How to produce “more with less” impact is top of the agenda this week at the first global conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation underway at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome.
The three-day conference will explore how to produce more with “less environmental impact, less social impact and more economic return with greater equity”.
FAO director-general Qu Dongyu said: “Livestock production is a vital part of our agri-food systems, providing essential nutrients for all and enhanced livelihoods and economic opportunities for billions of people around the world.”
But he also warned that improving efficiency is essential to producing more with less.
According to the FAO director-general, in relation to livestock, efficiency measures include “optimising feed conversion, reducing feed loss and waste and enhancing nutrient utilisation”.
This in turn, he told delegates, can reduce pressure on biodiversity and land and water resources, as well as decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
The FAO has outlined that the global ruminant population increased by almost twofold from 1960 to 2017, while non-ruminants increased by more than fourfold.
Both are projected to grow further, with global demand for animal products projected to increase by up to 70% by 2050, which the FAO said would “exacerbate methane and greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems”.
The director-general of the FAO said: “We should appreciate all the people who provide and produce animal protein products, and then work together on how to improve all the challenges related to the sector.”
According to the FAO, sustainable livestock transformation requires an integrated approach that can reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases and help to tackle the issue of anti-microbial resistance (AMR).
“Together, we can build a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive future for the livestock sector, benefiting both people and the planet,” the director-general said.
The three-day event, which began yesterday (Monday, September 25) and will run until Wednesday (September 27), will focus on four key themes:
- Better livestock production systems;
- Animal source food for better nutrition;
- Livestock solutions for better environment;
- Better life.
Methane emissions
The FAO has published a new report which coincides with the conference this week: Methane emissions in livestock and rice systems: sources, quantification, mitigation and metrics.
It highlights that methane accounts for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
According to the FAO methane emissions are now increasingly identified “as a turbocharged driver of the climate crisis”.
Its new report, which was put together by a multidisciplinary team composed of 54 international scientists and experts of the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership, details a comprehensive overview and robust analysis of methane emissions in livestock and rice systems.
It looks at both the sources and sinks of methane gas, outlines how emissions can be measured, describes a broad sampling of mitigation strategies, and evaluates the kind of metrics that can be used to measure both emissions and their mitigation on the climate system.
FAO’s deputy director-general, Maria Helena Semedo, said: “The results and recommendations of this report bolster the efforts of countries and stakeholders committed to reducing methane emissions and, in so doing, move us towards more efficient, inclusive, resilient, low-emission and sustainable agri-food systems.”