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TURNING SCRUB INTO PROTEINMuch of the world’s livestock, and much of its meat, milk and eggs, are raised bynon-industrial producers. Many of them manage their animals on land that isunsuited for crops, optimizing the use of local resources. But the existence of theseproducers is under increasing threat.52Pastoralistsand smallholdersraise animalson land unsuitedfor cropsMeat and milk from seasonal pasturesWorld share, percent, 2000/2010*5502821beef97lambOver 40 percent of the world’s land surfaceis too dry, too steep, too hot or too cold forcrops. In such areas, livestock keepers havea strategic advantage: they can use their animalsto convert the local vegetation into food and energy.Their production methods have to be suitedto local conditions; they require specific livestockbreeds and a thorough understanding of the animals’needs and the local situation. That makesthese methods sustainable.Pastoralists are experts in this respect.They are mobile livestock keepers, herdinglarge numbers of cattle, sheep, goats, camels,reindeer, yak, llamas and alpaca on commonland. Developed over centuries, their breeds arewell adapted to the sparse vegetation in drylands,roadsides, harvested fields and other rough environments.By moving their animals to graze differentareas, pastoralists have survived for centuriesin the most inhospitable regions without depletingtheir resource base. Spending only a shorttime in each place allows the vegetation to recoverand keeps parasites down. Special arrangementsgovern the access to land and water in pastoral2815191859milk* Data: 2000, year of publication: 2010.More recent data not available713417agropastoral (semi-nomadicproduction on seasonal pastures)mixed extensive (crops and livestock)mixed intensive (crops and livestock,irrigated)otherdeveloped countriesILRI/Herreroareas. The Borana of southern Ethiopia, for example,have a complex network of institutions andcommittees that oversee their herd movementsand coordinate resource use with other pastoralgroups in the area.Mobile grazing can be more productive perhectare than ranching, and can be more profitablethan other, more intensive, types of land use.However, pastoral systems are increasingly breakingdown as migration is being restricted. Factorsinclude the expansion of cropping, the privatizationand fencing of previously open land, and governmentlimits on animal movements.In slightly more favourable areas, smallholderfarmers grow crops as well as keeping livestock.They may own or rent a few hectares for crops,and may graze their animals on common land.They also use the resources they have to hand, butthey may also buy inputs such as additional feed.Their livestock may be local breeds or crosses withhigh-yielding, introduced breeds. They may leavetheir animals to scavenge (e.g. backyard chickens),herd them along roadsides and in harvested fields(sheep, goats, cattle, buffaloes), or cut feed andtake it to animals kept in pens and stables (dairycattle and buffaloes, sheep, goats, etc.).Smallholders recycle nutrients on their farmsby feeding crop residues to their livestock and usingthe animals’ dung to fertilize the fields andfor fuel. By doing this, and by using family labour,they can minimize their input costs and operatecost-efficiently. They may even produce livestockat a lower per-unit cost than large farms. But theytend to lose out against the large farms because ofthe small volume they produce per farm.Data on the numbers of pastoralists and smallholderfarmers tend to be vague. More than 45defined pastoral groups have been recorded inover 40 countries, but pastoralists in some form orother are likely to occur in many more countries.In much of Europe, for example, migratory shepherdsgraze their sheep on pastureland and cropstubble. Sheep raisers in Scotland and Wales producemeat and wool in the rain-swept highlands.International bodies estimate that there are some120–200 million pastoralists worldwide. Smallholderfarms are estimated to number some 500million in developing countries and some 600 millionglobally, and most of them have at least somelivestock.The numbers are probably so vague becausedefinitions vary from place to place, and the dis-MEAT ATLAS