Agriculture
ICAR: African livestock production can't keep pace with demand─── 00:00 Tue, 14 Apr 2015
Pretoria - The African symposium on animal identification and recording systems for traceability and livestock development took place at the CSIR in Pretoria from April 14 to 16.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana delivered the keynote address during the opening of the symposium, which is jointly organised by the department, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR).
According to the ICAR, livestock production is increasing more slowly in sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions of the world, with lower average yields per animal. It states that production cannot keep pace with growing demand, which in turn has led to imports of livestock products into Africa to the tune of 2.3 billion US dollars per year, or about R32.7-billion.
The main focus of the symposium is on raising awareness of the importance of Animal Identification and Traceability (AIT) and Performance Recording (PR) to livestock development and food security.
The symposium also provided a platform to expand on international agreements, standards and regulations, tools and technology and so forth.
www.icar.org
