Animal breeding for reduced poverty and improved food security in
developing countries
Karen Marshall
John Vercoe Memorial Lecture, AAABG, Australia, 28-30 September 2015

International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI)

ILRI’s mission
ILRI’s mission is to improve food and
nutritional security and to reduce
poverty in developing countries
through research for efficient, safe
and sustainable use of livestock—
ensuring better lives through
livestock
ILRI is part of the CGIAR consortium
(15 centres)

ILRI: Established 1994, currently 700+ staff
Two main campuses (Kenya, Ethiopia), 16 additional offices

“John nurtured the formation of ILRI and shaped the
international livestock research agenda.
He provided exemplary leadership while serving on ILRI’s
Board of Trustees for six years, five of them as Chair”

The livestock sector, and its
importance to the world’s
rural poor

The global livestock sector
Asset value $1.4 trillion; employs >1.3 billion people
Livestock contribute an average of 40 % of the agricultural GDP
Sector accounts for
 30% of the land surface
 70% of agricultural land
 8% of human water use
The 4 billion people who live on less than US$10 a day
(primarily in developing countries)
represent a food market of about $2.9 trillion per year.

4 of 5 highest valueglobal commodities are livestock
FAOSTAT 2014
(values for 2012)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Production(MT)millions
Netproductionvalue(Int$)billion
net production value (Int $) billion production (MT)
Cow milk has
overtaken rice
Eggs have
displaced
maize
Animal source foods: 4 of 5 highest value
global commodities

Global
livestock
numbers
(FAOSTAT 2013)
Asia
51%Africa
31%
Rest of
world
18%
Sheep & goats: 2.1 billion
Asia
41%
Africa
19%
Rest of
world
40%
Cattle & buffalo: 1.7 billion
Asia
60%Africa
4%
Rest of
world
36%
Pigs: 1.0 billion
Asia
56%
Africa
8%
Rest of
world
36%
Poultry: 22.9 billion

Significant increases over 2005/7 amounts
of cereals, dairy and meat will be needed by 2050
From 2bn to 3bn
tonnes cereals each year
From 664m to 1bn
tonnes dairy each year
From 258m to 460m
tonnes meat each year
Most of this increase in demand is within developing countries

Gains in meat consumption in developing
countries are outpacing those of developed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
1980 1990 2002 2015 2030 2050
Millionmetrictonnes
Developed countries
Developing countries
Developing at same per
capita as developed
(hypothetical)

Milk demand and consumption levels
differ in developed and developing countries
0
200
400
600
800
1000
2005/07 2050
Demand for milk
million t/annum
Developing
Developed
0
50
100
150
200
250
2005/07 2050
Milk consumption
kg/capita/annum

Drivers of the increase in demand for
animal source food, particularly in developing countries
 Population
growth
 GDP growth
 Urbanisation
Source: Population Division of the Department of Economic and
Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (2007)
Billionsofpeople
World population growth to 2050

Number of poor livestock keepers (millions)
Poor defined as <2 USD per day, 2010 data (Robinson et al., 2011)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Sub-Saharan
Africa
South Asia East Asia and
Pacific
Eastern
Europe and
Central Asia
Latin America
and
Caribbean
Middle East
and North
Africa
Globally
766 million

Multiple roles of livestock to the rural poor
 Savings & insurance
 Food & nutrition: meat / milk
 Income
 Draught power / transport
 Fertiliser (manure)
 Various uses of hides and skin
 Livelihood risk reduction
 Ceremonies / dowry
 Benefit from common property
resources
 Ecosystem services

Livestock keeping objectives
Mixed crop-livestock system, The Gambia
Objective Cows Bulls Sheep Goats
Savings / insurance 9.6 9.9 7.8 7.8
Manure 6.7 6.7 4.5 5.3
Draught 6.3 7.1 0.0 0.0
Domestic milk consumption 6.1 0.0 0.6 0.9
Milk sale 5.9 0.0 0.0 0.0
Ceremonial / Dowry 5.3 4.8 6.7 7.3
Income 2.9 3.3 6.3 7.7
Transport 2.1 2.8 0.0 0.0
Hides / skin 0.6 0.6 1.0 1.1
Domestic meat consumption 0.6 0.6 1.8 2.7
Sale of breeding animals 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Scoring 0-10, where 10 = most important objective

