Knowledge, attitudes and practices among smallholder livestock farmers
in Africa: Showing unmet research needs
Delia Grace and Arshnee Moodley
Virtual conference on Translating antimicrobial resistance research and development mapping into policy and action
2 December 2020

CGIAR and ILRI
Reduce
poverty Improve
food and
nutrition
security
Improve
natural
resources
Livestock contribute to all 17 of the SDGs and directly to
at least 8 of the goals
Tackling AMR is crucial to achieving the UN SDGs: direct
and indirect impacts

CGIAR AMR Hub mitigating agricultural associated AMR risks
Many National partners e.g.
For more information:
www.amr.cgiar.org

Why focus on smallholder livestock farmers?
Source: Options for the Livestock Sector in Developing
and Emerging Economies to 2030 and Beyond. World
Economic Forum White Paper January 2019
Market value of Africa’s
animal-source foods will
grow to ∼$151 billion by
2050 (from ∼$37bn in
2019)
Most livestock products
are sold locally and
informally
Of the over half a billion
small holder mixed crop-
livestock farmers in the
world, two-thirds of
livestock keepers are
rural women

AMR challenges in livestock sector in LMICs: need to
understand drivers of AMU
AMUSE Livestock questionnaire
tested in Ethiopia, Kenya and
Uganda

What happens if an animal is sick?
Low- and middle-income setting
Many factors
influence this
decision tree
Most farmers are
not aware of the
withdrawal period
rule, and amongst
those that know,
many do not
respect it

AMR interventions in LMICs for smallholder livestock
farmers
• Regulations on access and use
• Alignment with National Action Plans
• Establishing AMR and AMU surveillance programmes
• Awareness and education campaigns
• Cost effective alternatives
• Improving herd health and biosecurity
• Improved access to veterinary services
• Consumer drive and willingness to pay
• Incentives to change behaviour
Draw on our lessons from food safety interventions

Donor fund initiatives
• Donor funded projects have a specific time frame
• Investment areas may not always align with reality on the ground
SUSTAINABILITY?

Kenya: Drugs sold by prescription only
Reality: Drugs are sold without prescriptions
Kenya: Agrovets are trained and registered with the
Kenya Veterinary Board
Reality: Most agrovets employ unqualified staff that
dispense drugs and advice to farmers.
Around 80% of farmers rely on untrained animal
health providers
Informal sector fills a gap that the formal sector
cannot
Limited resources to enforce regulations
We can’t regulate our way to reducing AMU and AMR
Regulation is needed but it’s not enough
Modernisation is slowly growing
But traditions persist

We can’t train our way to reducing AMU and AMR
Capacity building is useful if incentives are in place
• Training not just about knowledge transfer - this is not
enough
• Trainings need follow up – to reinforce and have a
behaviour change
• Investments to improve or change behaviour have to be
coupled with incentives
• Willingness to pay: people don’t have economic power

Making an investment case: What do we know?
LMICs
How much human AMR comes from agriculture? Don’t Know
Interventions shown to reduce use at scale No
Interventions are affordable Don’t know
Interventions are feasible Maybe, maybe not
Unintended negative consequences Maybe large
Effect on human and animal overall well-beings Don’t know

Overview
AMR is a big mountain to climb Slide from B. Wieland

AMR is a big mountain to climb Slide from B. Wieland

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
better lives through livestock
ilri.org
ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system
Acknowledgements to colleagues
Michel Dione, Barbara Wieland, Hu Suk Lee, Kristina Roesel, Eric Fèvre,
Fred Unger, Bernard Bett, Hung Nguyen-Viet and Ulf Magnusson