LIVESTOCK AS A PATHWAY OUT OF POVERTY IN LATIN AMERICA: A POLICY PERSPECTIVE

Rural poverty is widespread in Latin America, and smallholders make up the majority of the rural poor in all countries of the region. Since the land frontier is either closed or could be expanded only at high environmental cost, enhanced productivity and/or returns to their assets is a practical pathway out of poverty. Traditional staples, however, are unlikely to generate enough income to significantly reduce poverty; opportunities are rather offered by "new agriculture", which centres on producing high-value products, satisfying enhanced food safety requirements and product labelling, requiring establishing contracts with supermarkets and agro-exporters, etc. "New agriculture" is usually synonymous with horticultural products, but livestock might be well part of it: the value added obtained through successive transformations of animal products is significant and often higher than in most horticultural and industrial crops. This paper argues that livestock could be a pro-poor element of "new agriculture" in Latin America. First, a large share of the rural poor keep some livestock; second, the demand for animal food in the region is estimated to increase by almost 3/4 by 2030; third, the average Latin American consumer still demands traditional, low-processed food items, so that poor livestock producers are not a priori excluded from the market. The challenge for policy makers is to make good use of these opportunities. Given the dearth of theoretical studies and empirical evidence on pro-poor livestock policies and "new agriculture", this paper presents a policy framework for pro-poor livestock development, and proposes some institutional policies to make livestock part of the "new agriculture" in the Latin American continent.