Leveraging Available Resources and Stakeholder Involvement for Improved Productivity of African Livestock in the Era of Genomic Breeding

Conclusion The African continent is home to diverse populations of livestock breeds that possess extremely valuable genetic materials but which are not utilized effectively to support economic development or to meet up with increasing demand. Owing to the rich genetic resources and availability of advanced breeding technologies, genomic breeding can be used to speedup livestock development on the continent of Africa. However, the promise and usefulness of genomic tools (especially genomic selection), which have supported livestock gains in many Western countries are yet to be implemented in most of Africa; the major constraints being lack of supportive government policies, funding, nutrition/health challenges, infrastructure and human knowhow. Thus, national governments need to recognize the contribution of livestock production to economic development and the wellbeing of citizens, and put in place enabling policies, necessary infrastructure and funding. Farmers must organize while universities and research institutions should tailor training to the needs of students and farmers. Furthermore, to design effective and sustainable livestock development programs, current production state of breeds and production systems must be adequately characterized through carefully designed investigations for production, reproduction, robustness and fitness traits, and all stakeholders must work together to achieve common goals. The notable success of the community based breeding program co...
Source: Frontiers in Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research