Improving the performance of crop-livestock systems - John McDermott on the SLP meetings

Video interview with John McDermott, ILRI Deputy Director General for Research.John McDermott, ILRI Deputy Director General for Research introduces the CGIAR System-wide Livestock Programme (SLP). He argues that its focus on the intensification of crop-livestock systems is critical: More than a billion people in developing countries are involved in these smallholder systems. The SLP brings together 12 CGIAR centers, and, he mentions, "one of the key things we've been struggling with is how to improve the performance of these [crop-livestock] systems" - so people can get more income and more benefits from them; also so the systems can be more sustainable. Reflecting on the just-completed SLP meeting in Addis Ababa, he highlights one of the major issues under discussion: how the crop biomass from these systems can be used more effectively - as food, as animal feed, and as fuel. Furthermore, how the crop residues can be fed back into the soil. "Now we are turning our attention more to this tradeoff between whether you actually feed these residues to animals or whether some of them should stay with the soil.