Strategies for sustaining small ruminant production in arid and semi-arid regions

Abstract

While climate change is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are more severely felt by poor people in developing countries who rely heavily on the natural resource base for their livelihoods. Moreover, rural poor communities rely greatly for their survival on agriculture and livestock that are amongst the most climate-sensitive economic sectors. Among the livestock species, small ruminants are more vulnerable to climate change as they are reared by poor, unprivileged landless/ marginal farmers under extensive system of production. Animals which are more hardy and adapted to harsh climate condition may thrive well while others may either shift to more suitable region or suffer stressful environment. Adverse climate condition is known to influence more severely to non-adapted and high producing sheep and goats. For example the production performance and survivability of Bharat Merino sheep i.e., Crossbred (75% exotic inheritance), was unsatisfactory at Avikanagar (semi-arid tropical area) but their shifting to Mannavanur (sub-temperate location) resulted in marked increase in production and health performance (growth, reproduction and survivability) (Naqvi and Sejian, 2011). The IPCC summarized research on the potential impacts of climate change for livestock and listed four possible effects: (1) changes in livestock feed grain availability and price; (2) direct effects of climate on animal health, growth, and reproduction; (3) impacts on pasture and forage crops; and (4) changes in distribution of disease and parasites.