Newsletter Special Edition August 2003

Five parallel sub-plenary sessions were organized and designed to maximize interaction among the members of the different GFAR stakeholder constituencies in discussing emerging themes around which potential GPPs could be developed. The themes, selected on the basis of some of the initiatives currently under development by some GFAR stakeholders, include the following: (1) Rural Knowledge Systems and Innovation Processes; (2) Agrobased Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Markets in Developing Countries; (3) Agriculture-Livestock Integration; (4) Organizational Partnerships for Agricultural Research; and (5) Innovative Policy Directions and Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development. A non-exhaustive list of issues for discussion prepared by the Secretariat, was made available to each sub-plenary session as guidelines in order to stimulate discussion (Boxes 8 to 12).

One of the priority issues that needs to be addressed in alleviating rural poverty and promoting environmental protection is that related to crop-livestock integration. This includes topics on animal diseases and their impact on productivity, ensuring food security and safety, reduction of diseases transmitted from animals to humans, and livestock and animal husbandry policies that enable the rural poor to overcome their poverty. Thus, GFAR is promoting greater involvement of all ARD stakeholders, notably veterinarians, extensionists, donors, women and farmers in implementing ARD partnership programs in this area.

Session Structure

TThe sub-plenary session was chaired by Philippe Vialatte, EC Senior Administrator, with Kwaku Agyemang Director General of the International Trypanotolerance Center as key speaker, Ndiaga Mbaye, WECARD Executive Secretary, as resource person, and Alberto Davila of FIOCRUZ, Brazil as rapporteur.

Presentations

The key speaker, Kwaku Agyemang, presented an overview on agriculture-livestock integration in the context of the developing world with emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. The presentation focused on mixed farming systems in developing countries and on global trends such as market access and consumer demand. Policy and technology issues were the main constraints identified as impediments to agriculture-livestock integration. He concluded that mixed farming systems are probably the most environmentally desirable systems, and should be the prime focus of agricultural planners and decision-makers. Ndiaga Mbaye then provided additional information on animal health and production research in West and Central Africa, and presented a rationale for a GPP on agriculture-livestock integration.

In the discussion session, two participants gave additional presentations: John McDermott from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), gave an update on the potential GPP on Trypanosomosis control. He described the lessons learned and the practical experiences of the group of stakeholders involved in the development of the GPP and concluded that the Trypanosomosis control is a theme that can be part of the livestock-agriculture integration mechanism. In addition, he reported that the GPP formulation has been a complex and long exercise and that the decision-makers have not been involved from the very beginning. Another participant, Ian Maudlin from DFID, presented an initiative on public-private partnerships for animal health products and described the potential importance of private companies for funding of research activities in the developing countries.

Discussion Summary

One important concept to come out of the subsequent discussions is that the livestock-agriculture integration system is a mechanism that can respond to poverty reduction and food security in different agro-ecological regions, economies and social contexts. Hence the importance to follow a system approach that includes livestock. Research initiatives should focus on improving the efficiency of diverse systems, and it is clear that in the livestock-agriculture integration thematic area, there are no templates that cover all regions.

The participants also shared ideas on what they considered as important needs and targets in ARD from the agriculture-livestock integration standpoint. Among these include the need for a synthesis of research results, experiences, and methodologies including socio-economic impacts; exchange of experiences between regions including technology transfer; identification of market opportunities and prospects; and designing GPPs cognizant of relevant policy issues.

The participants also agreed that partnerships should include farmers, private sector and policy-makers from the beginning, and it is necessary to be pragmatic when developing GPPs.

Next Steps

In the subsequent discussions the participants agreed that the GFAR Secretariat should (1) follow up these discussions (via electronic communications) and help the stakeholders to identify issues and gaps as entry points to develop a possible future GPP on the subject; (2) engineer mechanisms for understanding of GPPs, partnership development (including the private sector) and advocacy; (3) find common solutions and crosscutting issues for the elaboration of GPPs (call for interest), through consultation with the scientific community, the regions and sub-regions; (4) promote a balanced involvement of the stakeholders, encouraging south-south partnerships; (5) facilitate the dialogue between the stakeholders to identify their roles and responsibilities for GPP proposals including dialogue between the research community, donors and the private sector (e.g. drug companies) to attract funds; (6) facilitate the identification of emerging issues on the subject of global impact; and (7) take a leadership role on the above by creating specific task forces.

Box 10. Issues for Discussion-Agriculture-Livestock Integration

The purpose of this sub-plenary session is to have an understanding of the agriculture-livestock poverty nexus and to discuss how this can be translated into concrete research for development partnership programs.

Tentative questions for discussion:

What are the general trends and the global strategic issues in agriculture and livestock integration systems? What do we know about agriculture-livestock integrated systems? How can these integrated systems respond to the poverty reduction? Is there any need for additional research?
Towards a GPP: what type of partnerships and implementation mechanisms are needed to promote research partnerships in this area?
What are the roles and responsibilities of collaborating stakeholders in GPP development and implementation, including the role of GFAR Secretariat as facilitating mechanism?
What are the next steps and milestones for GPP proposal development?

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