Livestock sector under threat, blamed for climate change crisis

Oliver Kazunga

THE Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) has urged African governments to unite in rejecting accusations from highly industrialised Western countries that the livestock sector is a major contributor to climate change, arguing that these claims are scientifically unfounded and unfairly target developing nations.

Of late, there have been suggestions that livestock emit methane and nitrous oxide — potent greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Speaking during the 12th Annual Agribusiness Conference at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare on Wednesday, LMAC chief executive officer Dr Reneth Mano said livestock are being considered dead weight on the international stage.

“At COP28 (2023 UN Climate Change Conference) and on many global fora that we attend presently, we have a big challenge from this Global North, talking about livestock. There has been a very strong argument in scientifically based argumentation that the contribution or the major damage over the past 100 years to climate change has been carbon dioxide accumulation and other greenhouse gases.

“But having failed to convince the global scientific community on the reason, the argument that because of that reason, the industrialised Western countries need to agree on a climate change justice programme compensating developing countries,” he said.

Instead, Dr Mano said, what they have seen, as players in the livestock sector in Africa, is a repulsive engagement with the stakeholders at international fora, labelling livestock as being among the major causes of environmental damage.

“And they have identified primarily methane — and I know a lot of you (livestock sector players) are technical and you know that when methane is out there, normally within 10 years, it’s no longer there. Therefore, the increased and consistent increase in global warming cannot be attributed to livestock.”

Climate change has had far-reaching effects on the environment, human health and economies, with some of the significant repercussions being rising global temperatures that cause heatwaves, droughts and altered ecosystems.

Due to the adverse effects of climate change, the world has grappled with the loss of biodiversity as rising temperatures have altered ecosystems, threatening many plant and animal species.

“If we lose the argument at the framing stage, we lose the argument at the development stage.

‘‘And right now, the argument coming in is that it’s better to have a factory that produces retained meat than to have a God-given animal producing that meat.

“It does not make sense to anybody, but this is the narrative in the mainstream. We, as African scholars or scientists and our policymakers, need to be prepared when we go to these global fora,” said Dr Mano.

Meanwhile, LMAC is engaged in negotiations with the Government for a financing facility aimed at supporting the growth and development of Zimbabwe’s livestock sector, which has the potential to export 15 000 tonnes of beef annually to the Middle East.

At its peak in the 1990s, the country, through the Cold Storage Commission (now Cold Storage Company, CSC), used to export 9 100 tonnes of beef per annum to the European Union (EU), earning Zimbabwe US$45 million from that market.

The country’s beef exports to the EU were suspended in August 2001 following an outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease, which dealt a huge financial blow to CSC.

Dr Mano said, following a market survey done by ZimTrade, the Middle East market is a low-hanging fruit from which the country can tap into.

He said the Government has since 2010 been coming up with financing facilities focusing on crop production and it was now high time attention shifted to financing livestock production to promote the growth and development of the sector.

“A properly structured facility for the livestock sector with input coming from farmers themselves, farmers in the value chain, we will have a very good chance of transforming the livestock sector and really anchoring the sector for growth in the export space.

“We have a lot of scope that we have learnt from ZimTrade that opportunity exists in the Middle East and far beyond yet at home, as I said, we have reduced our feed lot utilisation to a third of their capacity.

“In other words, we do have the capital already invested in the feed lots to further increase production by two thirds and export almost 15 000 tonnes of beef just from the current super and choice grade carcasses that we are producing from our 5,4 million herd,” said Dr Mano.

Livestock Farmers Union chairperson Mr Sifiso Sibanda said the assertions by the industrialised Western countries are misguided and a scapegoat to the real issues causing climate change.

“They are misleading themselves if we look at the economic and health benefits derived from livestock production not only in African countries but the world over. It baffles one’s mind that out of all the emissions that come out of industrial activity, focus is placed on livestock as a major contributor to global warming.

“Their assertions are misguided and a scapegoat to the real factors causing climate change,” he said.

“Through livestock production, the rural folk can actually build biogas digesters. And imagine if every homestead has a biogas digester, how many vast tracts of land under vegetation will be saved? They should reconstitute themselves, otherwise nothing at all that livestock is doing that we can say is a major contributor to climate change.”