Livestock in Senegal. Photo: CCAFS

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the livestock sector is a major contributor to rural livelihoods and the national economies, with at least 100 million poor people depending on it. In the Sahelian zone, the sector accounts for about 35% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supplies about 30% of the revenue in the agriculture sector. Nonetheless, livestock emits significant levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to global warming. This pushes the area to reorganize and reorient agricultural and livestock production systems to simultaneously meet food security needs and GHG mitigation targets.

Such major issues were discussed at a regional awareness-raising workshop on low emissions livestock, organized jointly by the Global Research Alliance on Agriculture Greenhouse Gases (GRA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the World Bank and the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research (ISRA) in Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 March 2019.

Read the full story on the CCAFS website