Climate Change Impact on Livestock Sector: Visioning 2025

Abstract

Climate change and climate change mitigation will bring about major structural change in the agriculture, forestry, and other land use sectors. With effective global action, climate change mitigation would become the more important force for change. In agricultural and animal production, to control and decrease emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs) have become important in environmental protection. The contributions to global warming by ruminant livestock are by and large through enteric CH₄ production. Hence while aiming at sustainable livestock production, it is imperative to concentrate on reduction strategies for enteric methane production. The enteric methane emission reduction strategies can be grouped under three broader headings including management, nutritional, and other molecular strategies. The application of a single strategy would not help and may need a combination of strategies to address mitigation based on the agroecosystems, the production systems, and the resources available with the farmer. While measures to reduce the growth of GHG emissions are an important response to the threat of climate change, adaptation to climate change in addition to mitigation will also form a necessary part of the response. Promotion of sustainable livestock production will be vital to ensure that the impact of climate change is minimized on the livestock farmers. This will involve rearing of animals which are more sturdy, heat tolerant, disease resistant, and relatively adaptable to the adverse climatic stress conditions. Livestock has potential to strengthen resilience to climate change, as livestock production systems tend to be more resilient than crop-based systems. In developing a strategy for adapting to climate change, one key challenge is dealing with uncertainty. The challenge for governments and agricultural industry stakeholders is to deal with these uncertainties through further research and the development of policies and farm management approaches that are flexible enough to deal effectively with a range of potential climate change outcomes.