Livestock keeping objectives:
gender differentiation
Objective Male
pastoralists
Female
pastoralists
Savings and insurance 5.3 8.2
Domestic milk consumption 8.7 9.5
Domestic meat consumption 6.3 1.7
Milk sale 9.5 9.3
Income 7.4 5.6
Transport 8.8 9.6
Drawing well water 6.4 9.8
Ceremonial / dowry 5.2 6.8
Hide / Skin 3.8 2
Bone 2.3 0
Camels, Pastoral system - Somaliland

Level of market
orientation
% Women % Men % Joint
Low 72% 27% 1%
Medium 45% 50% 5%
 Women may loose control of benefits from livestock as an enterprise
commercialises
Livestock and gender
Who controls income from sale of milk – Senegal dairy
 Gender-transformative approaches can help address the underlying
issues (social norms, power relationships) of this gender inequality
 Women are major contributors to livestock
production, but face a number of constraints in
comparison to men
 Limited access to resources e.g. land, water, credit
 Limited access to market information
 Limited decision making power

The challenge
By the time of population stabilisation at about 2050:
 A 60% increase in food production is needed
 75% of this must come from producing more food from the same
amount of land
 The higher production must be achieved while reducing poverty
and addressing environmental, social and health concerns
 This higher production may have to be achieved with
temperatures that are 2−4 degrees warmer than at present
Sustainable animal source food systems in developing
countries are recognised as critical to this

Scenarios for sustainable animal source food
systems in developing countries
90% of animal
products are
produced /
consumed in
same country or
region
Smallholders
produce > 80% of
developing
countries food

Background on AnGR use in
developing countries

Livestock productivity in developing countries
remains low, for a variety of complex reasons
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Typical
management
Better
management
Litres
Milk yield (365 days)
Lactating
28%
Dry
72%
Age first calving: 4 years
Calving interval: > 2 years
West African Zebu Gobra Cattle

AnGR use in developing countries
To date, many developing country
livestock production systems have
not realized the same benefits from
genetic improvement achieved in
developed country livestock
production systems

Constraints to optimising AnGR use in
developing countries
 Investment prioritized into other aspects of livestock development
 Heterogeneity of livestock systems, farm-scale, management
practices, and needs and preferences of livestock keepers
 Few working models for sustained genetic improvement
 Lack of data
 Some breeds have no phenotypic information
 Limited longitudinal data
 Phenotypic data now much expensive than genomic
 Lack of supportive policies & institutional arrangements
 Few experienced animal breeders

However breed change is occuring
Livestock type Example
Cattle - dairy European dairy breeds (including Holstein-Friesian and Jersey) in 26
African and 12 South and South East Asian countries
Cattle - meat or
dual-purpose
The Braham, developed in North America from Indian stock, in 15
African and 3 South and South East Asian countries
Sheep The Blackhead Persian from Somali in 12 other African and 1 South
and South East Asian countries
Chicken The Rhode Island Red of North America in 16 African and 8 South
and South East Asian countries
Goat The Jamnapari of India in 7 other South and South East Asian
countries
Pig The Large White of Europe in 24 African and 10 South and South East
Asian countries
Source: FAO SOW AnGR

Breed change: which systems
Livestock system Breed type
Agro-pastoral and pastoral Almost exclusively indigenous
Extensive mixed crop-livestock Predominantly indigenous
Intensive mixed crop-livestock
Indigenous plus cross-breeds /
composites
Limited pure-bred exotic
Industrial
Mainly cross-breeds / composites
and pure-bred exotic

Breed change: which systems
This distribution is largely driven by:
 The need for improved management
for non-indigenous breed types to
survive and produce
 Differing roles of livestock in
different system (e.g. in pastoral
systems emphasis is often on the
‘savings and insurance’ aspect of
livestock)

