Emissions from livestock production now represent about 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, experts say
NAIROBI (AlertNet) Â? In the heart of Namori village, in the outskirts of Mwea Game Reserve in Eastern Kenya, Samuel Muturi Karobia chops fodder into manageable pieces for his two Friesian dairy cattle.
Karobia bought the two animals three years ago after he sold off a herd of 11 locally bred cattle. It was a great decision, he said.
"At the moment, I milk one of the two animals and the milk I get is three times more than what I used to get from three local breed (cows) combined," he said.
Now a new study suggests that such breed switches, combined with changed diets for the animals, could reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted by into the atmosphere by livestock.
That could in turn slow the rate of climate change, as emissions from livestock production now represent about 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, experts say.
The changes could also help poor farmers by allowing them to boost production with fewer animals, and potentially to benefit by selling carbon credits for the reductions they have made, if an international carbon market emerges.
"These technologically straightforward steps in livestock management could have a meaningful effect on greenhouse gas build-up, while simultaneously generating income for poor farmers," said Philip Thornton of the International Livestock Research Institute, which produced the new study.
THE CHALLENGES
Making the changes, however, promises to be challenging. In Karobia's area, switching to imported cattle breeds has been possible in the last few years only because tsetse flies, which carry the livestock disease trypanosomiasis, have recently been nearly eliminated. The farming area sits near a national game park, a natural reserve of the animal disease, known locally as nagana.
"Moving away from local animal breeds to any other type of breed may not be very easy. It can only happen if there is proper management of the animals under a conducive environment. This calls for participation of governments and other partners," Karobia said.
He was able to switch to his new high value breed of cattle because the government of Kenya, through the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC), managed to bring tsetse fly infestations in the Mwea region under control.
If similar efforts allowed the use of more productive breeds and different fodder throughout the world's tropical countries, then livestock carbon emissions could be reduced by about 7 percent by 2030, scientists said.
Ruminant animals like cows, sheep and goats produce methane while chewing their cud and digesting food. The gas is about 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in terms of driving climate change, one reason scientists are urgently looking for ways to curb it.
Scientists say reducing livestock emissions has the potential to help poor farmers earn up to $1.3 billion a year in payments for carbon offsets.
The new study encourages farmers to improve their indigenous animal herds by crossbreeding them with genetically-improved breeds. This, according to the researchers, can help farmers produce more milk and meat than they could with traditional breeds, while reducing the amount of methane created per kilo of milk or meat produced.
Changing the animals' fodder could also produce significant benefits, the study said.
"For a given level of (meat or milk) demand, fewer animals would be needed if more farmers supplemented grazing with feed consisting of crop residues (often called 'stover'), such as the leaves and stalks of sorghum or maize plants, or with grains," Thornton noted in a news release.
Citing an example from Latin America, he and co-author Mario Herrero noted that by switching cows from natural grasslands to pastures sown with a more nutritious grass called Brachiaria, daily milk production and animal weight could improve up to three-fold.
They also observed that Branchiaria grass is a good carbon sink Â? meaning that it can help absorb carbon from the atmosphere and reduce levels of greenhouse gases.
ARID REGIONS?
The changes, however, may be a difficult undertaking for some livestock farmers, especially pastoralists from arid and semi-arid parts of the world.
"Other than the indigenous livestock breeds which have survived in this area for dozens of generations, no other breed or even crossbred animals can easily withstand the harsh climatic conditions," warned Brian Ekai, a livestock breeder from the arid Turkana country in Kenya.
Josh Odhiambo, an animal breeding expert and the chief executive of World-Wide Sires East Africa Ltd., an animal breeding firm, agreed that crossbred animals cannot easily survive difficult climatic conditions in some areas.
"When we crossbreed local animals with high value breeds, we only borrow a few good traits from each side. The total resistance to droughts and diseases is never guaranteed for the offspring," he warned.
In many pastoralist communities, animals regularly walk long distances - sometimes hundreds of kilometres - in search for pasture, a hardship that can only be survived by typical local breeds, Ekai said.
"We keep them because of their hardy nature," he said.
A recently released census report in Kenya shows the country has 14.1 million indigenous cattle and only 3.4 million exotic or otherwise genetically improved breeds.
Isaiah Esipisu is a science writer based in Nairobi.
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