Replies to Smart Investments in Sustainable Food Production: Revisiting Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems

AAAS.ORG

Science Home

Current Issue

FEEDBACK

Previous Issues

HELP

LIBRARIANS

Science Express

All Science Journals

Science Products

My Science

02/10/2014 23:30

Enter Search Term

ADVANCED

About the Journal

Home > Science Magazine > Science Express >

Smart Investments in Sustainable Food Production: Revisiting Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems

M. Herrero, P. K. Thornton, A. M. Notenbaert, S. Wood, S. Msangi, H. A. Freeman, D. Bossio, J. Dixon, M. Peters,
J. van de Steeg, J. Lynam, P. Parthasarathy Rao, S. Macmillan, B. Gerard, J. McDermott, C. Ser, and M. Rosegrant
Science 12 February 2010: 822-825.
Abstract
Full Text
Full Text (PDF)

Dung Use Affects Food Sustainability

Rattan Lal
School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

In the Perspective "Smart investments in sustainable food production: Revisiting mixed crop-livestock systems" (12
February 2010, p. 822), M. Herrero et al. address an important topic of raising the productivity of crop-livestock systems
practiced by small-holder farmers in developing countries. They argue that "in such systems, livestock provide draft power
to cultivate the land and manure to fertilize the soil and crop residues feed livestock." In practice, however, the system
breaks down because the manure is not used to fertilize the soil but to cook food in most rural households in South Asia,
Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa (1, 2). The amount of dried cattle manure used annually as cooking fuel in 1995
was estimated to be 35 to 108 Tg (1 Tg = 1012 g = 1 million metric tons) in India, 130 to 210 Tg in Asia, and 150 to 410
Tg, globally (3). The amount of animal dung used for cooking has been estimated to be as much as 128 Tg per year in
India (4, 5), 1480 kg per household per year in Pakistan (6), and 0.2 kg per capita per day in Zimbabwe (7). Dung is also
used in brick-making kilns in South Asia (8), and as a choice of fuel in Andean pottery production in South America (9). The
combination of little or no dung used as manure, intensive grazing, and little or no application of chemical fertilizers has
been a principal cause of the severe problems of soil degradation resulting in depleted soil organic matter (10), the decline
in soil fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Ethiopia (11), soil compaction, and accelerated erosion (12).
The flow chart in Fig. 1 (p. 823) can only function if: (i) viable sources of clean cooking fuel are identified so that dung is
applied to soil as manure rather than used as cooking fuel, (ii) sustainable cropping systems are adopted in which forages
are grown as an integral component of soil-specific cropping systems so that crop residues are returned to the soil, and
(iii) small-holder farmers are compensated for ecosystem services (carbon sequestration, water conservation, biodiversity
enhancement) to promote the replacement of extractive farming practices by sustainable management of soil and water
resources. The conspicuous absence of these important factors in this and other reviews has contributed to agrarian
stagnation, low agronomic yields, a perpetual food deficit, environmental degradation, and serious health hazards in
developing countries.
Rattan Lal
School of Environment and Natural Resources, Kottman 210, Ohio State University, 2021 Coffey Road, Columbus, OH
43210, USA.
References
1. V. Ramanathan et al., Science 294, 2119 (2001).
2. V. Ramanathan, G. Carmichael, Nature Geosci. 1, 221 (2008).
3. C. Venkataraman et al., Science 307, 1424 (2005).
4. G. Habib et al., Global Biogeochem. Cycles 18, 1 (2004).
5. T. C. Bond et al., J. Geophys. Res. 108, 8001 (2004).
6. U. K. Mirza, N. Ahmad, T. Majeed, Renew. Sust. Energy Rev. 12, 1988 (2008).
7. L. Marufu et al., Biomass Bioenerg. 12, 53 (1997).

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5967/822.abstract&link_type=GOOGLESCHOLAR/reply

Page 1 of 2

Replies to Smart Investments in Sustainable Food Production: Revisiting Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems

02/10/2014 23:30

8. R. P. Aggarwal, V. K. Phogat, T. Chand, M. S. Grewal, "Improvement of soil physical conditions in Haryana" (Research
Bulletin, CCS Haryana Agricultural Univ., Hissar, India, 1995).
9. B. Sillar, Acrhaeometry 42, 42 (2000).
10. G. Bernard, Ambio, 14, 259 (1985).
11. A. Mekonnen, G. Kohlin, "Determinants of household fuel choice in major cities in Ethiopia" (Environment for
Development Discussion Paper Series EFD DP 08 18, Resources for the Future,Washington, DC, 2008).
12. R. Lal, Science 327, 1623 (2004).
... less
Submit response

Published 20 May 2010

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5967/822.abstract&link_type=GOOGLESCHOLAR/reply

Page 2 of 2