Crop-Livestock Integration: The Dynamics of Intensification in Contrasting Agroecological Zones: A Review

Abstract

This paper examines crop-livestock integration, one of the key dynamics in the process of agricultural intensification. It traces the history of the ‘mixed farming’ concept, and describes the conventional trajectory of integration of crop and livestock sectors on smallholder farms, as well as the key processes involved. Possible causal factors of crop-livestock integration (other than the Boserupian explanation of population growth) and alternative trajectories of change are explored. Drawing on case-studies from Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Mali it is concluded that an understanding of the strategies of differentiated social actors and the institutional arrangements that mediate access to resources is essential to our study of crop-livestock integration.