February 2008, id21 insights, Issue #72

The growing demand for livestock

Will policy and institutional changes benefit poor people?
As global demand for meat and milk increases, many policies focus on promoting international trade in livestock and livestock products. How does this affect the community-based livestock services that poor people use, and who will benefit from the expanding global markets?

Livestock keepers in Turkana, Kenya. The livelihoods-based approach of Oxfam GB in the region means viewing drought as an expected event and planning for drought with contingencies in long-term development programmes. Michael Wadleigh. See Supporting livestock-centred livelihoods.

Other articles in this issue:

Enhancing women's access and ownership of livestock

In many developing countries, women provide much of the labour for livestock tasks. Yet their role in livestock production has been undervalued by policymakers and research on this issue widely ignored.

Supporting livestock-centred livelihoods

What can NGOs do?

Veterinary medicine

The slow road to community and private sector participation

Veterinary medicine in developing countries has changed over the last 25 years. Fiscal crisis and structural adjustment in the 1980s meant that highly subsidised, state-led animal health services could not survive.

Do higher meat and milk prices adversely affect poor people?

The prices of meats, milk and cereals are expected to increase in the coming decades, dramatically reversing past trends. This is driven by increasing demands for food. Although higher prices can benefit agricultural producers, a larger number of poor consumers will have reduced access to food.

Meat and milk

Developing countries and the global livestock trade

The global demand for meat and milk is growing, as populations increase and incomes rise. Retailers and fast food outlets are benefiting but is this growth reducing poverty in developing countries?

Commercial destocking

A livelihood-based drought response in southern Ethiopia

Is pastoralism a viable livelihood option?

Debates about the future of pastoralism are re-emerging in the Greater Horn of Africa. Are there too many people and too few livestock? Should pastoralists pursue alternative market-based livelihoods, or can better policies help to maintain pastoral systems?

Useful web links

PDF version

What do you think?

Please write and tell us your views about the issues raised in id21 insights. And what topics would you like to read about? Email insights@ids.ac.uk with your ideas.

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Copyright remains with the original authors but (unless stated otherwise) any article may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided both source (id21, insights) and authors are properly acknowledged and informed. Copyright © 2006 id21. All rights reserved.