Animal - Agricultural Systems In Asia: Enhanced Impacts and Rural Prosperity

Abstract

Agriculture is challenged today by several major factors: diminishing arable land, resource constraints, increasing costs of inputs, and climate change. In Asian agriculture, productivity and economic transformation have promoted unprecedented rural growth, improved livelihoods and prosperity for progressive farmers, by-passing the poorer farmers and the landless. Animal-agriculture and animal production form the backbone, and focus on the two most critical concerns: food insecurity and poverty. Integrated R and D that links increased productivity with efficient NRM in is an important pathway, involving about 87 % of the global 470 million small farms (< 2 ha) in Asia. Ruminants can be used as an entry point for the development of less-favored areas (LFAs). Given its primary task is to produce enough food to feed 9-10 billion people by 2050, the current circumstances are extremely daunting and challenging, especially increasing animal protein supplies.