Meetings, Seminars and Workshops

Principal Investigators of the project Increasing water-use efficiency for food production through better livestock management - the Nile River Basin met in Addis Ababa in order to agree on operational guidelines and to determine the work plan for 2004 in detail. Eighteen people attended the workshop and eleven institutions were represented: ILRI (international Livestock Institute), FAO-LEAD; IWMI (International Water Management Institute); ASARECA (Animal Agricultural Research Network); NBS (Nile Basin Society-NGO); Makerere University (Uganda); EARO (Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization); Water AIDS-ERHA (Ethiopian Rain Water Harvesting Association-NGO); CARE (NGO); MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology-Sudan); Higher Council for Environmental and Natural Resources (Sudan).

The main activities during the design of the project regarded the 1) Identification of water – livestock hotspots through the model and the synthesis of livestock and water interactions; 2) Development of a decision support tool for the identified hotspot area in the Nile Basin (GIS analysis; Development of adapted Livestock policy); 3) Development of a water component of the Livestock and Environment Toolbox; 4) Development of Policy dialogue and policy recommendations for identified hotspots; 5) Raising of new funding resources for the development of new activities within the project; 6) Organisation of an inception workshop in December 2004.

The main target groups of the project are croppers and pastoralists who will be reached through a participatory action research. The results of the workshops will be disseminated through the LEAD-Virtual Centre as well as IRLRI, IWMI and Nile Basin Society Websites while background papers will be provided by the particpiants themselves.

The monitoring and evaluation process will be done in part by the community - being this part of the self-assessment and learning cycle - and the other more focused on the project as a whole to monitor progress that leads to the planned outputs and outcomes.

The project objective is to reduce the negative local and global environmental impacts of rapidly increasing livestock production in China (Guangdong), Thailand, and Vietnam. The proposed project aims to establish demonstration watersheds, where improved waste management would lead to a reduction of land-based pollution. Replication at provincial and country level, brought about by a conducive framework, the demonstration of sustainable livestock waste management approaches and monitoring of its impact on nutrient loading of the soils, surface and groundwater resources, will result in reduced pollution load from livestock production, currently affecting international waters (i.e. the South China Sea).

The objectives of this meeting were to (a) review the draft technical reports prepared by national consultants; (b) meet with government officials of key agencies in an effort to further refine and develop the project components in each country: (1) Development of a conducive policy framework; (2) Demonstration of suitable manure management practices; (3) Regional component; (4) Project management and monitoring and evaluation); (c) review country progress towards achieving recommendations made in the March 2004 mission’s Aide Memoire; and (d) finalize the selection of demonstration areas in each country.

The Steering Committee of the LEAD-India project reviewed study progress regarding data collection in the sites, dissemination strategy and policy dialogue. Data collection (biophysical characterization, socio-economic and institutional assessment) has been completed and the results of the five watersheds are being incorporated into GIS analysis to allow for integration and systematic data analysis. A strategy for the dissemination of study results has been devised, including the identification of target audience, tools for dissemination, and the project website. The policy dialogue has been initiated by a round of meetings with key policy makers at federal and state level and by establishing of the terms of reference of the Policy Advocacy Group. The Steering Committee endorsed the results achieved so far and approved the plan of action for the future. It also endorsed the formation of the Working Group, Communications and Policy Advocacy Groups that will give the project greater dissemination and impact at policy level, contributing to a better understanding of livestock’s role in watersheds under common property regime.

Main findings of the study include that (i) small producers can generate relatively high profits per unit of output (as long as their labour cost is not factored in and as long as they do not rely on external labour), (ii) considering profit efficiency, middle scale market-oriented smallholdings are already efficient, (iii) the efficiency then rises in very large operations, probably more because of reduced transaction costs (vertical integration) than because of technical returns to scale (constant), and (iv) the organisation of small producers (e.g. contract farming in monogastric species production and cooperatives in the dairy sector) is a promising way to reduce transaction costs and therefore improve market access, although policies to ensure the fairness of these organizations are required.