Livestock production is increasing throughout Africa, driven by human population growth, improving living standards and urbanization. Seventy percent of the rural poor own livestock and over 200 million people rely on livestock for income.
Livestock provide both food and income, and for many small-holder farmers livestock provide draught animal power, transportation and manure for fertilizing croplands. Livestock is also socially and culturally important in Africa for payment of dowry, celebrations and gifts to family members, and also as a source of savings that is often safer, despite diseases and drought, than banking systems and easier to manage for remote farmers.
