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Livestock revolution: Exploiting the potential of Kenya's Arid and Semi Arid lands, November 2008
1. Livestock revolution: exploiting the potential
of Kenya’s ASALs
Carlos Seré
Director General, ILRI
2nd Kenyan National Agricultural Sector Conference November 9-12, 2008
2. Key messages
1. ASAL development can be improved significantly
with existing knowledge and experience
2. ASAL development is mainly an investment and
management challenge
3. Rapidly evolving context offers many new
opportunities
e.g ICTs, finance, insurance, early warning
systems, trade in ecosystem services
3. Presentation Overview
1. Context
2. The Livestock Revolution
3. ASAL development challenges
4. Interventions: What not to do
5. Interventions: What to do
6. Managing the ASALs
7. Conclusions
5. Importance of the ASALs in East
Africa
Land area = 1.5m sq km
Population = 15 million people
Cattle (TLUs) = 13 million
Sheep (TLUs) = 2 milion
Goats (TLUs) = 2 million
7. Dynamic livestock sector
Livestock fastest growing part of
the agricultural sector, largely driven
by the Livestock Revolution in
emerging economies.
Need to double livestock
production in developing world
by 2020 to meet rising demand
for livestock products.
Doubling livestock production puts
pressure on natural resources:
water, land, biodiversity.
8. Livestock sector trends
A ‘supermarket revolution’ is
setting higher standards for
food quality and safety.
Market chains are lengthening,
making it more difficult for
small-scale producers to
participate in markets.
9. Livestock research enables
3 pathways out of poverty
Securing assets of the
poor to reduce vulnerability
Increasing productivity
to improve livelihoods
Expanding markets
to increase incomes
11. 3. ASALs Development
challenges
Key challenge:
Reduce poverty and vulnerability, provide
livelihood options:
constraint of low population density
limited success of interventions to increase
primary productivity
degradation of natural resources
conflict in managing common resources
weak links to national economy
low priority for public investment
13. Interventions: What not to do (1)
Slaughterhouses
Don’t invest public finds into export slaughter houses
in remote areas, because:
Offals cannot be marketed efficiently
Quality of local animals not export grade
Transportation risky and expensive for
refrigerated products
Therefore, let private risk capital explore
opportunities
14. Interventions: What not to do (2)
Disease free zones
Don’t try to establish disease free zones, because:
Difficult to enforce at present
Low intensity of production makes it uneconomic
High cost option
Therefore, enforce present regulatory framework
and explore new options such as commoditization
of trade
15. Interventions: What not to do (3)
Stop cross border trade
Don’t hinder livestock trade with neighbouring
countries, because:
Important risk management option for pastoralists
Impossible to stop
Therefore, seek to facilitate formal trade across
borders
16. Interventions: What not to do (4)
Over-emphasize international trade
Don’t overly focus development efforts on
international trade in livestock and livestock
products, because:
Kenya’s domestic market is rapidly growing
Kenya is a net importer of beef
SPS constraints important limitation
Therefore, emphasise improved functioning of
national and regional markets and consider
international exports as an additional outlet
18. Interventions: What to do (1)
Develop markets
Develop domestic markets is the top priority
intervention.
Specific actions include:
Improve physical market places, holding grounds,
loading ramps, etc
Improve price information
Use KMC strategically to provide a floor to the
market
Provide livestock finishing infra-structure in
higher potential areas e.g ADC ranches
19. Interventions: What to do (2)
Finance
Provide a conducive environment for commercial
and NGO financing institutions to operate
Credit is critical for both producers and traders
Specific actions include:
Learn lessons from Equity Bank and Mpesa
experiences
20. Interventions: What to do (3)
Road and Rail infrastructure
Transport is critical for livestock markets and brader
development, but costly
Specific actions include:
Undertake cost benefit analyses of alternative
options to improve transport routes and compare
road vs rail
21. Interventions: What to do (4)
Water investments
Water points are critical for the utilization of
rangelands and for human livelihoods generally
Specific actions include:
Making careful assessments of location of water
points
Considering environmental impacts of livestock
use of water points
Prevent livestock contamination of water points
Engage local communities in agreeing appropriate
stocking rates in conjunctions with new water points
22. Interventions: What to do (5)
Veterinary services
Focus on key diseases (e.g. FMD, RVF, CBPP,
PPR, Rinderpest)
Specific actions include:
Enhance capacity to monitor and respond to
health conditions
Legalise community animal health workers
Ensure appropriate levels of vaccine production
and effective deployment approaches
23. Interventions: What to do (6)
Vulnerability and risk
Pastoralists vulnerability critical for livelihoods and
for increasing production
Specific actions include:
Early warning systems for drought and diseases
e.g Rift Valley Fever
Combining short term relief programs with
development interventions (productive safety nets)
Explore potential to provide innovative insurance
mechanisms for pastoralists
24. Interventions: What to do (7)
Diversification of livelihoods
Evolving societal demands create new livelihood
opportunities in the ASALs
Specific options include:
Provision of environmental services, such as
wildlife conservation, carbon sequestration, water
management
New feeds, such as Prosopis pods
New enterprises, such as eco-tourism, bee
keeping, oasis agriculture
Off farm income and remittances
25. Interventions: What to do (8)
ICTs
Exploit the unique power of ICTs to overcome the
“tyranny of distance”
Specific options include:
Cell phone, email, www web access for sharing
price information, obtaining technical advice, etc
E government
Distance education
Banking/insurance services
26. Interventions: What to do (9)
Security
Government has a unique role to play in protecting
communities and preserving law and order
Specific actions include:
Developing effective approaches for the
traceability of livestock
28. Managing the ASALs
Achieving the potential of the ASALs requires highly
integrated management approaches. Key elements
include:
1. Effective knowledge management
2. Smart targeting for geography, gender,
3. Active community participation
4. Dynamic cross sectoral interventions
5. Quick learning culture to scale out successful
30. Conclusions
1. ASAL development can be improved
significantly with existing knowledge and
experience
2. ASAL development is mainly an investment and
management challenge
3. Rapidly evolving context offers many new
opportunities e.g ICTs, finance, insurance, early
warning systems, trade in ecosystem services,
service delivery through ppts