In the wake of last week's World Food Prize Symposium, new attention is being given to livestock's place in development. Just this morning, Christie Peacock, CEO of Farm-Africa, wrote a post for the Poverty Matters blog entitled "It's time to recognise the important role livestock play in tackle poverty."
Livestock finally made it on to the agenda of the World Food Prize meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, last week. Livestock and the people who keep them are usually neglected by aid experts all over the world, including the eminent agronomists who dominate this event. ...The contribution of livestock to the wider rural economy remains under-appreciated by all players in development, except farmers. This leads to the current absurd under-investment in the livestock sector as a whole. Barely 0.4% of the aid budget is spent on developing the livestock sector and yet, for example, in India the dairy sector alone is the most valuable part of the whole agricultural sector, creating more value than all rice production.
Heifer International was an integral part of this discussion last week, as Heifer President Jo Luck was co-recipient of the World Food Prize. Heifer has practiced its own unique livestock-based approach to poverty alleviation and development for more than 65 years. Learn more about Heifer's successes around the world.
