Asian livestock futures

Livestock are an important source of income and nutrition, contributing to livelihoods, food security, and resilience in Southeast Asia, and are particularly important for many smallholder producers. The region is experiencing significant demographic changes, and the agriculture sector is transforming in response to changing socioeconomic circumstances.

Increasing the productivity of the livestock sector will be important to respond to future opportunities and challenges. Nevertheless, changes in the livestock sector may have both positive and negative social and environmental consequences, depending on how the sector evolves over time.

This project examines how Southeast Asian livestock systems are changing and will be likely to change in the future as a result of population increases, and income and consumption changes.

Using mixed methodologies consisting of projections and participatory scenarios, together with local farm and value chain case studies, the project will identify the key constraints to the competitiveness, sustainability and viability of the smallholder sector in Vietnam and Cambodia.

The project aims to achieve two main objectives. The first objective is to compile and synthesise the current knowledge of recent trends and changes in the overall food system in the region, as well as summarise how these trends are expected to continue into the medium- and long-term future, and their implications on smallholder producers. The second objective is to apply participatory methods to help review and diffuse this information to the policy-informing community.