Moving Livestock Production towards Industrial Systems

The establishment of mixed crop-livestock farming, integrated at a farm or household level, is not an end in itself, but a means to the most efficient use of crop and livestock resources, which is also likely to be the most environmentally sustainable. At certain points it will be important to facilitate the development of more specialist livestock production enterprises (feedlots, dairy farms, pig and poultry enterprises) that:

- Do not use agricultural land
- Are dependent on purchased feed

The same policies that favour crop-livestock integration will also favour the emergence of such enterprises:

- improved extension to inform and motivate on crop-livestock integration,
- development of infrastructure such as roads and markets
- development of savings and credit institutions
- stimulating non-farm rural employment

It will be especially important, as industrial livestock production emerges from mixed farming systems, to have a proper policy framework already in place to regulate problems such as poor management of animal wastes. Click here for overview of policy options for industrial systems.

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