High-level Event: Livestock Transformation Pathways: Investing in Better Nutrition, Stronger Livelihoods, and Climate-Resilient Growth

Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Good. So, we are more or less managing to fill the room. So, congratulations all for having found the room. It's not one of the easiest to find. So, I'm very happy to see that we are all here today. Translation is available, so if some of you need it, please It may take a bit of time to start, let's see. So, I will continue a bit of introduction when we are sorting out the translation issue. So we are together for about one hour. We are going to have a lot of great speakers. I will just ask people, you know, to be brief. I think as you see on the screen, you are on the session of livestock and investment. We know livestock matters for livelihood, for nutrition, how it has a complex relation with environment. But when we talk about investment, it's the most natural thing to talk about livestock. Livestock is the first type of investment that farmers have ever done. You invest and you are going to collect later. It is also Basically, a cow, a chicken is a bio factory. So now bringing this and seeing how facing the global demand for high proteins, we can actually create the right investment condition is critical. So to talk more about this, I will start by inviting our Assistant Director General, Tanawat Kiansin. that is also the director of the Animal Health and Production Division and the chief veterinarian, and I would say even my friend. So please stand and welcome and do your nice introduction.

Thank you very much, David Laborde, my friend. You know that every time when I have been invited to talk about livestock. You know that over the past 20 years, when you talk about livestock, we didn't have many good news. It's always, when people talk about livestock, it's always number one, we talk about climate change. emissions, methane, and so on. But it's good that today when you see the title of your discussion is about investing in better nutrition. And even though yesterday I myself with my dear directors of nutrition, talk with our colleague from WHO and others, we also talking about nutritions from animal source food from alternate alternative protein and so on. When we're talking about the international community, my colleague from World Bank, my colleague from the World Bank, when the any money to support, to invest in livestock projects, programs, investments. It's always they receive a group of people who love livestock so much, protest in front of the bank, don't invest in livestock. And that's why over the past 20 years, we are struggling at the national level, at the global level? How are we going to put more investment to support livestock sectors? Because today, when we are feeding 8 billion people, we also need good qualities of animal source food, meat, milk, egg, to support better nutrition. But when next 20 years when we reach 10 billion people, we need more. I remember when I visited some country like Ethiopia. Ethiopia have around 130 million people and they produce around 30 million chickens a year. What does it mean? 130 million people with 30 million chickens, it means 180 can eat only one chicken wing a year only. And that's why you see some place consume a lot. Some place didn't have an opportunities to have high qualities, animal source food that livestock produce for us. And you can see that why our director general initiated one child, one egg in Bhutan to make sure that Bhutanese children will have an opportunity to get access at least one egg a day at school because egg is an accessible, affordable protein that can support growth of children. And that's why here in FAO, we know that we need to build more narrative, more evidence, new and balanced narrative around livestock sectors. And that's why the Sustainable Livestock Transformation Initiative started in late 2022. And that's why here in FAO, every two years, we host the Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation because we want to bring all producers, farmers, private sectors, academia, and also financial institution come and talk and see what is the opportunities for livestock producers, farmers, and for everyone to make sure that livestock sectors make contributions for better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life. And that's why today you will hear more from different ministers, colleagues from international financial institutions, and all of you also to exchange how to bring more investment and also responsible investment to support the sectors to ensure that the livestock sector is a part of aqua food system, not only producing food, but also make other contributions to livelihood, employment and others. And that's why I thank you again for inviting me to speak this morning to make sure that you will have a fruitful discussion, you will have interesting conversation this morning. Thank you very much.

Thanks a lot, Tanawat, for this introduction. Now I am going to invite Teresa Vendramini, that is going to bring maybe a perspective from Brazil, but with global implications. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good morning. David, I know that I have only four minutes. I will do that. Thanks for the invitation. It's a pleasure to be here on this panel. And I am a livestock farmer in Brazil, in Sao Paulo, in the state of Sao Paulo, in Mato Grosso do Sul. And it's a pleasure to talk a little about my work in Brazilian livestock farming. And Mr. Tissen, I have good news from Brazil. 2025 was a historic year for Brazilian livestock farmers. Yes, the country produced 12.35 million metric tons of carcass weight equivalent and exported 3.5 million metric tons of beef to 175 countries. This performance consolidated Brazil for the first time as the world's largest producer of beef and maintained the country position as the leader in global exports. Between 1990 and 2025, national beef production grew by 146% and the herd was estimated at 195 million herd, the largest commercial herd in the world, while Brazil came into account for 16 total global beef production. Another highlight is the advancement in production intensification. In 19 25 feedlot system and intensive pasture finishing accounted for 23% of slaughtered cattle, while 19 million animals received high concentrated diets. The numbers prove that it's possible to produce more with greater efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness. But, David, we have problem, a lot of problem, and they have a challenge. The challenges in livestock farmer are numerous. For example, high production costs, a lot. Traceability requirements. Not all Brazil is prepared for traceability. Third, trade barriers and global tariffs. We have Trump's numerous tariffs, Chinese safeguards, and European protection. And I think that Brazil and all of the other countries have another problem, climate factors. This is terrible for us. And the last one, access to technology and technical assistance for small scale producers. In Brazil, 80% of the rural producers are small scale producers. This is very important to say. We must also highlight how geopolitical instability affects productions and drives up food prices. Brazil still imports 80% of the fertilizers consumer. Recent geopolitical instability has brought us concern and high prices. Thank you, David. My four minutes. Thank you for the opportunity to talk. It was a pleasure.

