Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock

Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.

"An important emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG), the livestock sector also has a large potential to reduce its emissions. This is the main conclusion drawn by the report 'Tackling climate change through livestock'. This newly released report provides the most comprehensive global assessment made to-date of the livestock sector's GHG emissions and its mitigation potential. The report also presents a detailed assessment of the magnitude, the sources and pathways of emissions from different production systems and supply chains. Relying on life cycle assessment, statistical analysis and scenario building, it identifies concrete options to reduce emissions. It comes at a time when the world needs to urgently reduce GHG emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. The livestock sector can make an important contribution to such international efforts by offsetting some of the sector's emission increases, which are expected as demand for livestock products is projected to grow by 70 percent by 2050"--Publisher's description.

"The assessment builds on the work of the Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative"--Pref.

This volume addresses in detail both livestock’s role in climate change and the impacts of climate change on livestock production and reproduction. Apart from these cardinal principles of climate change and livestock production, this volume also examines the various strategies used to mitigate livestock-related GHG emissions, and those which can reduce the impacts of climate change on livestock production and reproduction. Presenting information and case studies collected and analyzed by professionals working in diversified ecological zones, the book explores the influence of climate change on livestock production across the globe. The most significant feature of this book is that it addresses in detail the different adaptation strategies and identifies targets for different stakeholders in connection with climate change and livestock production. Further, it puts forward development plans that will allow the livestock industries to cope with current climate changes and strategies that will mitigate the effects by 2025. Lastly, it provides researchers and policymakers several researchable priorities to help develop economically viable solutions for livestock production with less GHG emissions, promoting a cleaner environment in which human beings and livestock can live in harmony without adverse effects on productivity. Given that livestock production systems are sensitive to climate change and at the same are themselves a contributor to the phenomenon, climate change has the potential to pose an increasingly formidable challenge to the development of the livestock sector. However, there is a dearth of scientific information on adapting livestock production to the changing climate; as such, well-founded reference material on sustaining livestock production systems under the changing climate scenarios in different agro-ecological zones of the world is essential. By methodically and extensively addressing all aspects of climate change and livestock production, this volume offers a valuable tool for understanding the hidden intricacies of climatic stress and its influence on livestock production.

This book describes the importance of sustainable livestock production from a food security perspective in the changing climate scenario. It covers the amelioration of climate change impacts and describes the various mitigation strategies to reduce enteric methane emissions. The book targets sustainable livestock production by covering diverse concepts of amelioration, mitigation, and policy up-gradation. Further, it examines various adverse impacts of climate change on growth, meat, milk, and reproduction in livestock. Most importantly, the book covers novel aspects of quantifying heat stress response of livestock based on non-invasive methodologies, including infrared thermal imaging, sensor-based applications, hair, urine, and fecal cortisol estimation. Particular emphasis was given to describing the skin-based novel approaches to establish climate resilience in indigenous breeds. The book provides detailed descriptions of alleviating climate change impacts on shelter management, nutritional interventions, and genetics-based strategies involving advanced genomic tools. Lastly, it highlights the livestock species which could be considered ideal climate-resilient animal models to withstand the adversities associated with climate change.

Livestock provide valuable nutritional benefits as well as supporting livelihoods and the resilience of families and communities. Demand for animal products continues to grow in response to rising population and increasing wealth, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In spite of productivity gains, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock are also increasing. Successful action on climate change through practical action in livestock agrifood systems is an urgent priority, but must not come at the expense of other sustainability objectives, particularly those relating hunger and poverty. Hence there is a need to balance the benefits of animal-source foods and livestock keeping for nutrition, health and livelihoods, with the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to tackle the climate crisis, which also threatens food security. The following five practical actions can be widely implemented for measurable and rapid impacts on livestock emissions: 1) boosting efficiency of livestock production and resource use; 2) Intensifying recycling efforts and minimizing losses for a circular bioeconomy; 3) capitalizing on nature-based solutions to ramp up carbon offsets; 4) striving for healthy, sustainable diets and accounting for protein alternatives; and 5) developing policy measures to drive change. This brief describes how these can be implemented in integrative and sustainable ways, taking account the diversity of livestock systems and enhancing synergies and managing tradeoffs with other sustainable development objectives. FAO can help by providing developing tools, methodologies and protocols for measuring emissions, and supporting the development and analysis of technical and policy options towards sustainable, low-carbon livestock.

This volume of 30 chapters contributed by reputed authors covers: Diversification of livestock and crops. Integration of livestock systems with forestry and crop production. Drought and heat wave tolerant varieties. Strategies for reduction of Green House Gases emission from ruminants. Application of GIS and remote sensing technologies. Breeds with inherent genetic capabilities to adapt to climate change. This book also takes into account the climate change adaptation, mitigation practices, and policy frameworks for promotion of sustainable livestock and poultry production. Print and electronic editions not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan)

This paper develops the structural Ricardian method, a new approach to modeling agricultural performance using cross-sectional evidence, and uses the method to study animal husbandry in Africa. The model is intended to estimate the structure beneath Ricardian results in order to understand how farmers change their behavior in response to climate. A survey of over 5,000 livestock farmers in 10 countries reveals that the selection of species, the net income per animal, and the number of animals are all highly dependent on climate. As climate warms, net income across all animals will fall, especially across beef cattle. The fall in net income causes African farmers to reduce the number of animals on their farms. The fall in relative revenues also causes them to shift away from beef cattle and toward sheep and goats. All farmers will lose income but the most vulnerable farms are large African farms that currently specialize in beef cattle. Small livestock and large livestock farms respond to climates differently. Small farms are diversified, relying on dairy cattle, goats, sheep, and chickens. Large farms specialize in dairy and beef cattle. Estimating a separate multinomial logit selection model for small and large farms reveals that the two types of farm choose species differently and specifically have different climate response functions. The regressions of the number of animals also reveal that large farms are more responsive to climate. The results indicate that warming will be harmful to commercial livestock owners, especially cattle owners. Owners of commercial livestock farms have few alternatives either in crops or other animal species. In contrast, small livestock farms are better able to adapt to warming or precipitation increases by switching to heat tolerant animals or crops. Livestock operations will be a safety valve for small farmers if warming or drought causes their crops to fail.