Journal of Animal Sciences and Livestock Production Открытый доступ

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Status of Urban Livestock Production in African Context: Overview

Isayas Asefa Kebede*

This review is on urban livestock production. Urban livestock production refers to the rearing and processing of animals within municipalities (towns and cities). Animal production has been part of urban agriculture in many cities. An effective and profitable livestock production cannot be achieved if information is neither available nor accessible to the livestock keepers. Feeding strategies in urban areas vary according to such factors as social categories, animal species, household income and distance to the city center. Depending on the animal species and type of production involved, three major feeding systems can be distinguished. These are based on the use of household wastes and agro-industrial by-products, roughage and concentrates. Performance of the sector may be different from region to region, between countries and within different parts of a country. Most of the additional milk, eggs and poultry meat has been for domestic African markets, which have grown rapidly in many urban areas. The best market opportunity for future growth lies within Africa itself. Africa’s meat demand is projected to almost triple between 1997 and 2025, from 5.5 million metric tons to 13.3 million metric tons. In the future, many developed countries will see a continuing trend in which livestock breeding focuses on other attributes in addition to production and productivity, such as product quality, increasing animal welfare, disease resistance and reducing environmental impact. Keeping livestock in urban areas is practiced by high and low-income urban dwellers and production ranges from large to small scale. In urban areas working equids are a major means of transport, both as ridden and pack animals and through pulling carts. They transport goods to and from markets, farm inputs to farmsteads, children to school, and the sick and women in labor to clinics and hospitals. Livestock may act as a form of financial capital in a number of different ways: as a form of savings, as an investment, a means for generating cash in an emergency, animal off take as an income, or by acting as collateral for credit or loans. Self-esteem owning, controlling and benefiting from livestock production increases women’s self-esteem and strengthens their role as producers and income generators within the household and in the community. Animal products can also present health risks to consumers. If insufficiently processed then diseases such as tuberculosis, leptospirosis, anthrax, salmonellosis and brucellosis can be transmitted through the milk and meat of urban livestock. Zoonotic diseases are also associated with urban livestock.