5 Adaptation to Climate Change
Adapting appropriate strategies would ensure sustainability of livestock production
system under changing climate scenario. An advanced planning of production
management systems is required, with an understanding of animal responses to
thermal stress and ability to provide management options to prevent or mitigate
adverse consequences (Nienaber and Hahn 2007). Alleviation of environmental
stress in livestock warrants a multi-disciplinary approach. The environmental stress
could be ameliorated by modifying the microclimate, nutritional manipulation and
selection of animals for thermal tolerance. Another alternative could be to change
the species, e.g. small ruminants like goat instead of cattle or buffalo. Provision of
an animal shelter is one of the most easily implemented and economical strategies
to minimize the impact of environmental stress. The microclimate modification
strategies that would facilitate improved heat exchange between an animal and its
environment are use of shade, misters, foggers or pad cooling; and improving the
ability of the animal to dissipate body heat by increasing sensible heat or increasing
evaporative heat loss, e.g. using sprinklers to wet animals. However, sensible and
evaporative heat losses are mutually dependent, which makes using one without the
other limits its utility. The other livestock management strategies could include
reduction of livestock numbers—a lower number of more productive animals leads
to more efficient production and lower GHG emissions from livestock production
(Batima 2007); changes in livestock/herd composition (selection of large animals
rather than small); improved management of water resources through the introduction of simple techniques for localized irrigation (e.g. drip and sprinkler irrigation), accompanied by infrastructure to harvest and store rainwater, such as tanks
connected to the roofs of houses and small surface and underground dams (IFAD
2009). Round the clock access to cool clean drinking water to meet potential peak
demands is critical for reducing evaporative heat loss and maintaining DMI by the
lactating animals. Nutritional manipulations like changing feeding frequency and
time of feeding, and changing ingredients, e.g. addition of dietary fat to increase
energy density, or additional roughage added to ration to reduce heat increment
could be adopted to maintain DMI during environmental stress conditions.
Breeding goals should appropriately be reset taking into account abiotic stress
factors, poor quality feed and fodders and incidence of various infectious diseases.
Species and breeds which are evolved in similar geo-climatic conditions and well
adapted to such conditions should be chosen over their exotic counterparts. The
long-term sustainability of production system should be the goal rather than
short-term gains from high yielding exotic breeds alien to local climatic conditions.
The milk producers should be made aware about the modern agronomic practices
for the production and conservation of fodder which would improve the supply of
animal feed reducing undernourishment and mortality in herds.
Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies for …
525
Adapting appropriate strategies would ensure sustainability of livestock production
system under changing climate scenario. An advanced planning of production
management systems is required, with an understanding of animal responses to
thermal stress and ability to provide management options to prevent or mitigate
adverse consequences (Nienaber and Hahn 2007). Alleviation of environmental
stress in livestock warrants a multi-disciplinary approach. The environmental stress
could be ameliorated by modifying the microclimate, nutritional manipulation and
selection of animals for thermal tolerance. Another alternative could be to change
the species, e.g. small ruminants like goat instead of cattle or buffalo. Provision of
an animal shelter is one of the most easily implemented and economical strategies
to minimize the impact of environmental stress. The microclimate modification
strategies that would facilitate improved heat exchange between an animal and its
environment are use of shade, misters, foggers or pad cooling; and improving the
ability of the animal to dissipate body heat by increasing sensible heat or increasing
evaporative heat loss, e.g. using sprinklers to wet animals. However, sensible and
evaporative heat losses are mutually dependent, which makes using one without the
other limits its utility. The other livestock management strategies could include
reduction of livestock numbers—a lower number of more productive animals leads
to more efficient production and lower GHG emissions from livestock production
(Batima 2007); changes in livestock/herd composition (selection of large animals
rather than small); improved management of water resources through the introduction of simple techniques for localized irrigation (e.g. drip and sprinkler irrigation), accompanied by infrastructure to harvest and store rainwater, such as tanks
connected to the roofs of houses and small surface and underground dams (IFAD
2009). Round the clock access to cool clean drinking water to meet potential peak
demands is critical for reducing evaporative heat loss and maintaining DMI by the
lactating animals. Nutritional manipulations like changing feeding frequency and
time of feeding, and changing ingredients, e.g. addition of dietary fat to increase
energy density, or additional roughage added to ration to reduce heat increment
could be adopted to maintain DMI during environmental stress conditions.
Breeding goals should appropriately be reset taking into account abiotic stress
factors, poor quality feed and fodders and incidence of various infectious diseases.
Species and breeds which are evolved in similar geo-climatic conditions and well
adapted to such conditions should be chosen over their exotic counterparts. The
long-term sustainability of production system should be the goal rather than
short-term gains from high yielding exotic breeds alien to local climatic conditions.
The milk producers should be made aware about the modern agronomic practices
for the production and conservation of fodder which would improve the supply of
animal feed reducing undernourishment and mortality in herds.
Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies for …
525