Great. So we continue to fill the room. And we are not so bad in time. So now I'm going to invite our speakers. We are going to have the pleasure to hear from ministries, ministers, sorry, from policymakers and investors. And we are going to see how we can support the development of the sectors and of course, address some of the challenges that you have said. Because I think a lot of our friends will echo what you have said about Brazil, you know, the question of smallholder, the question of market integration, the question of feed, the question of cost. It is a challenging task. And I will say for many of my friends that are in the livestock sector also, you don't take vacation. When you plant your soybean, you can go a bit away. When you have cows, you have to be here every day. So now I'm going to invite the speaker to come. So first, I would like to invite His Excellency, Mr. Ramirama Kayantore from Uganda. I think he was-- here. Okay, so let's wait a couple of time. Okay, so it's not a problem. We are flexible. Now, I would like to invite His Excellency, Dagon Bacaro, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from Colombia. Mr. Jambalsteren Tumuria from Mongolia. His Excellency Mark Chombe from Zambia. I think your seat is here. So now let's look at the investors. So Mr. Andrei Zironkin from -- okay. Mr. Ivan Ivanov. So Mr. Ivanov is from IFC. You are from EBRD. And finally, a private investor, Mr. Rod Basset from Asset Green. OK. Yes. OK, sorry. Let me start with you, Mr. Baquero. We know how in Colombia, I mean, the livestock sector is important. It has been growing. There's also a number of natural resources to manage. And you have national policies, you have also provinces that are investing. So we would like to know actually a bit more and how is your perspective in terms of how policies can help attracting investment in this sector and de-risking, including at the provincial level. Muchas gracias. Thank you very much.

In Colombia, we have around 565,000 livestock farmers. That equals to 7 billion liters of milk and 7 million heads of livestock. Now, the climate, of course, has an impact. Climate change is on the rise. Milk production is on the decline, and there is a lower meat production as well. In Colombia, we have started implementing policies to help livestock farmers to reduce costs and increase productivity through the regenerative livestock program, Ganaderia Regenerativa. which means we have started to finance centers for livestock production, reducing the burden on farmers. We have also promoted a program to develop the creation of wells. We have financed solar panels to help with irrigation. And we also have promoted mechanization programs, a program worth quite a lot of, and its goal is to support 100,000 smallholder farmers. That accounts to some $100 million in terms of an investment. These are resources that we are looking for here at FAO. through the multilateral bank and through other cooperation and credit mechanisms, especially in Italy. And our goal is to make sure that livestock farmers earn a living, and they also have to develop a more sustainable and better quality livestock sector. So.

I think this question, you know, about profitability and sustainability are coming together now. But let me move to another part of the world right now and to go to Mongolia, where actually we know how livestock and pastoralism is more than just an economic activity. It's an important economic activity, but you have also a cultural dimension and obviously a contribution to people livelihood. So in the case of Mongolia, how you will define what is modern pastoralism? How you will trigger investment and action in this direction?

