Theme 4 - Livestock-keeping among smallholders for a nutritious diet and increased food security

Last changed: 15 November 2021

African cows with big horns outdoors, photo.

This theme aim to fight nutrient deficiency by increasing productivity in animal production, find mechanisms to facilitate inclusion of poor smallholders in markets to ensure profitable sale of their products and develop animal production systems and markets that benefit women and young people.

Several million people in low-income countries, mainly women and children, suffer from low intake of high-value protein and trace elements. Among other negative effects, this causes nutrient deficiency, leading to impaired physical and cognitive development and to more than 20 percent of young children in low-income countries being malnourished. There is thus a great need to increase the amount of meat, milk, egg and fish in the diet, making these the most valuable agricultural products smallholders can produce. Livestock production and sale of livestock products is also an important way for farmers to increase their income.

An exchange of knowledge of smallholder aquaculture in Africa and Southeast Asia will take place. Southeast Asia has many inspiring examples of small-scale pond farming while in many African countries production has not taken off yet. Photo: Looury Cédric.

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Thorugh workshops and an easy to read booklet, we will facilitate knowledge transfer to smallholder goat producers to improve the management and feeding of their goats. Photo: Ewa Wredle.

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We aim to improve slaughter hygiene at small-scale slaughter abattoirs in Uganda, through a teacher/researcher exchange. Photo: Sofia Boqvist.

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Due to lack of proper feed, diseases and other management factors, livestock often produce sub-optimally. We will investigate which factors are key to success. Photo: Sofia Boqvist, SLU.

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Theme 4 consists of three parts:

To increase productivity in animal production in order to improve food security, secure sustainable use of natural resources and reduce climate effects.
To find mechanisms to facilitate inclusion of poor smallholders in markets to ensure profitable sale of their products.
To develop animal production systems and markets that benefit women and young people.

This will be achieved by synthesis of scientific knowledge, knowledge exchange between low- and high-income countries and training courses.

Projects in Theme 4:

2018-2019

2017

Livestock systems in urbanized environments: A review and syntesis of livestock system under land use dynamics in developing countries
A systematic review and meta-analysis of infectious livestock diseases in Vietnam
Livestock as key issue in agricultural extension and advisory in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve food and nutrition security
Gender and rural entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa: identifying the frontier for aquaculture research
Antibiotic use in freshwater aquaculture in the upper Mekong delta, Vietnam

2016

Facts:

Theme 4 is interdisciplinary and covers all cross-cutting issues in the AgriFoSe 2030 programme: sustainable intensification of agriculture, the central role of women and young people in agriculture, and access to markets and value chains.

Theme leader Elisabeth Rajala is a veterinarian working mainly within the field of infectious livestock diseases, food safety/security, and antimicrobial resistance. She works at SLU Global and at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health.

The Assistant Theme leader is Associate Professor Sofia Boqvist. She is the external collaboration specialist in food safety and risk analysis at SLU. In addition, she is head of the microbiological subjects at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health.

Contact

Elisabeth Rajala, DVM, PhD

Challenge leader of Challenge 1
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, SLU
Telephone: +46 18-67 20 36, +46 73-801 33 56
E-mail: Elisabeth.Rajala@slu.se

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Sofia Boqvist, Associate Professor

Programme Director of AgriFoSe2030
Dept. of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, SLU
Phone: +46 18-67 23 88, +46 72-240 34 94
E-mail: Sofia.Boqvist@slu.se