By Godfrey Olukya 28-2-2017
Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Uganda, Nigeria and Burkina Faso have along with 2 international development partners launched a continental project called “Africa sustainable livestock (ASL)” meant to help in managing the sector.
The international partners supporting ASL are the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)of the United Nations.
The main objective of ASL is to address the challenges and opportunities related to long term development of livestock sector. The launching has taken place in Ethiopia’s capital, Adis-Ababa.
The global coordinator of FAO projects,Subhash Morzaria said “The reason we focused on these six countries is because we see strong economic growth that leads to very high demand for livestock products.
The project aims helping the countries to assess the impact of livestock systems on public health, environment, and livelihoods today and in the year 2050. It also plans to identify priority investment for capacity enhancement to ensure that future livestock systems benefit society in the coming decades.
He added on that if not properly planned and managed, increase in production of livestock can lead to many challenges, including harm to the environment and spread of catastrophic diseases such as avian flu and Ebola among others, which are caused by animals.
Ethiopia’s minister of livestock and fisheries, Fekadu Beyene said that the project will be a good opportunity of learning from each other and minimize harms to environment .
”With proper care and management we can assure sustainable livestock production,” said Fekadu Beyene
FAO estimates that by the year 2050 the demand for beef, pork, poultry and dairy in Africa will increase by 417%, 677%, 331%, 164%, and respectively.
“The project helps the countries to look into the long term projector of livestock development and its impact on health environment, water and the like.he most important part is to look into the future in different scenarios,” said, Lindsay Parish, USAID Infectious Disease Division in Washington DC.
