Suchergebnisse

This project aims to identify the risks and benefits associated with the use of wastewater in urban and peri-urban fodder and vegetable cropping systems in India and Pakistan, where wastewater is largely untreated due to lack of public finance. Two mega-cities (Faisalabad, Pakistan and Hyderabad, India, with large untreated wastewater irrigation areas have been selected a) for comparative purposes and b) to develop and promote country-specific risk mitigation options. With a particular focus on food safety, livelihoods and livestock, the research will combine field and laboratory methods and structured interactions with producers, consumers, and authorities (urban planning, public health and water management). The goal of the project is to improve health and safeguard wastewater-dependent livelihoods of resource-poor urban and peri-urban farmers and consumers in developing countries. This overlaps with IWMI?s mission to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature. The project?s purpose is to develop and promote the uptake of a set of risk mitigation options based on a comprehensive assessment of risks and benefits associated with wastewater irrigation in Hyderabad (India) and Faisalabad (Pakistan). The project will enable the uptake of the recommendations in two countries with large wastewater-irrigated areas and different political - institutional environments.

As global demand for livestock products (such as meat, milk, and eggs) is expected to double by 2050, necessary increases to future production must be reconciled with negative environmental impacts that livestock cause. This paper describes the LivestockPlus concept and demonstrates how the sowing of improved forages can lead to the sustainable intensification of mixed crop–forage–livestock–tree systems in the tropics by producing multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. Sustainable intensification not only improves the productivity of tropical forage-based systems but also reduces the ecological footprint of livestock production and generates a diversity of ecosystem services (ES), such as improved soil quality and reduced erosion, sedimentation, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Integrating improved grass and legume forages into mixed production systems (crop–livestock, tree–livestock, crop–tree–livestock) can restore degraded lands and enhance system resilience to drought and waterlogging associated with climate change. When properly managed tropical forages accumulate large amounts of carbon in soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes), inhibit nitrification in soil and reduce nitrous oxide emissions (grasses), and reduce GHG emissions per unit livestock product. The LivestockPlus concept is defined as the sustainable intensification of forage-based systems, which is based on three interrelated intensification processes: genetic intensification – the development and use of superior grass and legume cultivars for increased livestock productivity; ecological intensification – the development and application of improved farm and natural resource management practices; and socio-economic intensification – the improvement of local and national institutions and policies, which enable refinements of technologies and support their enduring use. Increases in livestock productivity will require coordinated efforts to develop supportive government, non-government organization, and private sector policies ...