Opportunities for a sustainable and competitive livestock sector in Africa

Opportunities for a sustainable and competitive livestock sector in Africa

Jimmy Smith, ILRI Director General

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

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

• Major opportunities exist forAfrica’s livestock sector

• Africa recognizes the central importanceof agriculture for development − butlivestock are still often under-representedWe 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

Rapidly growing global livestock sector − 40% of agriculture GDP − receives little public investment

4 out of 5 of the highest valueglobal commodities are livestock

Population growthOver 9 billion people

to feed by 2050

Income growth7 of the 10 fastest-growing

economies in the worldover the next five years are in Africa

Urban growthAfrica’s current population of

1.1 billion is expected to double,to 2.3 billion, by 2050;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 security BUT 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 lossesmust be greatly reduced

Opportunities and challengesin the livestock sector

ILRI Spearheading a New Way Forward

Major opportunities for Africa’s livestock sector

3 out of 6 of the highest valueAfrican commodities are livestock

Source: FAOSTAT, 2013

FAO, 2012

Per cent growth in consumption of livestock products between 1995 and 2005

11FAO, 2012Based on anticipated change in absolute tonnes of product comparing 2000 and 2030

Percentage growth in demandfor livestock products: 2000−2030

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 demandin environmentally sustainable and healthy ways will require:

Taking to scale research-based successes in −

access to markets technologies (feeds, breeds, health)policies and new institutional and business models

Future livestock sectormarkets and opportunities

Smallholders dominate the livestock sector:Are means to achieving twin goals

• Small and medium enterprises dominate the livestock sector(70% of current production)

• Small and medium livestock enterprises can be made competitive with large ones – some already are competitive

• Attention to the smallholder livestock sector contributes not only to attaining food and nutrition security but also to reducing rural poverty, achieving twin goals

ILRI Spearheading a New Way Forward

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

Africa’s livestock sector is complex

Inherent complexitiesof the livestock sector

•Intersects with all other smallholderagricultural production systems

•Impinges on key environmentaland human health issues

•Forces hard trade-offs, such asfood, feed or biofuels?

Africa’s agricultural commitments:Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme

CAADP seeks to:

•Employ agriculture-led growth to achieveMDG1 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 complementaritiesand cooperation to boost growth

•Support evidence-based policymaking

•Include farmers, agribusiness, civil societyin 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 downplayedpartly due to lack of empirical evidence

• Emerging empirical evidence ==> potential contributionof livestock sector is much larger than currently believed

• Livestock sector has big potential to contribute toeconomic growth, poverty reduction and food security

New investments and reformsare needed to take successes to scale

Both investments and reformsare needed in Africa’s livestock sector

• Investments as well as policy and institutional reformsthat target African livestock markets are needed

• These can ensure that the business opportunitiesgenerated by the growing demand for animal-sourced foodstranslate 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 sustainableAfrican 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 smallholderswith access to agro-vets (‘Sidai’ in Kenya)

• New low-cost, pen-side diagnostic toolsare providing diagnostics for smallholder settings

• New mobile phone systems are helping farmers monitorthe health and reproduction of their animals (‘iCow’ in Kenya)

• Index-based livestock insurance is reducing risks for pastoralistsusing banking, insurance and IT from private-sector innovation

• East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is connectingfarmers to service providers and new business opportunitiesthrough 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

How can we better position the livestock sector in Africa? Some thoughts

• Focus public-sector attention on enabling environments for large and small producers

• Support local markets and promote continental trade: The value of the market for livestock products in Africa was US$33 billion in 2006/7 and will be $107 billion by 2050

• Shift from hazard- to risk-based approachesto food safety, market access & trade policies

• Link rural infrastructure developmentto the needs of the agriculture sector

• Avoid reckless attempts at ‘leap frogging’

• Strengthen research and delivery services –market access promotes a technology demand

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

• Major opportunities exist forAfrica’s livestock sector

• Africa recognizes the central importanceof agriculture for development − butlivestock are still often under-representedWe 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

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