• Thirteen African nations announce joint measures to modernize pastoral systems
• Agenda includes feed banks, genetic upgrades, and youth-focused agribusiness
• Sector supports 80 million people in West Africa but lags in global output

The African pastoral sector is set for new reforms after 13 countries unveiled measures to boost livestock productivity at a ministerial meeting in Dakar on September 3.

The commitments, announced on the sidelines of the African Food Systems Forum, include creating feed banks, rolling out genetic improvement programs for higher-yield breeds, and promoting youth entrepreneurship to shift pastoralism from subsistence to agribusiness.

Organizers — the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), and German development agency GIZ — said the goal is to raise Africa’s contribution to global output. Despite hosting 85% of the world’s herders, the continent supplies only 2.6% of global milk and remains a net importer of dairy products.

“We produce only 400 million liters of milk, compared with more than 2 billion liters per year in Kenya and Uganda,” said Senegal’s Agriculture and Livestock Minister Mabouba Diagne.

ILRI Director-General Appolinaire Djikeng stressed the need to scale up regional solutions: “We must link science, policy, and practice to meet rising demand, improve the livelihoods of more than 200 million herders, and safeguard the environment.”

Pastoralism remains one of the few economic activities able to harness arid and semi-arid lands, yet faces growing challenges from climate change, land pressure, insecurity, and mobility restrictions. In West Africa alone, the sector provides 65% of beef and 75% of milk, sustaining about 80 million people, according to ILRI.