Mandeep Azad and Kawardeep Kour
Food security may have different meanings for different people. The International Conference on Nutrition (ICN), held in Rome in 1992, defined food security as “access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life” (FAO / WHO, 1992a). Essentially, in order to achieve food security a country must achieve three basic aims. It must:· ensure adequacy of food supplies in terms of quantity, quality and variety of food;· optimize stability in the flow of supplies;· secure sustainable access to available supplies by all who need them. When it comes to food security though, a real hotspot in the 21st century is India. Can India achieve food security?
Livestock contribute to food supply by converting low-value materials, inedible or unpalatable for people, into milk, meat, and egg. Currently, livestock supply 13% of energy to the world’s diet but consume one-half the world’s production of grains to do so. Over the last 40 years a steady growth has been recorded in the global production of meat, milk and eggs. Today, livestock products account for 12.9 percent of calories and 27.9 percent of proteins consumed worldwide. The fast growing poultry industry is led by the three largest emerging economies namely China, Brazil and India. China alone accounts for the production of 70 million tonnes of eggs annually, followed by 3 and 2 million tonnes by India and Brazil respectively. Similarly 15 million tonnes of meat is produced by China followed by 9 and 0.6 million tonnes by Brazil and India respectively. In the developing world, livestock is one of the fastest growing sectors of the agricultural economy. China produces six times more meat now than it did in 1980, accounting for 31% of global meat production.
India contributes 15% of the world’s milk supply, having tripled production in the same time period. Overall, livestock contribute 40% of the value of agricultural output worldwide. India is also the third largest egg-producer in the world, at over 180 million eggs being produced every day, and the world’s sixth largest producer of poultry meat. As of now, livestock contributes more than 25% to the agricultural gross domestic product. In 2010-11, livestock generated Rs. 3, 40,500 crores. In 2009-10, livestock was 2.5 times the value of paddy and more than 3 times the value of wheat. Rural poverty is marginal in areas where livestock contributes to the agriculture in a greater way
Livestock farming holds enormous potential for improving food security and poverty. Increasing the amount of quality protein in the diet is an essential component of good nutrition, particularly for children in their critical growth years. Ensuring greater productivity in the livestock sector depends on sustainable development efforts that provide farmers and pastoralists with access to technology, training, and resources. There are many technologies that improve animal productivity and enable farmers to produce more with fewer resources, reducing the impact on the environment. Livestock production and marketing can help stabilize food supply, acting as a buffer to economic shocks and natural disasters provided there are minimum or no disease outbreaks.
Across the world demand is growing for animal food products as a result of rapid income and population growth. Such demand has been supported by major technological innovations and infrastructure improvements in developed and developing nations. In developing countries, livestock are typically owned by men but raised and cared for by women. Empowering women to be more productive in this sector has powerful implications for their income and household nutritional status. Promising mechanisms for reaching resource-poor pastoralists include using a cooperative approach that links women’s groups to enterprise training and access to financing to meet local and regional demand for dairy and meat products. Partnerships among Governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations have often been extremely effective in providing farmers with valuable training and resources. However, livestock directly contribute to nutrition security. Milk, meat and eggs, the “animal-source foods,” though expensive sources of energy, are one of the best sources of high quality protein and micronutrients that are essential for normal development and good health. But poor people tend to sell rather than consume the animal-source foods that they produce. The contribution of livestock to food, distinguished from nutrition security among the poor, is mostly indirect: sales of animals or produce, demand for which is rapidly growing, can provide cash for the purchase of staple foods, and provision of manure, draft power, and income for purchase of farm inputs can boost sustainable crop production in mixed crop-livestock systems.
Livestock have the potential to be transformative: by enhancing food and nutrition security, and providing income to pay for education and other needs, livestock can enable poor children to develop into healthy, well-educated, productive adults. The challenge is how to manage complex trade-offs to enable livestock’s positive impacts to be realized while minimizing and mitigating negative ones, including threats to the health of people and the environment. “The combined impacts of meeting nutritional needs and providing income make livestock a powerful force for the poor. Well-nourished and well-educated youngsters can grow up to be healthy young adults who are able to realize their full potential and earn higher incomes, in the process enhancing the well-being of their families, communities, and society. The impact of this on food and nutrition security at household, national, and global levels cannot be overstated and demands innovative research, development, and policy approaches.”
Livestock are important to the food security of millions of people today and, as shown above, will be important to the food security of millions more in the coming decades. Live stock source food is not essential to human nutrition but it is highly beneficial. In livestock systems that primarily consume roughage and agro-industrial waste products, livestock add to the food supply beyond what can be provided by crops. Moreover, they make a very important contribution to food access and stability through the income and products they provide to small-scale mixed farmers and pastoralists, the asset value of animals and their flexibility of use.
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