Inadequate feed supplies remain a major constraint to sustainable cattle production in general, and milk production in particular, in smallholder production systems throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In the emerging peri-urban dairy production systems in West and central Africa, for example, poor development of feed resources has invariably resulted in milk production being sustained at comparatively high feed costs, thus reducing the competitiveness of locally produced milk.

The Amazon Basin, home to approximately half of the world’s tropical forests and a quarter of global biodiversity, has experienced alarming rates of deforestation, land degradation, and loss of ecosystem services since the 1960s. These processes have largely been driven by unsustainable, low-productivity agriculture, which has left a legacy of persistent rural poverty and over 30 million hectares of abandoned or severely degraded land.