Economic and Policy Issues in Livestock Service Delivery to the Poor

Livestock directly aid the lives and livelihoods of the world's most vulnerable and marginalized citizens. Livestock development, however, has had a very mixed record with regard to poverty alleviation. Part of the problem is that while the rhetoric of 'poverty-focused' projects and programmes often dominates, livestock, as a tool for poverty alleviation, is poorly understood. First, very little work has been done to further explicate poor livestock keepers as a distinct and important subset of the poor. Second, both the internal forces impacting households and the wider macroeconomic events predicted to affect the livestock sector, are rarely accounted for by projects and programmes. Hence, the following paper explores some of the issues surrounding pro-poor livestock development. The cycle of poverty for livestock keepers is described and a new approach to livestock development offered. Equally, a definition of poor livestock keepers is detailed and the forces predicted to impact livestock production in the coming decades discussed.

2010

The global distribution of poor livestock keepers tailors closely the regional distribution of poverty densities in the developing world. Reducing poverty among this group requires livestock sector growth in these regions. As per capita incomes expand, household expenditures on meat and milk grow faster than those on grains and cereals. Strong growth in demand for meat and milk presents a

2012

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Tropical Animal Health and Production, 2004

2017

Poverty is now in the heart of the discourse of development. Livestock is important in supporting the livelihoods of poor farmers, consumers, traders and labourers throughout the developing world. The greatest impact of livestock in sustainable development designed to help the poor is enhancement of livestock-production systems. We will discuss the negative and positive effects of poor livestock in east part of Turkey. Using data from Turkish Statistical Institution to analyse the impact "decreasing livestock" on poverty. We are discussing the efforts to reduce animal poverty and to prioritize the livestock diseases related to the poor. An empirical evidence from Latin America will show growth in livestock production has played important role. In these regions, improvements in animal health, new productivity gains and increased purchasing power should result in further increases in production. We will show the benefits of a more rigorous evaluation before new initiatives to measure the importance of the livestock to the poor are audited. We conclude with a consideration of how we can better grasp and use animal husbandry and animal health. Then how can we understand relationship between livestock and poverty and help control diseases. And how much is the impact of the livestock disease on poverty stemming from the disease control policy itself?

World Development, 2011

The difficulty of valuation of livestock outputs has strong political and economic implications for farmers because policies require metrics. Based on a case study in Mali, this paper gives different estimations of the contribution of livestock to reducing poverty using different methods, from the most common measure-based approaches, that is, a financial approach, to an asset-based approach. The results show that the asset-based approach reflects the roles of livestock in terms of security (money cash) and vulnerability. But only a dynamic approach to indicators can account for the complex role of livestock in reducing poverty.

Indian Journal of Animal Sciences, 2012

Livestock comprise an important source of income for the poor. The sector contributes about one-fourth to the agricultural gross domestic product and has been growing faster than the agricultural sector as a whole. Livestock resources are more equally distributed than land, and are increasingly becoming concentrated among small landholders. These trends imply that growth in livestock sector has a larger potential for poverty reduction. The fast-growing demand for animal food products is an opportunity to harness this pro-poor potential. The productivity of livestock, however, is low, and growth therein has decelerated in recent years. Reversing this would require a technological breakthrough in genetic enhancement, animal health, and feed and nutrition and strengthening of livestock infrastructure, institutions and service delivery system.

Although the poor constitute a majority in developing countries, their circumstances vary in significant ways between and within their economies. To improve their livelihoods, a better understanding of this heterogeneity is essential. This report examines poverty from the perspective of livestock dependence, an essential characteristic of rural and peri-urban households in developing countries.