Creating reliable data systems would increase livestock productivity, experts say

“Although livestock make up 40 per cent of the total agricultural GDP [gross domestic products] globally, we have given low attention to the sector,” says Jimmy Smith, International Livestock Research Institute.

What happens when data about livestock health and productivity is unavailable or insufficient? SciDev.Net attended the recent meeting of the Livestock Data for Development (LD4D) Community of Practice (CoP) in Kenya, to hear from our members about the potential risks of missing data, and the opportunities that emerge when data comes together.

For instance, the experts said that the management of livestock diseases such as East Cost Fever requires data to effectively understand the impacts of the disease and its control interventions to prevent economic losses to smallholder farmers.

The article goes on to mention some of the ways the LD4D community is tackling these issues, including bringing together livestock data suppliers and users and enhancing the capacity of decision-makers to use available data.

Read the full story: Impacts of missing livestock data in Africa – SciDev.Net Sub-Saharan Africa

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