The Importance of Livestock Production in Rural Welfare

Abstract

In agricultural research, priority is given to staple commodities when addressing the needs of rural producers and urban consumers. Livestock is not given as high priority with the argument that livestock products answer the needs of the rich. Furthermore, this demand for livestock products indirectly increases the demand for cereals for feed and hence “crowds out” the demand of the poor for food. For the dry regions of West Asia and North Africa, these overgeneralized arguments do not hold. In these regions, barley has a comparative biological advantage due to its higher drought adaptation. Furthermore, barley is produced predominantly as feed in the integrated barley-livestock systems of these areas. Evidence is presented from Syria and Turkey on the importance of livestock in rural areas. In particular, the view that interprets livestock production purely as meat production is criticized. The evidence strongly supports the importance of dairy products. In the diets of the rural producers, dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and ghee appear as important items of nutrition and usually are the only source of high-quality protein. Hence, in these dry areas, the importance of livestock cannot be ignored in agricultural research and policy.