Livestock production is estimated to have doubled in the Middle East in the past 40 years, with a significant rise in poultry too. But there’s a perception that tech solutions to foster efficiency and resilience in livestock and poultry production are lagging other areas such as crop science, water scarcity and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).
But this is a sector rife for innovation and investment, according to experts speaking on a panel discussion at the recent the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in Dubai.
“People often consider crops as a critical sector as compared to livestock when it comes to issues of food security,” said Markos Tibbo, senior livestock development officer at the FAO.
Concerns about climate change and water scarcity in the region are putting livestock and poultry innovation on the back burner, he believes, while a general lack of data is also impacting on-farm decisions.
The growth seen in livestock and poultry production in the GCC, meanwhile, has been largely driven by large scale corporate entities, pointed out global dairy consultant Jack Corless. But the sector is operating on low profit margins and only sustaining itself thanks to demand from consumers for “a significant proportion of their meat, eggs and milk to be indigenous.”
That’s leaving a gap for tech solutions to improve productivity and profits. “There are only 900,000 dairy cows in the GCC and over a third of those are in a handful of dairy farms,” he said. “But we have over 26 million sheep and 12 million goats and we do have small scale dairy farms. So the challenge is to get technologies that are simple and easy to use into these smaller family farms in order to improve their efficiency so that they are sustainable. Because if I can measure something I can change it.”
New solutions emerging
One solution is Egypt-based PoultrySync, which is aiming to use data management and analytics to disrupt the poultry industry with an end-to-end AI enabled poultry management solution. “Poultry is the largest protein industry in the world and it’s here to stay,” said the company’s COO Neamat ElTazi.
More solutions are needed for smallholder livestock producers in the region who lack funding and on-farm infrastructure, said Alexander Kappes, CEO of Dubai-based Greener Herd, which is offering livestock producers data-driven tools to boost yields and reduce emissions. He estimates 99% of the 28 million livestock producers across the MENA region are smallholders.
Is digital literacy really a barrier to adoption?
Efforts are needed, agreed the experts, to address the barriers to adoption for the emerging digital technologies. These include high costs for farmers, lack of finance options, cultural resistance, and lack of knowledge about the long-term benefits.
But we shouldn’t over egg some of these barriers, according to Kappes. “One thing we know is that smart phone penetration is massive in our region,” he said. “Saudi Arabia is the number one user of YouTube on the planet. Farmers are seeking out the information. They are not finding results in their language, which is the bigger problem. But the digital literacy is there.”
To be adopted by smallholders, solutions must be “affordable, easy to use and applicable”, stressed Corless. “We need to understand that livestock is here to stay and there is huge value in terms of food security. There is room for improvement that we need public sector support for.”
Tibbo stressed the need for “integrated, data-driven precision livestock farming”. ElTazi added that “stronger collaboration and strong network for integration” is needed to accelerate the sector.
