallholders

with access to agro-vets (‘Sidai’ in Kenya)

• New low-cost, pen-side diagnostic tools

are providing diagnostics for smallholder settings

• New mobile phone systems are helping farmers monitor

the health and reproduction of their animals (‘iCow’ in Kenya)

• Index based livestock insurance is reducing risk for pastoralists

using banking, insurance and IT from private sector innovation

• East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is connecting

farmers to service providers and new business opportunities

through a hub model

Examples of private-public synergies

Acting now, together and coherently,we can ensure that Africa’s livestock sector

is competitive and sustainable

What must we do to position the livestock

sector on Africa –some thoughts

• More public sector attention to create an

appropriate enabling environment –for large

and small producers

• Pay attention to local markets and the

promotion of continental trade -The value of

the market for livestock products in Africa:

2006/7 US$33b by 2050 US$107b

• Shift from a hazard to a risk based approach to

regulating food safety, and market access and

trade policies

• To promote access to markets –link rural

infrastructure development to the needs of the

agriculture sector

• Avoid reckless attempts at ‘leap frogging’

• Strengthen research and delivery services –

market access promotes a technology demand

pull

• The global livestock sector is growing rapidly and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

• Major opportunities exist forAfrica’s livestock sector.

• Africa recognizes the central importanceof agriculture for development − butlivestock are still often under-represented –we must change that.

• Research solutions are needed totransform Africa’s livestock sector.

• New investments and institutional reforms arealso needed to take these successes to scale.

• Acting now, together and coherently,we can ensure that Africa’s livestocksector is competitive and sustainable.

Key messages

Thank you

The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.

better lives through livestock

ilri.org