Digest Project

Feed the Future Innovation Labs and
Collaborative Research Support Programs

Learning from Success

Livestock

Adapting to climate change while improving pastoral livelihoods, animal health, and environmental management

Climate variability and more sustained climate change are causing increased drought or flooding, affecting the availability and predictability of forage and water for livestock. This uncertainty makes it more difficult for livestock producers and herders to meet increasing demand for animal products including meat, dairy and processed foods. Pastoralists are particularly vulnerable because they have limited resources and capacity to adapt to weather-related risks and market shifts.

Livestock-focused Innovation Labs and CRSPs have identified many ways to strengthen livestock production systems and the producers and traders involved in them. In the early years, CRSP research on livestock and livestock systems sought to improve individual animal health and to develop new breeds of small ruminants. Market-oriented research led to innovative mobile and satellite technologies to transmit price and forage condition information among and between herders and traders to make livestock marketing systems more efficient.

The current Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Adapting Livestock Systems to Climate Change builds upon the successes of earlier livestock CRSPs and incorporates the impacts of climate variability on livestock, the environment, and human health.  It is supporting research on herder decision-making, mapping herder movements in West Africa, and studying how to help communities build their capacity to adapting livestock production systems to climate change.  Its current research activities take place in Feed the Future priority countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania) and in Asia (Nepal). Program activities focus in four areas: i) Climate extremes and long-term change; ii) Animal Health; iii) Ecosystem Health; and iv) Pro-poor value chains.