Improving animal feed products

Description

Improving animal feed products involves enhancing the nutritional quality, safety, and digestibility of feeds to optimize animal health, growth, and productivity. This strategy addresses issues such as nutrient deficiencies, contamination, and inefficient feed conversion by developing balanced formulations, incorporating additives, and utilizing advanced processing techniques. The practical intent is to ensure sustainable livestock production, reduce environmental impact, and support food security by providing animals with feeds that meet their physiological needs efficiently and safely.

Context

Humans depend on livestock for meat, milk, wool, furs, skins, biofuels, and a host of other important products. Their importance in human society corresponds to the vast resources needed for their production, such as land for grazing, as well as the substantial environmental impact this entails. One approach to reducing the environmental degradation of livestock production may be by improving livestock feed. Improved feed qualities may, among others things, lower methane emissions from ruminants (currently responsible for 3% of total greenhouse gases) and lead to more efficient conversion of feed into meat and milk (permitting smaller herds, thus reducing deforestation for grazing land).

Implementation

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends improving productivity, nutritional quality and shelf-life of animal feed products, including work on pre- and post-harvest losses.