Transition to sustainable crop-and livestock systems

The challenges for sustainable development of our planet are many. They range from a need for sustained food production and farm income via poverty eradication, food safety, biodiversity, and conservation of common resources. Crops & livestock plays a role in all of them, across sectors and social strata. Animals are both an integral and indispensable part of mixed farms. Animal production systems can provide valuable food and farm income; they can recycle waste and even regenerate eroded watersheds. But they can also exhaust resources or cause pollution, disease and food scares, especially as part of disputed industrial production systems. Combined with issues such as climate change, urbanisation and shifting political realities, there are is a clear need for better integration between crops & livestock, as to utilise their combined potential for sustainable production, in both poor and wealthy societies.

This course addresses issues of farm design, sustainable food production, modelling for resource conservation and policy setting for biodivesity, food-chain management and the like. Special attention will be given to the role of poverty alleviation.