Pastoralism: a critical asset for food security

Animal Frontiers, a review magazine on animal agriculture, has published a special issue on the contribution of animal production to global food security. One of the articles, “Pastoralism: a critical asset for food security under global climate change”, examines the role that pastoralism plays in relation to food security, particularly in the face of increased climate variability. The authors address the economic importance of pastoral production in arid and semiarid areas in Africa compared with other production systems in the same conditions. They provide evidence of the contribution that pastoralism makes to food security in these areas. They consider the current and prospective constraints to realising the potential of pastoral production for food security and examine a range of options that might enhance the contribution pastoral production to both food security and economic prosperity in the region. They view pastoralism and drylands as characterised by unreleased potential: historically undervalued (producing economic growth out of persistent underinvestment) and a depository of a sustainable alternative way of dealing with environmental instability in agriculture. They encourage decision-makers to invest in pastoralism, especially through more knowledge-intensive approaches to development and appropriate forms of education.

Posted on 3 January 2013 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism & Services, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure, Pastoralism, Policy & Power, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition, Value of Pastoralism