10th International Conference on Goats
After the 10th ICG in Recife: Main achievements and comments
To organize such a Conference only 2 years after Queretaro was a challenge. Thanks to the perseverance of the organizing committee and the always more and more coordinated cooperation of all the Brazilian organizations and their financial involvement, a real new type of event has been achieved: Training, debates, didactic product presentations, without forgetting good scientific presentations. Several out comes at short and mid-term are likely.
What has been sewed in Brazil will keep growing here and more largely in every part of the world involved in goats, small livestock and rural development with always more international impact.
- The 10th International Conference on goats has welcome 550 participants.
- Among them, a large number (330) were students, breeders, technicians and scientists from the Brazilian Region of “Nord –Este” with important social issues in the fight against hunger and poverty.
- The Latin American scientific works on goats and small livestock were largely discussed with the participants of all over the world (138 foreign participants from all continents).
- The Brazilian case study has been discussed and compared with those of other continents with very active participants of project planning and development international experts. The methodological issues were important to improve innovation and initiatives.
- Many interesting ideas and proposals were debated to improve the quality and impact of goats and small livestock projects.
- The partnerships that were created in order to conduct this conference have generated positive synergy and collaboration.
To organize such a Conference only 2 years after Queretaro was a challenge. Thanks to the perseverance of the organizing committee and the always more and more coordinated cooperation of all the Brazilian organizations and their financial involvement, a real new type of event has been achieved: Training, debates, didactic product presentations, without forgetting good scientific presentations. Several out comes at short and mid-term are likely.
What has been sewed in Brazil will keep growing here and more largely in every part of the world involved in goats, small livestock and rural development with always more international impact.
Editorial: The teachings of the 10th ICG in Recife
By Jean-Paul Dubeuf
Always more development projects with more diversified issues to fight poverty. Better governance is identified and new expectations for research.
Everywhere in the world, goats and small livestock activities are facing important climatic, environmental, and social challenges. More coordination will be necessary not only to be sustainable but simply to survive. These stakes require less formalism and less academic results, but more debates, case studies, and multidisciplinary exchanges with adequate methods to manage all these necessary changes.
Answering the proposal of the board of the International Goat Association for organizing a conference with these challenges, the Zootechnical Department of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) accepted to organize such an innovative event in less than 2 years with many partner Institutions (INSA, EMEPA, CNPC-EMBRAPA, UFPB).
We warmly congratulate Dr. Francisco Fernando Ramos de Carvalho, Dr. Maria Norma Ribeiro, Dr. Roberto Germano Costa, and all the Organizing Committee for their full involvement in a successful meeting. The main topic of the 10th International Conference on Goats in Recife, in the Brazilian “Nordeste, from September, 19th to 23rd, was “Technological development and associative attempts to a sustainable small livestock activity”. Several forums were devoted to development projects on goats and small livestock activities and their governance at both operational (case studies) and theoretical levels.
A first conclusion is clear. The number of local projects involving goats and small activities is constantly higher everywhere in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with the financial and operational supports from various NGOs both national and international. The mainly market oriented projects are generally initiated by private investors, but we speak mainly here of survival and social oriented projects.
The discussions highlighted the need to improve the governance of these projects, ongoing process by which we must combine the interests of different stakeholders that may be conflicting. The coherence of the projects must be controlled and local actors must join and agree with the projects. They must also really take into account the controversies that exist within the partnership and identify opportunistic attitudes. It is also essential to ensure that the duration of funding is consistent with the objectives. The need for coordination among projects within a geographical area is also identified. It is a condition for local projects to create sustainable development.
More and more projects on goats and small livestock also take into account non-agricultural activities (crafts, processing, agro-tourism, etc.). It is the coherent articulation of these activities and the market access that creates development. The numerous initiatives to promote goat products in Northeastern Brazil that we discovered are evidence of the existing potential of innovation. At the research level, an important challenge remains the use of natural resources with more work on the interactions between livestock and forestry, more research on the anti-parasitic properties of plants to limit the use of anthelmintics. Also is a need for scientific knowledge on the conditions of implementing collective and cooperative structures in village communities.
In conclusion, I would say that the IGA is the only global organization, in the goats and small livestock sector, which is suited for this new and strategic role. We can meet these challenges because of our expertise and through creating new efficient networking activities.
By Jean-Paul Dubeuf
Always more development projects with more diversified issues to fight poverty. Better governance is identified and new expectations for research.
Everywhere in the world, goats and small livestock activities are facing important climatic, environmental, and social challenges. More coordination will be necessary not only to be sustainable but simply to survive. These stakes require less formalism and less academic results, but more debates, case studies, and multidisciplinary exchanges with adequate methods to manage all these necessary changes.
Answering the proposal of the board of the International Goat Association for organizing a conference with these challenges, the Zootechnical Department of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) accepted to organize such an innovative event in less than 2 years with many partner Institutions (INSA, EMEPA, CNPC-EMBRAPA, UFPB).
We warmly congratulate Dr. Francisco Fernando Ramos de Carvalho, Dr. Maria Norma Ribeiro, Dr. Roberto Germano Costa, and all the Organizing Committee for their full involvement in a successful meeting. The main topic of the 10th International Conference on Goats in Recife, in the Brazilian “Nordeste, from September, 19th to 23rd, was “Technological development and associative attempts to a sustainable small livestock activity”. Several forums were devoted to development projects on goats and small livestock activities and their governance at both operational (case studies) and theoretical levels.
A first conclusion is clear. The number of local projects involving goats and small activities is constantly higher everywhere in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with the financial and operational supports from various NGOs both national and international. The mainly market oriented projects are generally initiated by private investors, but we speak mainly here of survival and social oriented projects.
The discussions highlighted the need to improve the governance of these projects, ongoing process by which we must combine the interests of different stakeholders that may be conflicting. The coherence of the projects must be controlled and local actors must join and agree with the projects. They must also really take into account the controversies that exist within the partnership and identify opportunistic attitudes. It is also essential to ensure that the duration of funding is consistent with the objectives. The need for coordination among projects within a geographical area is also identified. It is a condition for local projects to create sustainable development.
More and more projects on goats and small livestock also take into account non-agricultural activities (crafts, processing, agro-tourism, etc.). It is the coherent articulation of these activities and the market access that creates development. The numerous initiatives to promote goat products in Northeastern Brazil that we discovered are evidence of the existing potential of innovation. At the research level, an important challenge remains the use of natural resources with more work on the interactions between livestock and forestry, more research on the anti-parasitic properties of plants to limit the use of anthelmintics. Also is a need for scientific knowledge on the conditions of implementing collective and cooperative structures in village communities.
In conclusion, I would say that the IGA is the only global organization, in the goats and small livestock sector, which is suited for this new and strategic role. We can meet these challenges because of our expertise and through creating new efficient networking activities.