The Future of Tropical Livestock Systems

Globally, tropical livestock production systems need to adapt to climate change, growing demand for animal source food, and resource scarcity. Transitions to sustainable future systems are guided by a wide variety of drivers and demands, be they economic (such as profitability and farmer livelihoods), socio-political (such as inclusion of smallholders and food safety), or environmental (such as nutrient cycling and avoiding feed-food competition). Understanding these drivers and the nature of system transitions is essential for the design of meaningful interventions. Especially as transitions depend on the values, roles, priorities, and commitments of stakeholders involved.

Course objectives

This course will explore the web of drivers that affect transition of tropical livestock systems towards a state in which they are better able to do what is expected: contribute to healthy diets, offer income and livelihood to farmers, and contribute to efficient use of resources. It will also help you in selecting methodologies for charting out and evaluating pathways to sustainable future tropical livestock systems in ways that match bottom-up and top down planning processes, address multiple demands (political, environmental, social, technological, legal, economic), and are sensitive to the plurality of values encountered. 

Learning goals  

Course participants will have increased abilities to:  

1. Explore the applicability of a variety of methods for tropical livestock systems, including modelling at various system levels, participatory assessment, big data, and artificial intelligence. 

2. Navigate the various people-profit-planet sustainability objectives for livestock systems at farm and food system level, such as livelihood, food production, climate change, biodiversity, and feed-food competition.  

3. Identify the technical, social and institutional changes required for facilitating system transition, such as technology development and adoption, financing, and policy reform. 

4. Explore the technical and social complexity of defining sustainable transition pathways for tropical livestock systems, incorporating various roles of livestock and choosing appropriate system levels for analysis and planning.  

General information

Target Group	PhD students and postdocs
Course level	In-depth, postgraduate
Group size	A minimum of 12 and a maximum of 25 participants
Course duration	5 days excluding travel to and from location, given once per year
Prior knowledge	Potential participants should have at least an MSc, in addition to a good understanding of one or more tropical livestock production systems, including pastoral, specialized and mixed crop-livestock, aquaculture, coastal fishing systems.  Good understanding of food system dynamics around tropical livestock production systems.
Homework/ self- study	Pre-course requirements include reading of key publications provided
Language	English
Credit points	2 ECTS (Note: 1 ECTS is equal to 28 hours of study)
Name lecturer(s)	Lecturers include Prof Dr Ir Simon Oosting, Dr Jan van der Lee, Fokje Steenstra (Wageningen University), Dr Kindu Mekonnen, Dr Million Gebreyes and Dr Zelalem Terfa (ILRI) as well as selected external experts.
Teaching method	The course will include interactive lectures based on expert presentations, field and group work on case studies, and a modelling assignment on system scenarios
Venue	Hawassa University campus, Hawassa, Ethiopia  Note: Exact location will be communicated to participants who have been accepted for the course about two weeks before the start of the course.
Registration deadline	April 30, 2026

 

Programme 

The five days will be packed with exciting interactive lectures (45 minutes each) and interactive group work. In small groups, you will work on a case study to define sustainable transition pathways and scenarios for one specific farming system, which includes field trips to collect data. As group you will present the results and learnings. You will also work on a small modelling assignment. The tentative themes per day are:  

 

Day 1
Morning	Livestock system typologies, challenges and opportunities
Afternoon	System modelling
Day 2
Morning	Sustainable transition pathways   Integral sustainability assessment
Afternoon	Farm visits
Day 3
Morning	Dairy development – farm, chain, and sector level dynamics   Colonial legacies in livestock development projects
Afternoon	Farm visits
Day 4
Morning	Crop-livestock mixed systems: integrated intervention and lessons from Africa RISING program in Africa  Modelling exercise
Afternoon	Social inclusion issues in livestock development – Gender, youth and smallholders  Climate smart livestock farming – adaptation and emission monitoring
Day 5
Morning	Case preparations  Elective lecture topics
Afternoon	Group project presentations

*Fee 

PhD candidates from Wageningen Graduate Schools doing a Training and Supervision Plan (TSP) or PhD candidates employed by ILRI	€ 600
All other PhD candidates	€ 900
All other participants	€ 1200

*Fee includes study and training material, accommodation (6 nights), coffee/tea and lunches, and field travel. Transport to and from Hawassa is not included.

Cancellation condition

Participants can cancel their registration free of charge at the latest May 8, 2026. A cancellation fee of 100% applies if a participant cancels his/her registration after this date or does not show up for the course. 

Information

Please contact the following for more information on:  

• Registration:              Paddy Haripersaud (wias@wur.nl) 

• Course content:          Dr Jan van der Lee (jan.vanderlee@wur.nl)  

• Logistics in Ethiopia:   Dr Kindu Mekonnen (k.mekonnen@cgiar.org)