Stakes of animal production in Southern countries

Abstract

In Southern countries, the place of the animal productionis more and more important and requires aquantitative/qualitative improvement of the productionability quite different than previously. In contrast with stagnation of the animal production observed in Europe and North America, this progress results froman important increase of the demand linked to the human growth and, in some cases, to the change in feeding behaviour of urban people. The challenges for research and development are the improvement of the animal productivity, lower than in northern countries, the poverty all eviation still predominating in ruralare as from tropical countries, and environmental preservation. In the same time, these challenges mustavoid the drifts of productivist approach, common afterthe second world war in northern agriculture, and mustensure the sustainability of the production systems in the future. The current dynamics reveal the livestock revolution in those countries as it is recognized by international agencies.