Abstract
BackgroundCompanioned by economic development, a dietary shift toward higher meat consumption is seen in developing countries and transitional economies, where the demand for livestock production has been increasing in response to such a dietary shift. In the Asian Dryland Belt, approaches to meet this demand have focused on grazing intensification, cropland conversion for animal feed, and supplemental feeding. With the scarcity of water, energy, and food in the region, a key question is whether or not the current approaches are sustainable. If not, what are the pathways to increase livestock production while protecting the region’s environment for a sustainable future? We provide our reviews and discuss current approaches in response to these dietary shifts and assess their environmental resilience with a focus on the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt.ResultsWhile current approaches alleviate the urgent need for short-term livestock production, they lead to long-term vulnerability in food security. Trade-offs between short gains and long-term losses, between food for humans and for animals, and between agricultural intensification and environmental degradation need to be holistically examined for the sustainable development of the region. A grassland water, energy, and food nexus framework is proposed with specific recommendations to increase livestock production while considering other ecosystem services of the dryland grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt.ConclusionsCurrent practices to increase livestock production are likely to lead to long-term, large-scale ecological degradation of the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt and are thus unsustainable. By considering the trade-offs in the nexus of water, land, food, and livelihoods, sustainable pathways were articulated and recommended. Future pilot studies are needed for validation and adoption.
Highlights
There is no question that we must produce an additional 70% of food to feed the estimated 2.2 billion additional people on the planet by 2050 (FAO 2009)
We have focused primarily on the provisional ecosystem service—forage and subsequently livestock production—provided by grassland ecosystems
Any sound sustainable pathway should consider significantly increasing the output from the same area of land while simultaneously limiting environmental impacts with well-balanced water and energy sectors
Summary
There is no question that we must produce an additional 70% of food to feed the estimated 2.2 billion additional people on the planet by 2050 (FAO 2009). It is noticeable that current meat consumption is quite low per capita per year in developing countries at an average 20 kg/capita/year in comparison with the 80– 100 kg/capita/year in developed countries. This suggests that as these countries transition toward development, the demand for meat will rapidly increase By 2030, it is estimated that the total demand of meat will be about 109 × 109 kg (Robinson and Pozzi 2011; Alexandratos and Bruinsma 2012; FAO 2013) To meet this demand, meat production has to increase by 27% in comparison with the amount consumed in 2005 according to FAO statistics (Alexandratos and Bruinsma 2012; FAO 2013). What are the pathways to increase livestock production while protecting the region’s environment for a sustainable future? We provide our reviews and discuss current approaches in response to these dietary shifts and assess their environmental resilience with a focus on the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt
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