Overview
This project aimed to assess the competitiveness, resilience, and adaptability of smallholder livestock production systems in Southeast Asia, so that they remain an engine of agricultural and human development.
Livestock are critical to farmers’ incomes, nutrition and food security, livelihoods and resilience in much of Southeast Asia. The current trend of increasing demand for livestock products is not yet matched by significant efforts to increase smallholder production, implying that there could be widespread benefits to farmers and consumers alike if the former can respond to the increased demand.
However, if increases in the production of livestock products are not carefully managed, there will be adverse consequences, including greatly increased pressures on natural resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and threats of zoonotic diseases. Understanding how livestock production systems are likely to evolve in the future is central to ensuring a sustainable demand and supply pattern of animal source foods in the region.
Project outcomes
- Provided evidence on economic and environmental performance indicators of different farming systems and assessed them in the larger context of past and future changes relevant to livestock systems.
- Understood development pathways for the region, and highlighted these pathways in more detail in two case study countries.
- Reviewed findings with key stakeholders in a way that promoted discussion and feedback to inform subsequent work after the life of the research activity.
