This is the home of the Endogenous Livestock Development Network.
Endogenous livestock development focuses on livestock and people. It promotes animal production based on the initiatives of farmers, pastoralists and other livestock keepers. It relies on their own worldview, values, knowledge, institutions and resources, and mixes them with suitable outside resources.
The ELD Network aims to:
Create a global umbrella for learning, collaboration and networking
Deepen the understanding of people-centered livestock development
Support field-based ELD initiatives
Influence livestock-related education, research and policies.
In addition, the network gathers and exchanges information on a wide range of other themes related to endogenous livestock development.
To join the ELD Network, click on Log In in the menu on the left. You will then be able to contribute items to this website.
You can also join our mailing list of 300+ development professionals around the world who focus on people-centred livestock development.
FAC Pastoralism Research
The Future Agricultures Consortium has a reseach theme on Pastoralism in East Africa . Current research projects focus in particular on Pastoralist Innovation Systems . This targets an important gap in current research. There is very little literature on innovation in the livestock sector and a particular lack of knowledge on innovation involving pastoralists. Existing formal innovation systems in the livestock sector emphasise the development of new technology and knowledge by scientists, reflecting a bias toward ranching and commercial beef production. Read more on the FAC website.
Livestock: Friend or Foe?
Livestock: friend or foe?
The need to look at production systems in the debate about livestock & climate change
In the current climate change debate, livestock is increasingly being cited as one of the major producers of greenhouse gasses. Replacing livestock products with meat- and dairy analogs based on soy, rice or wheat, is suggested as the most desirable way out. Unfortunately, reality is more complex than this. Livestock is not produced in one way, which can simply be replaced. Livestock emissions largely depend on how animals are raised and fed. Fortunately, other international reports (IPCC, FAO) indicate another way out: increased sequestration of soil carbon through sustainable use of soils and other resources in agriculture.
Video - Exploring Endogenous Livestock Development in Cameroon
In Africa, knowledge and practices concerning livestock keeping were passed on from generation to generation. Then other ways of development came, that implied more dependency on resources from outside. Today farmers from North-West Cameroon value once more what they have known and lived with for centuries. This film shows how farmers and extension workers re-discovered the potential of 'development from within'.
Endogenous livestock development means putting small-scale livestock keepers and pastoralists at the centre of their own development. It means building on what they already do, and supporting their initiatives to improve their livelihoods, instead of imposing "solutions" from outside.
This is the home of the Endogenous Livestock Development Network.
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In the current climate change debate, livestock is increasingly being cited as one of the major producers of greenhouse gasses. Replacing livestock products with meat- and dairy analogs based on soy, rice or wheat, is suggested as the most desirable way out. Unfortunately, reality is more complex than this. Livestock is not produced in one way, which can simply be replaced. Livestock emissions largely depend on how animals are raised and fed. Fortunately, other international reports (IPCC, FAO) indicate another way out: increased sequestration of soil carbon through sustainable use of soils and other resources in agriculture.