Improvement of Crop - Livestock Integration systems in West Asia and North Africa

The West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region is characterized by a high population growth rate, large and rapidly increasing food deficits, highly variable income levels both within and between countries, limited arable land, and increasingly scarce water resources. In ICARDA Mashreq/Maghreb Project countries (including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia), the population doubled between 1960 and 1990, reaching around 100 million in 1990. Further increases are projected: another 32 million by the year 2000, 68.7 million by 2010. Climatic features, especially low and variable rainfall, limit farmers' options. Traditionally, crop production and livestock production have been closely interrelated, in ways that have maintained the producing population while conserving the resource base. However, recent changes in production practices threaten the region's natural resource base. Small ruminants (sheep and goats) represent the principal economic output in the region and constitute a large proportion of the income of small farmers and nomadic or semi-nomadic herders. This income derives from the sale of live animals, dairy products, and wool. The animals also provide a valuable dietary contribution to the household. Livestock also plays an important role in reducing the risk associated with climatic variability by acting as a buffer against uncertain crop yield. livestock numbers have increased over the last two decades. On average, small ruminants increased by 27% from 1972 to 1992 in the Mashreq, and by 14% in the Maghreb. As a result, the livestock feed gap in the Mashreq and Maghreb countries has widened substantially. A deficit of 8.9 million metric tons was reported for the period 1988 to 1992. Future prospects are not encouraging. The deficit is being met by imported feeds, principally barley, bran, and other concentrates. The pressure on rangeland grazing has also increased, resulting in serious degradation. Integrated, sustainable, crop-livestock systems are needed to increase the quantity of available feed, reduce the dependency on imported feed, and improve livestock productivity, while protecting and regenerating natural rangelands, halting the rapid degradation by which they are now seriously threatened. The achievement of this goal requires the consolidation of research and development efforts in the countries concerned. Technical solutions that are acceptable to and adopted by farmers, herders, and other land users must be found and implemented. The multidisciplinary approach used in the previous ICARDA Mashreq Project is now being reinforced in the new ICARDA Mashreq/Maghreb Project. This symposium was organized to address the need for integration between crop and livestock systems. It also promoted interaction and an exchange of experiences and research findings among scientists from West Asia and North Africa in four major areas important to sustainable dryland production systems. These include improvement of barley and forage crop production, improvement of small ruminant production and management, marginal land and rangeland improvement, and technology assessment and transfer. Crop-livestock integration was given special emphasis. The symposium was a regional scientific gathering, with the participation of 120 Scientists from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Palestine, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Spain, France, and Pakistan, as well as representatives from ICARDA programs and units, and from ACSAD and ILRI. The symposium represented a bridge between the Mashreq Project and the new ICARDA Mashreq/Maghreb Project, which now covers eight countries from the Mashreq and four from the Maghreb. It addressed the development of sustainable crop-livestock production systems in West Asia and North Africa.