CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND

FOOD SECURITY

Adaptation capacity in livestock

production

Anne Mottet, Livestock Policy Officer, FAO-AGAL

Integrating Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans

Rome, 5-7 April 2016

DIRECT AND INDIRECT IMPACTS OF

CLIMATE CHANGE ON LIVESTOCK

• Direct

– Extreme climatic events

– Droughts and floods

– Heat stress, mortality and reduced yields (tolereance reduced by single trait

selection ofr productivity)

– Water availability (drinking, for forages and feed crops)

• Indirect (agro-ecological and ecosystem changes)

– Productivity and quality of forrages: LUC & system change (e.g. shorter growing

period, sorghum/millet replacing maize), productivity, change in species

composition in rangelands and grasslands, quality of plant material (lignification

& digestibility)

– Diseases: affected areas and livestock vulnerability (e.g. bluetongue, parasites,

ticks) 2

• Especially in semi-arid and arid regions

• Rangeland degradation

• Increased variability in access to water

• Fragmentation of grazing area

• Changes in land tenure

• Conflicts and insecure access to land

• Markets

STRESSORS CREATING VULNERABILITY

Soussana, 2014, AnimalChange

EXTREME DROUGHT EVENTS IN THE

FUTURE

(IPCC, Special Report on Extreme Events, 2011)

Consecutive dry days Low soil moisture

DRYING HOT SPOTS BY 2080-2100

IN GLOBAL GRASSLANDS

5

DRYING HOT SPOTS BY 2080-2100

IN GLOBAL LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS

6

SENSITIVITY

• Breed

• Housing system

• Feeding system

• Animal health risk (vaccination rate,

level of biosecurity employed etc.)

• Value to household (livelihoods, food

security etc.)

7

Source: Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment for livestock, USAID

ADAPTIVE CAPACITY

• Species/breeds

• Availability/adaptatbility alternate feed resources

• Production system

• Accessibility of animals (health/extension services)

• Outbreak response (surveillance, compensation schemes etc.)

• Household wealth status

8

Source: Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment for livestock, USAID

SYSTEMS & ADAPTIVE CAPACITY

9

Internal

(biological)

External

(practices,

services, policies)

Small scale &

low market

integration

Larger scale &

high market

integration

+

+

-

-

OPTIONS AND LEVELS OF

ADAPTATION• Practice change

Calendars

Animal feed

Breeds

Animal health (e.g. mixed grazing, local plants with anthelmintic

properties, vermicompost) & disease control

Water management

• System change

Species

Feed (e.g. changing feed crops, agroforestry, using grass-legume

mixtures for drought resistance)

Irrigation

Diversification

• Insurance, off-farm employement (household level)

• Production zoning, markets, reconversion (regional/national level) 10

1

0

3

5Measures below this line

have net economic benefits

Cost/benefit ratio

TOWARDS ADAPTATION COST CURVES

Cooling

farm buildings

Shifting to irrigation

Agroforestry

(Dominic Moran, SRUC)

Potential for adaptation

11

LIVESTOCK AS AN ADAPTATION

TOOL• A wide range of coping actions

• More flexibility than cropping systems (breed, feeding, seasonality

etc.)

• Income diversification

12Mottet et al., 2016

THANK YOU

Anne.Mottet@fao.org

“It is critical to strengthen analytic capacity for integrated

approaches to adaptation planning that

a)considers combinations of crop, livestock, rangeland,

forestry, fishery and agroforestry activities, as well as

aquatic and ecosystem function needs

b)helps define adaptation and mitigation synergies, which

countries often cite interest to identify, but are more

challenged to define.”

Out of 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, only 3

specifically mentioned livestock in their NAP (but study is from 2013 and

changes have happened since then e.g. in Kenya)

Focus is often on livestock breeds

LIVESTOCK IN NATIONAL ADAPTATION

PLANS