African Unification Front
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THE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY IN THE AFRICAN UNION
There are many elements to an understanding of livestock grazing in the African Union: (1) sustainability is a moving target, (2) the impact of overgrazing (3) the impact of passive management (including destocking) on grazing rangelands, and (4) grazing by livestock (as well as other large herbivores) is a small scale process.
Farm animals are essential to alleviating poverty and sustaining food production in the African Union. Farm animals play a critical role in sustaining small-scale farming and development. The ongoing "livestock revolution" has major implications for poverty, hunger, and the environment, livestock diseases, breeding, genetics, biotechnologies, production systems, economics and related policy issues.
SUSTAINABILITY
Rangeland landscapes are dynamic. Various aspects change constantly. One prominent feature that changes is vegetation composition. Though perennial species are generally reliable from year to year, even these have finite life spans. Over centuries and millennia, there have been substantial changes in the composition of African rangelands.
The Sahara Desert first developed about 9,000 years ago. Within the last 3,000 years, it has been shown that this region has shifted from woodlands and wetlands to shrub lands and desert.
Today's vegetation changes are frequently in new directions rather than a regeneration of prior conditions. There are new elements in the environment that influence vegetation composition. These include the introduction of exotic species of plants and animals, the loss of some native species, altered habitat features due to changes in natural fire occurrence, and the increased concentration of some atmospheric gases.
Use of rangelands needs to be geared towards flexibility and the capability to adapt to a changing environment than the concept of sustainability.
OVERGRAZING
There has been tremendous degradation of African rangelands due to overgrazing. There are over 3,000,000 head of domestic cattle in the African Union. There is a need for government control of grazing to prevent further deterioration of grazing lands. The lack of knowledge at about the low carrying capacity of some lands is a contributing factor.
The demands on rangelands for human settlement, and for use for purposes other than grazing have also caused the destruction of the livestock industry. The loss ot top soils, and the elimination of certain native perennial grasses have created either irreparable damage, or set back recovery mechanisms so that it might take many decades for land to recover.
Total animal units (which accounts for cattle, sheep, goats and horses) peaked at about 4 million in Africa, before the droughts of the 1980s. Animal units have generally declined, especially after the drought of the 1990s in Eastern Africa, and the Sahel.
PASSIVE MANAGEMENT
Much of range mangagement "technology" (such as grazing systems, brush control practices, reseeding techniques, animal distribution methodologies) dates back to several thousands of years in Africa.
However, from the degraded conditions of the last 200 years, there has been deterioration in the general conditions of the range due to the colonial occupation and experiementation with "modernization" of the post-independence governments. Many of the traditional African range management "technologies" are now no longer affordable, or no longer appropriate given the multiple-use demands placed on many of our rangeland resources.
The trend on much of the lower elevation, drier rangelands have not responded or improved to any sufficient extent. In fact the desert is spreading, and the main response by governments have been massive attempts at forestation on lands that were largely grasslands.
Other than some specific areas where grazing use is still excessive or the resources conflict potiential is high, such as in riparian zones, we should not expect further improvements under present management practices. We will still experience fluctuations with variations in wet and dry periods that are so characteristic of the many climatic patterns of these regions but these fluctuations will not represent improvement.
SMALL SCALE GRAZING
Grazing is a natural process. There are many species of vertebrates and invertegrates that consume vegetation. Natural grazing is very localized and is a very acute event. Animals, even large herbivores like buffalo and cattle, have feeding sites that are quite small (a few acres of any grazing period), and wild animals usually graze a plant only once during a grazing period. There are exceptions to these observations but they are reasonable generalities. Natural levels of herbifory are usually low, especially in arid environments. For example, in the African Savanna small mammals (the primary native herbivores) consume 15% of any current year's annual growth.
Grazing has a number of direct and indirect effects. These include removal of photosynthetic materia, soil trampling, alteration of plant structure, alteration of nutrient transfers between plant and soil, altered plant growth, and modification of microclimates. Depending on the circumstances (such as plant growth characteristics, environmental conditions, degree of grazing pressure), these and related effects can have minimal to serious consequences. There us no speccific formula or system for managing grazing in any environment. There are no "real-world" examples of optimization of grazing or overcompensation by plants to grazing. The goal is for the effects of grazing to be negligible, and to allow the full complement of land resources to respond naturally to the main ecological influence, the weather.
Failure of cattle populations due to political repression of herding communities in the past led in some cases to drastic alteration in the vegetation of an area, the spread of certain parasites to humans, and the loss of fertility of soils leading to crop harvest failures.
Because of the stagnation of many rangelands under current management practices, and the lasting influence of historic degradation, we should not expect resource improvements even with complete removal of livestock. In other words, walking away from these lands will not result in their restoration. In some areas where 60 years of nongrazing by domestic livestock has not generated rangeland improvement. For these areas, and they are extensive, where we have crossed thresholds to new vegetative states, we need people living on the land and engaged in agriculture that can and will invest in stewarship.
PROGRESSIVE STEWARDSHIP
Livestock grazing is typically managed as "set stocking." Livestock are
placed in a pasture for a specific period of time. If this grazing use is conservative, the use is well distributed within the pasture, and the numbers are reduced for drought periods of low available forage, then this use can be indistinguishable from the natural grazing prodess. These processes require skilled management. Key issues include not seasonally regrazing plants (animals have preferences for certain plant species), and not overgrazing drought-stressed plants. If a site meets suitability criteria for grazing, then the important point for managing livestock grazing is to control utilization of the forage resources. Tight spatial and temporal control of grazing will result in maintenance of the soil and vegetation resources, and maintenance of the ability of the land to recover from natural disturbances such as drought.
Combined stresses of continuous grazing (set stocking) of large pastures and drought will result in resource decline. Conrolling the timing, intesity and duration of plant defoliation can prevent resource decline.
Given the social disruptions of neocolonial mismanagement and displacement of nomadic and herding communities, the concern now is whether land managers can effectively implement the means to control these crucial variables of the grazing process. Formally, nomadic communities were adept at practicing a level of stewardship that was beneficial to the land. The scientific principles that they have accumulated over thousands of years must be the basis for that stewardship.
Livestock Research in the African Union
International Livestock Center for Africa, (ILCA) based in Addis Ababa, the capital city of the African Union.
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Nairobi, Kenya
Contact: (254-2) 630-743
USA Direct: (1-650) 833-6660
ILRI is the world's leading international livestock research program. It deals with livestock development policies, production systems, animal genetics and management.
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