Webinar: Indigenous breeds for sustainable livestock farming systems in Africa

Episode 1 - Meeting tomorrow's challenges

November 21, 2024 11:00 am - 1:00 pm CET (UTC +1)

Registration, mandatory, before November 18, 2024 - Simultaneous translation into French and English.

The TSARA initiative - livestock task force - is offering a webinar to share an overview of current knowledge and research on indigenous breeds and their contribution.

Climate change is manifesting itself in every region of the world, raising questions about the future of livestock farming systems, particularly grazing and pastoral systems, with their attendant droughts, extreme temperatures, uncertainties over feeding and watering, and so on. Against this backdrop, indigenous breeds adapted to local breeding conditions are a resource for limiting the vulnerability of systems and promoting their resilience, while meeting the productivity needs of herds.

Objectives

The aim of the webinar "Local breeds for sustainable livestock systems in Africa" is to demonstrate the importance of breeds on the African continent, and to discuss the challenges and methods for characterizing their aptitudes and performance, and their contribution to resilience in the highly varied conditions under which socio-ecological systems operate on the continent. The event will also look ahead to the challenges of the future, in a more demanding climate.

The first episode (E1) of the webinar will therefore explore the key challenges facing livestock production systems, including climate change, productivity requirements, resilience requirements and the role of local breeds. It will include presentations and a survey of African research organizations on how they see the importance of local breeds in meeting the challenges of tomorrow's livestock production under a variety of risks and crises.

Two further episodes are scheduled for 2025

• E2 - Indigenous breeds: Revealing their genetic potential and socio-ecological importance
• E3 - Navigating the future with indigenous breeds: Research priorities and prospects for action

Registration is required by November 18. Simultaneous translation into French and English.