Livestock Distribution


Livestock production increasingly shifting to landless systems

Grazing production systems are one of the major sources of meat in the world, especially on pasture unsuitable for other types of agriculture. These grazing systems and the mixed cropping–livestock systems are the mainstay of food security and local economies in many developing regions of the world. Paradoxically, the livestock revolution has often not provided increased opportunities to reduce poverty for many of the millions of rural livestock farmers.
For example, in many developing countries, especially India and China, a consolidation from traditional grazing systems into landless systems has resulted in the production and marketing of livestock products being controlled by a relatively small number of industrial-scale operations, which has displaced many small, rural farmers. Currently, landless systems account for a large amount of the world’s livestock production: 72 % of poultry, 55 % of pork, and over 66 % of eggs. The greatest growth in industrial landless livestock systems has been in pig and poultry production due to their short reproductive cycles and efficiencies (as compared to ruminants) in converting feed (e.g. cereals) into meat.
Although the per-capita consumption of livestock products in developing countries is still relatively low, their per-capita GDP is on the rise, fueling a global “livestock revolution”. The largest increases in per-capita consumption of livestock products have been in Asia (especially China and South-East Asia) and South America (especially Brazil and Chile). Although some regional reductions in livestock growth are expected, in many developing countries the per-capita consumption of livestock foodstuffs is projected to continue to rise.

Meat consumption
The global population is expected to reach to nearly 10 billion people by 2050. In addition, by 2050 the world is projected to be immensely richer, and the relative income gap between developed and developing countries will be lessened. As the world populations grows, nearly 3 billion people will be added to the global middle-class by 2030 – and these are the type of consumers that favour meat, dairy and other resource-intensive foods.

Global average (2001-2003) production in different livestock systems.
Source: JRC-WAD3, Reynolds, J. based on Thornton 2010.

Meat consumption in developed and developing countries, 1980 to 2050 (projected) The global population is expected to reach to nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Of this, nearly 3 billion people will be added to the global middle-class by 2030, the majority of whom will be in developing countries and which are the type of consumers that favour meat, dairy and other resource-intensive foods.
Source:JRC-WAD3, Reynolds, J. based on Thornton 2010.

The global demand for meat products is projected to increase by 76 % by 2050. The largest increases is for poultry.
Source: Alexandratos, N. and Bruinsma, J., 2012 (FAO).

Historically, when livestock production was predominately based on grazing and mixed-livestock systems the distribution of ruminants was almost completely determined by the availability of localised resources, such as water, forage, crops, etc. In the future, as livestock production becomes increasingly consolidated into landless systems, principally pigs and poultry, the geographical distribution of animal populations and production throughout the world will shift and the importance of agro-ecological conditions as the major determinant of distribution will be replaced by the cost of land and access to output and input markets.
Source:Robinson, T. et al., 2014.

Historically, when livestock production was predominately based on grazing and mixed-livestock systems the distribution of ruminants was almost completely determined by the availability of localised resources, such as water, forage, crops, etc. In the future, as livestock production becomes increasingly consolidated into landless systems, principally pigs and poultry, the geographical distribution of animal populations and production throughout the world will shift and the importance of agro-ecological conditions as the major determinant of distribution will be replaced by the cost of land and access to output and input markets.
Source:Robinson, T. et al., 2014.

Historically, when livestock production was predominately based on grazing and mixed-livestock systems the distribution of ruminants was almost completely determined by the availability of localised resources, such as water, forage, crops, etc. In the future, as livestock production becomes increasingly consolidated into landless systems, principally pigs and poultry, the geographical distribution of animal populations and production throughout the world will shift and the importance of agro-ecological conditions as the major determinant of distribution will be replaced by the cost of land and access to output and input markets.
Source:Robinson, T. et al., 2014.