This is the home of the Endogenous Livestock Development Network.
Endogenous livestock development focuses on livestock and people. It promotes animal production based on the initiatives of farmers, pastoralists and other livestock keepers. It relies on their own worldview, values, knowledge, institutions and resources, and mixes them with suitable outside resources.
The ELD Network aims to:
Create a global umbrella for learning, collaboration and networking
Deepen the understanding of people-centered livestock development
Support field-based ELD initiatives
Influence livestock-related education, research and policies.
In Africa, knowledge and practices concerning livestock keeping were passed on from generation to generation. Then other ways of development came, that implied more dependency on resources from outside. Today farmers from North-West Cameroon value once more what they have known and lived with for centuries. This film shows how farmers and extension workers re-discovered the potential of 'development from within'.
Endogenous livestock development means putting small-scale livestock keepers and pastoralists at the centre of their own development. It means building on what they already do, and supporting their initiatives to improve their livelihoods, instead of imposing "solutions" from outside.
There is an unexplored potential to be tapped for poverty alleviation and sustainable agricultural development: initiatives based on local marketing and endogenous livestock production systems. Southern countries need not simply follow the path of industrialised livestock production for the world market, as the northern countries decided to do several decades ago. North and South can learn from each other, as numerous options towards sustainable agricultural development - based on local initiatives and marketing - can be found in all continents.
These were some of the conclusions drawn at the symposium "The World on your Plate: Livestock in a global perspective", which was held on Wednesday November 7 th, 2007, at the veterinary faculty in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
This is the home of the Endogenous Livestock Development Network.
There is an unexplored potential to be tapped for poverty alleviation and sustainable agricultural development: initiatives based on local marketing and endogenous livestock production systems. Southern countries need not simply follow the path of industrialised livestock production for the world market, as the northern countries decided to do several decades ago. North and South can learn from each other, as numerous options towards sustainable agricultural development - based on local initiatives and marketing - can be found in all continents.