Where's the beef? Why is livestock overlooked by public and private investors?

Some reasons suggested by ILRI@40 Addis Ababa event participants

Compiled by Peter Ballantyne

20 January 2015

• In 2014, to mark four decades of international livestock research, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) held a series of events on the ways in which livestock research advances food and nutritional security, economic well-being and healthy lives.

• At the November 2014 Addis Ababa event, we asked participants to suggest reasons why livestock is overlooked by public and private investors

• This powerpoint gives a summary of the suggestions mentioned by participants; it also presents a graphic ‘word cloud’ summarizing what the participants suggested (using a simple categorization of the responses).

• More on ILRI@40 events: news.ilri.org/category/ilri40

ILRI@40

Reasons for not investing in livestock

http://wordle.net

Reasons not to invest

• Livestock investments are risky– livestock are subject to droughts, export bans, policy biases, lack of

technology, difficult access to markets, un-developed market structures not developed, and lack of longer term planning; livestock products are perishable.

– high risk and long term investment is required before seeing returns (is there evidence of returns on investment?); there are perceived risks to humans and to livestock themselves

– livestock are a high risk investment with low returns (to private sector)

– higher risks associated to livestock investment [than crops]

– animals are more risky and solutions are more difficult and expensive

– livestock are a high risk venture; environmental pressures; production cycles are slow; management intensive; no quick wins; disease pressure leads to uncertainty; lack of technology; issues of scale and expansion; land rights, capital requirements

– there are less partners to invest in

Reasons not to invest

• Livestock investors must overcome complexity– compared to other interventions, it is difficult to get involved in livestock

- it requires transportation, infrastructure, specialized technologies.

– livestock value chains are complex

– livestock are management-intensive and labour-intensive

– mixed crop-livestock systems are complex

Reasons not to invest

• Livestock investments need time to mature– livestock have a longer lag time for return on investments

– livestock programs require money and time to get results; evaluators expect instant results

– it takes a long time and high investments to get results given all the uncertainties with livestock production

– a long time is needed to deliver at a time when most investors want 'instant impact'

– it takes longer to realize returns to livestock investments; the impacts of livestock are not immediate

– investment is held back by short termism of donors

– crops produce direct and visible benefits; livestock require long term efforts (you don’t see benefits quickly)

Reasons not to invest

• Livestock investors have a limited evidence base– the benefits of improved livestock production are less obvious

– few proofs of concept

– inadequate empirical evidence on the contributions of livestock to inform public and private decision making

– limited evidence, little long term data and information [to convince investors]

– perceived low returns on investments

– the links between livestock and development and food security are not well-understood

– past World Bank programs indicate low returns on investment

Reasons not to invest

• Livestock are often invisible– much livestock is produced in the informal sector [outside what investors

may see]

– livestock are taken for granted - they are always there - and are overlooked in favour of other issues

– livestock are taken for granted - "because it moves it will take care of itself"

– impacts of public goods investment in livestock are not easily visible and take time to materialize

– livestock is rarely seen as a business, most usually just an aspect of the landscape

– livestock keepers have no political voice because they are marginalized

– most people don’t pay attention to livestock

– history of policy neglect in most countries

Reasons not to invest

• Livestock have image problems– simply, bad reputation

– people see a contradiction between feeding animals versus human nutrition. Where land is scarce, people perceive it is needed for people over animals

– the 'bads' of livestock dominate public opinion because promoters are very vocal

– donors see livestock as bad for the environment

– in developed countries, there are negative associations such as public health and environment. Not politically 'sexy'

– pressure from lobby groups who discourage people from eating animal products, mainly for health reasons; a strong vegetarian/vegan lobby

– livestock often seen as a sign of [private] wealth; beef is expensive hence consumed by a few rich [it does not deserve development investments]

– livestock raising is considered as a subsistence activity rather than an economic venture

– supporters of livestock development do not have hard countervailing evidence; they have been slow to counter negative publicity

– people think beef comes from the grocery store

Reasons not to invest

• Crop investments are more popular– crop breeding is easy

– in developing countries fear of famine means priority is to staple crops

– the food price crisis was largely a staple crops affair

– when talking food security, crops dominate the conversations

– food security tends to equal cereal security - not looking at livestock for this

– crop sector more attractive to investors due to shorter growth cycles (return on investment)

– there’s a bias towards the colour green

More

• News stories: news.ilri.org/category/ilri40

• Products: cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/45939

• Photos: Photos on flickr

• Video materials: Playlist on YouTube

The presentation has a Creative Commons license. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.

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