According to a new study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), livestock production systems provide one-third of the world’s total protein supply – most of it from mixed crop-livestock and poultry production systems – and are undergoing profound changes.
Feedlots and intensive production systems have important economic foundations, while the bulk of livestock’s role in food security is based on national and local marketing, with only 15 percent of meat, 12 percent of milk and dairy products and just three percent of eggs traded across international borders.
At the same time, the livestock sector is experiencing a dynamic transformation process that is expected to last for the next decades, with feed-food competition for land – within a context of stabilizing arable cropland expansion and deforestation – driving the trend towards better use of agroindustrial by-products and other less conventional feed sources, as well grasslands and marginal lands, to increase terrestrial animal food source (TASF) supply.
The report, Contribution of the livestock sector to food security and sustainable agrifood systems – Benefits, constraints, synergies and trade offs is the third of a series prepared in response to a request from FAO Members for a comprehensive, science-based global assessment of the livestock sector’s contribution to food security, sustainable agrifood systems, nutrition and healthy diets, along with identification of key knowledge gaps.
This latest document assesses the available evidence from published scientific literature, as well as relevant policies and legal frameworks, focusing on livestock production system typologies. It considers the benefits, constraints, synergies and trade-offs they face, and contextualizes their social, economic and environmental sustainability while examining their resilience and their contributions to the bioeconomy.
“The many breeds and species of livestock on our planet can thrive in a wide range of environments, particularly in areas less suited or unsuitable for crop production, and contribute to a wide variety of healthy diets,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu wrote in the foreword.
“However, to optimize this contribution to human and planet health, the livestock sector must address a range of challenges,” he added, pointing to deforestation, land and water use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, food-feed competition, herd management, productivity gaps, equitable social outcomes, animal health and welfare, antimicrobial resistance, and the risk of zoonotic and foodborne diseases.
TASF production has increased more than fivefold since 1961, and with awareness of the contribution of TASF for food security and nutrition targets on the rise, investment in the livestock sector has increased since 2000, albeit from a low base, the report noted.
Public investment priorities include animal disease control, livestock husbandry, animal nutrition, genetic improvements and research infrastructure, while private investment focuses on enhancing farm-level productivity, particularly in dairy systems, and on improving infrastructure. Current trends suggest a greater future emphasis on enhancing livestock value chains and market access.
Key patterns
Mixed crop-livestock production systems contribute to all three dimensions of sustainability, as well as to resilience and the bioeconomy, while high-external-input-dependent production systems receive more support due to their higher economic contribution. Grassland-based systems contribute to environmental and social sustainability, as well as to resilience and the bioeconomy, but contribute comparatively less to economic stability than do other livestock production systems.
Mixed crop-livestock systems and poultry production systems each account for about 30 percent of the global protein supply from livestock. Grazing systems contribute 12 percent, pig production systems 19 percent, and feedlots just 3 percent.
Ruminants provide 26 percent of the global annual meat production while monogastrics, such as chicken, provide 74 percent. Cattle provide 81 percent of global milk production.
TASF accounts for an average of 33 percent of protein supply worldwide, ranging from more than 50 percent in Northern America and South America, most of Europe, and Australia and New Zealand, to less than 18 percent in Africa.
Increasing demand for TASF is supporting the intensification of mixed crop-livestock systems and driving a shift towards monogastric livestock production systems due to their economic efficiency and lower land use, as well as the decreasing availability of the labour force in rural areas.
The livestock sector contributes significantly to both formal and informal economies, accounting for 40 percent of global agricultural GDP- equivalent to an estimated $1.8 trillion.
Loss of TASF during the production, handling, storage and processing phases is low in high-income countries, while it is high in low-and middle-income countries, and particularly relevant in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly due to high animal mortality caused by diseases.
Livestock production systems contribute 12 percent of anthropogenic GHG emissions, with cattle contributing the largest share and enteric methane representing an important source. Low-external-input-dependent livestock production systems with low stocking rates emit less GHG per unit of surface area, while high-external-input-dependent livestock production systems generally have lower GHG emission intensities per kilogram of production or crude protein.
Livestock can play a key role in the bioeconomy by using both non-human-edible resources as feed and contributing products that can be transformed into organic fertilizer, bioenergy and biomaterials.
