Livestock can support land use for crops

To avoid competing with food crops, forages can be grown beside hedges or as strip crops that help prevent soil erosion.

Manure from animals fed on crop residues can be used to fertilize soil and enhance crop productivity.

Policies that aim to enhance agricultural productivity should incorporate livestock, crops, and promoted integrated solutions that maximise the use of human-inedible feed resources.

 

Land access and management:

Extensive systems that require sustained livestock mobility to keep livestock sustainably require appropriate land-use mapping and planning policies. Livestock movement corridors should be protected in land use plans and supported with infrastructure.

Increasing rangeland productivity and sustainable land management require the right incentives for community decision making.

Optimal approaches to restore degraded lands include enhancing livestock productivity, promoting community range management, and enhancing insurance schemes so that livestock keepers do not need to keep excess livestock for insurance purposes.

In mixed crop-livestock systems, forage production can contribute to sustainable land and water management, by for example, preventing erosion and enhancing soil fertility through nitrogen fixation. Policies and investments should support these innovations.