Current research on AnGR use in
developing countries (ILRI and partners)

Main species we work on
Goat - Africa
Sheep – Africa
Pig – Africa, Asia
Poultry - Africa
Dairy cattle –
Africa, Asia
Dual purpose cattle –
Africa, Latin America

Research focus areas
1. Assessment of systems, and AnGR use within the systems, for
development of strategies on ANGR use
2. Promoting or creating improved breeds of livestock
3. Multiplication and delivery systems for the improved
livestock genetics
4. Ensuring sustainability of the genetic interventions &
translation to impact

1. Assessment of systems, and AnGR use within the
systems, for development of strategies on ANGR use
 Assessments performed at a range of levels:
 Policy reviews
 System / value-chain assessments
 Household level assessments
 Herd / animal level assessments
 With stakeholders / partners, strategies on AnGR use are developed
 For example, reformulation of policy, testing new breed-types,
structuring cross-breeding, strengthening the AI system
 With stakeholders / partners, identified interventions are implemented
 Pilot testing  if successful, scale-out

The need for better
phenomics capabilities is now
strongly recognised

High emphasis on development
of methodological approaches
& tools for assessment –
particularly survey tools

Geographical distribution of different pig breeds in Nghe An province of Vietnam
Determination of geographical distribution of breed / cross-breeds
by use of a participatory mapping approach

ILRI bio-repository “Azizi”- biological samples from livestock,
pathogens, vectors, linked to various information
~400,000 samples to-date

2. Promoting or creating improved breeds of livestock
 Identification & promotion of the most appropriate breed-types
 Evaluating breed-types for productivity & livelihood benefit to
improve decision making on breed-choice
 Within-breed improvement
 Scale and sustainability are difficult to achieve
 Cross-breeding
 Indigenous x exotic crosses increasingly receiving attention
 Unstructured cross-breeding systems are common
 Creation of new breed-types
 Gene-editing

Example project: identification of the most appropriate breed-type
of dairy cattle in Senegal
Comparative analysis associated with keeping different breed types
Breed composition of
project animals
Breed information in
absence of farmer
pedigree
Genotyping of project
and reference animals
(SNP chip)
In-situ assessment
Performance, economic
& other data (household,
herd and animal level)
Productivity, cost:benefit to the livestock keeper
220+ households
3700+ animals
1800+ cows
2 years monitoring

Example project: Pilot testing of mobile phase based data
capture, analysis and feedback systems for use by farmers
Key issue = incentives for farmer participation
Current farmer recording systems =
none, mental, limited written
Permanent recording, linked to data
analysis & feedback systems

Example project: “Magic cow”
“Tumaini” – cloned (somatic cell
nuclear transfer) Boran bull,
with his progeny
Long term goal to create genetically modified cattle resistant to African
trypanosomiasis by gene-editing approach (baboon gene APOL1 confers
resistance)
To-date: platform development (gene-editing, cloning)
Trypanosomiasis infested cow

Use of genomic (SNP) data in improving livestock breeds
 Determination of breed-type in absence of farmer pedigree
0
20
40
60
80
No Yes
%animals
Alignment between farmer and
SNP-based breed assignment
 Genetic evaluations: GRM, GBV (evaluating utility)
Senegal dairy, n=566 (67% cross-bred)

3. Multiplication and delivery systems for the
improved livestock genetics
 Establishment of business models
for delivery (e.g. public-private
partnerships)
 Adaptation of reproductive
technologies to the local situation
(e.g. solid surface embryo
vitrifcation + field embryo
recovery)

4. Ensuring sustainability of the genetic
interventions & translation to impact
 Supporting policy and institutional arrangements
 Capacity building – organizational and human level
 Increasing use of theory of change based monitoring &
evaluation to help ensure that genetic interventions (packaged
with other interventions) translate into desired benefit
 Consideration of equality issues, particular focus on gender
 Ensuring developing countries animal genetic resources remain
fit for a future changed environment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1dvxWadgYs

Animal breeding for reduced poverty and
improved food security in developing countries
Acknowledgements to ILRI genetics team
John Vercoe