This video, narrated by Livestock and Fish director Tom Randolph explains why meat, milk and fish are critical to the poor both as food and income and how the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish works.

While research has hugely increased farm production in rich countries, we haven’t managed yet to help the millions of family farms in developing nations to raise their production very much. Getting food on the tables of the people who need it most is still a struggle for the world’s vast numbers of small-scale farmers and business people.

To change this, we’re experimenting with a new approach. The focus of research in the past was on research products. Now we’re making ourselves accountable for getting research into use. This is what a new program called ‘More meat, milk and fish by and for the poor’ is all about.

So what’s different about this program?

Well, for one thing, we’re addressing the whole way these foods move from small farms to tables. This so-called ‘food chain’ includes producing, processing, selling and consuming meat, milk and fish.

And we’re working to design big interventions that can transform whole farm-to-table chains in selected countries. This will help us scale up our research, with direct benefits for large numbers of people.

Also, we’re teaming up early with development partners who know how to take these interventions to scale.

Our program is focusing all its research capacity on just 8 farm-to-table livestock and fish systems selected because their successes can be replicated in many other regions. These 8 systems include small-scale dairying, goat and sheep raising, pig production and aquaculture in 8 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Our evidence will show that small-scale farmers and businesses, already central to feeding the world’s poor, will be key to food security up to the year 2050, when global populations peak. We want to demonstrate that their systems can be transformed. And this kind of science can make a big difference in everyone’s lives.

By doing research in this different way, we expect within a decade to see more meat, milk and fish being produced and consumed by the people who need it most.

See this as a powerpoint presentation