Electronic Forum on Area-Wide Integration of Specialized Crop and Livestock Production 18th June to 3rd August 2000
Dear participants,
The impacts of livestock production on the environment have to be taken very seriously because they can threaten not only the long-term productivity of agricultural and livestock activities but also the health and wellbeing of the population and the ecological equilibrium.
To be sustainable, livestock production therefore has to pay great attention to the prevention or minimisation of its environmental impacts. As the major environmental impacts result from livestock excreta, special care has to be given to manure management. Good manure management means collecting, storing, transporting and utilising the manure. This poses a considerable challenge in terms of management, technology and costs to the livestock industry as a whole. Furthermore it implies that the livestock production has to collaborate with crop producers to recycle the manure as fertiliser on land. In our discussion we have the task to assess the importance of the environmental impacts, the available knowledge and technology for good manure handling, especially in intensive livestock production in developing countries and the measures that could and should be adopted by farmers and policy makers to guarantee the sustainability of livestock production. To kick off the discussion the paper formulates a number of hypothesis on critical aspects and key-questions that should be discussed.
We suggest the participants to react to as many of the hypothesis and key-questions as possible (please note the number of the hypothesis or question with your remarks). At the end of the week we will summarise the discussion, highlight the key aspects and propose some conclusions.
We hope to have an open and critical discussion and invite everybody to participate regularly and actively in the discussion. We thank you for openly sharing all your experience and for your critical remarks in the discussion.
The moderators
Harald Menzi
Mauricio Rosales