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Strategies for livestock production systems

Putting the environment into the forefront does not mean that only environmental objectives count. On the contrary, only if and when sound and economic objectives are met can environmental goals be effectively tackled.

Box 3.6 Regulations induce search for innovative solutions: the case of Tyson Food Inc.
In the state of Arkansas, USA, Tyson Foods Inc. was sued by more than 100 Green Forest residents who contended that their water supply had been fouled by a lack of adequate sewage treatment from chicken processing plants in 1989. Tyson was ordered to pay for property damage, for the overloading of the city's water treatment system and for violating the Clean Water Act. Furthermore, the use of burial pits for dead bird disposal by growers was banned. This resulted in Tyson Foods investing into research and development to remedy the problem. Tyson Foods developed a recovery technology that allowed them to recycle proteins, fat and carbohydrates recovered in their water treatment process into nutrients for animal feed. This enabled the company to recycle not only various solids (primarily proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) from its water treatment plants in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri but also the inedible animal parts from its poultry treatment and pre-treatment centres, attached to its processing plants. Further, it also enabled the recycling of the dead birds from the farms. In order to facilitate the use of this technique, Tyson Foods distributed some 2000 custom freezers to their growers to aid them in the disposal of the dead birds, which were collected and transported to the rendering plant. Thus the refinement of the rendering process resulted in a win-win solution, i.e. an improvement of the environment and a profitable solution for Tyson. The ability to recycle by-products is becoming more of a concern as consumers are demanding more processed meat. Pet food companies, among others, purchase the processed protein meal and other products for use as high-quality ingredients in various animal rations. Furthermore the feathers can also be hydrolysed into a feather meal that can be used as another high protein feed ingredient most often used in cattle rations.
Source: Narrod, 1994.

Grazing systems will remain a source of extensively produced animal products. To some extent, these systems can intensify production by incorporating new technologies, especially in the higher potential areas (subhumid and highland areas). Often this can be facilitated by stronger organizations, local empowerment and regulation of access to resources. Where there is potential for mixed farming, policies need to facilitate the transition of grazing systems into mixed farming systems in the semi-arid and subhumid tropics through integrating crops and livestock (manure management, animal draught, residue feeding and fodder crops, etc.).

They can also intensify by diversifying and opening up other uses for these grazing systems. In grazing systems, livestock's role, in addition to providing a livelihood to pastoral people and market production, should be to protect the natural resource base, in particular land, water and biodiversity.

Mixed farming systems will see continued intensification and important growth. Smallholder and family mixed farming will remain predominant for some time to come, with livestock based on crop by-products and surplus. Important productivity gains can be achieved by further enhancing nutrient and energy flows between the two components. Livestock's role, in addition to production, is to enhance and substitute natural resources. The environmental and economic stability of this system, makes it the prime focus for continuing technology transfer and development. Where involution of the mixed farming system occurs (see earlier), in areas of extreme population pressure, resource degradation and poverty, this must be fought through accelerated technology uptake, (feed resources, animal traction, development of small ruminants, etc.). Under more favourable agro-ecological and market conditions, new forms of industrial production will have to be established. These industrial systems will have to be based upon the resource endowments of a region, if nutrient balances are to be maintained and the environment's ability to absorb waste respected. We are therefore projecting industrial systems integrated into a wider land use concept, particularly for pig and poultry production. This trend is already under way in some developed countries. This would blend resource saving technologies with the absorptive capacities of the surrounding land. New organizational arrangements will have to be found to allow specialized units to capitalize on economies of scale. The strategy is thus to transform mixed farming systems into specialized and commercial enterprises in rural areas through infrastructure and institutional development, animal production and health technologies, and processing) where land pressure is on the increase and where the market allows.

Industrial systems in areas of high animal densities will face the challenge of coping with higher production costs as a result of more stringent regulations and pollution levies. This will remove, in some cases, the competitive edge that industrial production has over land-based production. Potentially, this would also raise prices for livestock products and reduce demand. Higher prices would provide incentives for the land-based systems to intensify. Scales of industrial production would grow further because of economies of scale for waste treatment. This system's purpose is mainly to be seen in satisfying the soaring demand in many parts of the developing world over and above the supply capacity of land-based production and at maximum resource use efficiency.

Figure 3.1 Livestock systems develoment pathways.

With increasing resource scarcities, livestock producers must continue to search for technologies that increase resource use efficiency if the rapidly increasing demand is to be met without putting additional strains on natural resources. The challenge is to obtain higher efficiency without concentrating animal production in a given area. Limiting livestock numbers while still maintaining market mechanisms through, for example, tradable emission quota, seems to be an appropriate choice. Ideally, the advanced resource-saving technologies and the absorptive capacities of extended rural areas should be married. Thus, the motto for most of the developed world and the more densely populated parts of the developing world is: intensify, but do not concentrate animal production. Such an approach would promote the spread of processing into these areas thus bolstering economic development.

In a schematic way we can thus identify pathways for livestock production systems. Intensification, specialization and organization are the processes that characterize the different phases. As a result of the interaction between livestock production systems and natural resources, coupled with other factors such as market access, there are development opportunities as well as threats to sustainability. They are sketched in the chart which follows and lead to the identification of areas for strategic intervention.

To minimize environmental damage, governments should, in very general terms, intervene as suggested by the chart on the previous page. Strategic interventions need to focus on:

- the phases of transition from one state to another, where entirely new sets of technology are introduced: to intensify where the agro-ecological and market potential allows;
- the fundamental pressures of poverty, population growth and weak institutions.

It is evident that questions relating to livestock and the environment cannot be solved in environmental terms only. A comprehensive perspective is needed to ensure an enabling policy framework in which effective technologies can be introduced. Technology remains the key component because future development, including that of the livestock sector, will depend upon technology to substitute for natural resources. This trend to knowledge-intensive systems is widely observed: smart technologies, supported by astute policies, can help to meet future demands while maintaining the integrity of the natural resource base. Better information on which to base decision-making is therefore urgently required.

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