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The status of crop-livestock systems and evolution towards integration

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Title The status of crop-livestock systems and evolution towards integration
 
Creator Iiyama, M.
Kaitibie, S.
Kariuki, P.
Morimoto, Y.
 
Subject CROPS
LIVESTOCK
FARMING SYSTEMS
 
Description This article presents the current state of crop-livestock systems in developing
countries, and reviews the recent literature on “ crop-livestock integration” as an
alternative land use option for agro-pastoralists to cope with the changing environment
in sub-saharan Africa and other developing regions. Mixed crop-livestock systems
are one of the dominant agricultural systems in the developing world. While crop-livestock
systems tremendously vary across different biophysical and demographic settings,
agro-pastoralists face challenges such as population growth and globalisation. Changes
in the lifestyles of agro-pastoralists and market access tend to lead to commercialised
farming, while population pressures lead to scarcities and degradation of resources
for conventional extensive farming. Crop-livestock integration is viewed as an
economically feasible and environmentally sound solution for poor agro-pastoralists
to achieve sustainable agricultural production. Optimal pathways for crop-livestock
integration should achieve the best utilisation of locally available resources without
much reliance on external inputs through recycling of crop/animal residuals. Although
such pathways may be determined by use of systems analysis, it is recognised
that the realities of the system are often more complicated than the predicted optimal
pathways suggest, due to diversities in agro-ecological, demographic, and market
conditions as well as to socio-economic factors. Hence, this review investigates
the determinants of crop-livestock intensification and summarizes inferences for future
research challenges. It draws the conclusion that crop-livestock integration should
be analysed from a holistic/integrated perspective.
 
Date 2010-10-06T21:20:53Z
2010-10-06T21:20:53Z
2007
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Iiyama, M.; Kaitibie, S.; Kariuki, P.; Morimoto, Y. 2007. The status of crop-livestock systems and evolution towards integration. Annals of Arid Zone. 46(3-4): 1-23
http://hdl.handle.net/10568/2459
 
Language en
 
Source Annals of Arid Zone