Livestock production and climate change

This 395-paged-book aims to raise awareness among scientists, academics, students, livestock farmers and policy makers of the twin inter-related and inter-dependent complex mechanisms of livestock rearing and climate change. The contents are divided into sections: one on livestock production, one on climate change and one on enteric methane amelioration. In the first section, decisive issues such as current feed and fodder demand, the effect of climate change on feed availability and quality, projections for 2030, water requirement, etc., have been dealt in order. Given the due importance to abiotic stress, nitrogen emissions and phosphorus pollution, well-designed individual chapters are arranged in this section that suggest the appropriate corrective measures for these global glitches. As ruminants thrive mainly on fibrous feed material, particularly in the developing world, the special topics on metagenomics and proteomics are positioned in this section for the effective use of these emerging approaches in fibre degradation. As stated earlier, livestock production and climate change are amalgamated through complex mechanisms, and one affects the other in many ways. Therefore, in the section on climate change, an attempt is made to address the interspersed link under seven chapters, focusing on the carbon footprint of producing food of animal origin, carbon sequestration, livestock diversity, animal reproduction, meat production and the role of indigenous livestock in the changing climatic scenario. Exclusive attention is given to enteric methane emission in the final section for being the critical factor in climate change, and is deliberated under nine different chapters converging on status, thermodynamics, feeding and biological interventions to address the problem and to achieve practically viable reduction levels for minimizing the impact of global warming and saving biological energy that can be directed towards productive functions. It is hoped that the comprehensive, compact and up-to-date information contained in this book will empower animal scientists to cope with the climate change issue.