Ed Rege & Karen Marshall achieving more with available technologies Animal breeding for poverty impact:

Ed Rege & Karen Marshall

achieving more with available technologies

Animal breeding for poverty impact:

Context - demographics

One billion people involved in animal farming

Domestic animals supply 30% of total human requirements for food and agriculture

70% (630 m) rural poor depend on livestock for livelihoods

Rapidly growing livestock markets create income-generating opportunities

Context – opportunities & challenges

Opportunities

Livestock revolution:• Increased demand• Growing livestock markets• Expanding post-production value addition• Increased regional trade opportunities

Creative use of existing & emerging technology • e.g. AI, sexed semen, mobile telephony

Biofuel impacts: ‘Will ‘foraging livestock’ be more competitive?

Context – opportunities & challenges

Challenges

Rapid changes in production systems, markets, policy, other institutions

Supermarket revolution

• Creates longer value chain, and higher food quality standards (also employment opportunity!)

Climate change: demand for adapted genetics

New institutions and institutional arrangements are required (& emerging!)

• NGOs, CBOs, private service providers e.g. agrovets), PPPs, etc

Both public & private sector action is required for animal breeding to impact on poverty

‘Breeding’ as used in the paper

All actions intended to improve, produce, deliver and sustain genotypes, appropriate for the objectives of the target livestock keeper/producer

Focus of this paper - 1

Crop-livestock (& cut-and-carry) systems where genetic interventions can make a difference

Pastoral & semi-pastoral systems in which adaptation is critical

Focus of this paper - 2

Crop-livestock (& cut-and-carry) systems• Medium to high, reliable, rainfall

• Individual/family enterprises

• Limited land

• Medium to high productivity breeds

Focus• Productivity improvements

• Appropriate genotypes and sustainable replacement strategies

• Reliable services provision – e.g. AI, vet, credit

Focus of this paper - 3

Pastoral & semi-pastoral systems• Large herds/flocks

• Dictates of climate

• Mobility

• Indigenous breeds

• Strong community values

Focus• Restocking strategies (‘genetic maintenance’)

• Breeding strategies emphasizing adaptive attributes

• Sire exchange or sharing strategies – using community structures

Two short- to medium-term high potential impact areas (in all

systems)

Identification and facilitating evaluation/testing of proven genotypes from elsewhere

Facilitating sustainable availability of ‘high demand genotypes’ (e.g. F1, ¾, 5/8 dairy heifers, crossbred gilts)

6 inconvenient facts 2 opportunities for action ( high impact areas)

8 main messages of the paper

1 Within-breed selection will NOT meet short- to medium-term needs for

poverty impact

Slow progress versus rapid system changes

• small herds, high mortalities, low fertility, long L etc.

• lack of performance recording

• lack of institutional frameworks & infrastructure

Multiple trait objectives: traits often have low h2

• due to trait complexity (e.g. disease resistance, other adaptive attributes)

• also high environmental noise (VE)

2 New genomics approaches, such as marker-based selection, will have limited impact on

smallholders

Marker-assisted selection• Multiple QTLs with small effects

• QTLs in experiments not applicable in field situations

• Lack of working breed improvement frameworks

• In dairy: only low to moderate improvements reported – without economic benefits (e.g. Spelman et al., 2007)

Marker-assisted introgression, more promising but• Requires significant time, resources & delivery infrastructure

Other breed-improvement alternatives not fully exploited, and may have higher probability of success

3 Community-based approaches are over-sold

Top down ‘cooperatives’ are viewed with suspicion

‘Pastoral model’ of collective animal management has a solid social basis & works well – is an opportunity!

Community based models for breeding are not well demonstrated – major institutional issues remain unresolved

Privately run nucleus as sources of breeding material – certified seed model? – need serious consideration

‘Sire camps’ or ‘sire rotations’ or private AI overseen by self-created and regulated ‘groups’ hold promise

4 Conservation approaches can propagate poverty

Keeping adapted, but low producing breeds, in changing systems is unattainable

Indigenous breeds in the hands of

farmers should be facilitated to evolve at a pace commensurate with system changes

Farmers ready to exit livestock keeping should be facilitated to do so

Farmers and the private sector consider breeds/genotypes as a means of production – a technology• focus should be on making breeds ‘work for them’

Breeds as a natural resource for future generations (i.e. conservation) should be a public sector responsibility

In situ conservation will only happen if:• breeds are supported by the market• farmers are compensated (by public sector) for keeping non-profitable

breeds

Ex situ action is urgently needed for breeds at risk• public sector responsibility?• regional approach?

4 Conservation approaches can propagate poverty

5 Absence of perfect data/tools is NOT the major constraint: inaction

IS!

You can proceed by e.g.

• Using available estimates of genetic parameters

• Using qualitative measures / subjective scoring/ranking

• Private sector (nucleus) breeding (akin to commercial seed model)

• Breeding objectives based on farmer preferences, choice experiments, etc

• Application of independent culling levels

Start with manageable program and move towards more optimal situation as capacity / data builds

6 Pro-poor animal improvement is NOT necessarily about

breeding

It should comprise:• Understanding system changes and implications

• Providing knowledge to enable poor farmers to adapt to these changes

• Providing access to relevant market information

• Creating (policy) environments that enable the poor to participate along the livestock value chain

• Facilitating/developing institutional arrangements (including private sector) that empower farmers to make and implement decisions

Set the stage for genetic improvement (including introduction of alternative genetics)

7 New genetics, introduced or created, can be a pathway out of

subsistence

Introduced genetics

• N’Dama in central Africa

• Sahiwal in Kenya;

• Buffaloes in humid areas of LAC

Created genetics

• Dorper sheep

• Jamaica Hope

• Cuban Siboney

• Crossbred dairy cattle in highland Kenya (a fading opportunity?)

Animal germplasm has been successfully imported from Asia & Africa to LAC: similar approaches could work in Africa

Opportunities: • N’Dama in tsetse infested areas

of eastern Africa

• Kenana and Butana for milk in other parts of Africa

• Brazilian ‘dairy’ zebu breeds (e.g. Gir, Guzera) into Africa and Asia

• Wider use of the Boran in Africa?

7 New genetics, introduced or created, can be a pathway out of

subsistence

Boran cattle

Requirements:

• (On-farm) characterization to identify the most appropriate genotype

• Use of technologies to assist introduction & on-going evaluation

• Sustainable sources of breeding material – private sector role

• Appropriate agreements, consistent with international conventions and other instruments

7 New genetics, introduced or created, can be a pathway

out of subsistence

8 Available reproductive technologies offer promise

Reproductive technologies can be used now, and support new technologies when available

AI services can provide appropriate breeding material to farmers – currently not fully exploited

Estrus synchronization to scale up operations

High demand for breeding females can be met through use of AI, sexed semen, IVET, via private sector CSM• dairy cattle in eastern Africa (e.g. Ethiopia, Kenya)• pigs in south-east Asia (e.g. Vietnam)

Concluding comments

Use old science in new ways and places

Use new science to address old problems

• e.g. understanding co-evolution of livestock with environments

Match interventions to production system: understand systems

Researcher’s should act as catalysts and facilitators providing options to farmers to make decisions based on scientific evidence

Need for breeders to think out of the box!

Definitions

Animal breeding: all actions intended to improve, produce, deliver and sustain genotypes, appropriate for the objectives of the target livestock keeper

Certified seed model: Akin to crop agriculture – breeding material (‘seed’) sourced from commercial seed company every generation