Okay, thank you, Madritsaa. Distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen, in Mongolia, pastoral livestock husbandry is not merely economic sector. It's an integral part of our nomadic heritage, cultural identity, and livelihoods of rural communities. Approximately one-third of our population depends directly or indirectly on the livestock sector. Therefore, Mongolia modernization doesn't mean replacing our traditional nomadic system within the industrial model. It means preserving its strength while making it more productive, resilient, sustainable and better connected to modern technology, markets and finance. Our objective is not simply to raise more livestock, but to create more value from each animal while protecting herders' livelihoods and the environment. Mongolia has more than 70 million head of livestock and extensive pastoral land resource. However, climate change, drought, overgrazing and market volatility are creating growing risks. Our priority therefore is risk management and climate resilience. Firstly, we need to stronger early warning systems and digital information, integrating weather, pasture condition, water availability and livestock movements. We also need to better water reserves, water infrastructure and systems for many needing seasonal migration and emergency grazing. Second, we must improve productivity, quality and genetics. The future of our livestock sector shouldn't be measured by animal numbers alone. We need to increase the value and productivity of each animal through better genetics, nutrition, reproductive technologies, veterinary services and animal health management. Third, we need to connect herders more effectively to markets and value chains. We want to move beyond the export and sale of the raw materials and enable herders to capture greater value meat from dairy, wool, cashmere and hides and skins. This requires stronger processing, grading, quality, traceability and market access. Cooperative can help herders organize production is strengthened, organic forward gain better across the finance, technology and service. Third, animal health via food supply are essential for international competitiveness. Also we need to stronger this is survival and provision better veterinary and laboratory capacity and effective digital certification and traceability systems. This is important to not only exports but also for ensuring safe and nutritious food for our own population. Fifth, we must modernize the service herders. Today's herders need reliable weather information, veterinary and breeding service, feeding advice, insurance, finance, market information, and technological support. Our government cannot provide all these services alone. We need an integrated ecosystem bringing together government, businesses, financial institutions, researchers, organizations, technology providers, and cooperative inheritors. At the same time, sustainable pasture management, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of soil and water resources must remain at the heart of modernization. In summary, Mongolia's modernization of pastoral livestock husbandry means moving from livestock numbers to productivity and quality, from raw materials to value-added products from disaster response to risk management, from traditional information to science and technology, and from individual herders to organized producers connected to value chains. From perspective of Mongolia, government of Mongolia and Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Hygiene, this represents a significant opportunity for investment and cooperation. Our goal is combined to strengthen of Mongolian traditional nomadic livestock with modern technologies, finance, sales and markets. This is how we can increase the herders' incomes, strengthen food security, protect our environment and create new opportunities for investment and cooperation. Thank you.

Thanks a lot. So you have already give us a glimpse about the complexity of the livestock sectors. You know, it's not just about animal, it's about animal health, it's about traceability, it's about taking care of the land and the pasture. It is also thinking about national and domestic food security and food safety, and at the same time thinking about exports. So let me now move to Dr. Chombe, and to look at Zambia, because here also we have this great example where, yes, for a long time, Zambia was associated in the world with minerals, with copper, but your president had a clear vision about developing agricultural exports. And in this context, Of course, the livestock sector is going to play a critical role. You have a target of about $1 billion a year, and you have large operators and, of course, a lot of smallholders. So, in this context, how your government is designing this new livestock economic zone and certified animal disease-free compartments to ensure that smallholders can be part of this export effort?

Thank you very much. I want to recognize, first of all, the Minister who is with us for our green economy and environment. I also want to recognize the presence of the Director, Animal Production and Health, FAO, our country rep for FAO, and many others who are here today. It is my pleasure to speak to you today because we, as Zambians, we have a target of exporting one billion dollar per year by 2031. And for us to reach that, we have certain things that we have to put in place. And the livestock sector in our country is one of the center or pillar of our economic growth that the president has identified through a one billion dollar target and one billion heads of animals. And Zambia has 90% of our animals with small-scale farmers. And our target of exporting cannot be achieved if we don't take care of those small-scale farmers. And these small-scale farmers have challenges of disease, challenges of animal diseases that we experience, and also animal nutrition. is one of the biggest burden that we have as a country. Another thing that we have as a challenge is infrastructure along the value chain of beef export. And therefore, it is in those areas that the government of Zambia is seeking for support from many other cooperating partners. The biggest challenge we have are diseases of trade, that is FMD, foot and mouth disease. which has deterred us from exporting as we want to export. As you rightly said, Zambia has a target of 1 billion to export. That is a directive from our president who has put it as a growth agenda for the country. That is Zambia economic growth agenda to export beef in the neighboring and many other countries. For your own information, Zambia has eight neighbors plus one, so we want to tap into this by exporting beef to these countries. So this, as a government, we are there to give guidance. We are there to support private sector. We are there to create condition environment for doing business in Zambia, and therefore, as a country, We are promoting the private-public partnership where if there are people who want to invest in the value chain for beef, they are welcome because we are promoting the partnership with government. As government, we are creating conducive environment for them to do business in Zambia along the value chain. One of the things that they need to do is to come and invest in our abattoirs. Come and invest in the disease control. Come and invest in the promotion of value addition, processing, and all those along the value chain. So as a government, we are there to certify the abattoirs if you invest in abattoir for export. We are also there to rehabilitate the laboratories that we have as a country, which is a network so that we do the surveillance properly. and the quality assurance of what we want to export. We are also there to promote animal traceability and identification so that whatever we are dealing with in our animals, you can easily trace it from the production part up to the end of the product. And we're also strengthening the disease control regime, and that's where we come in when we want to control diseases. We are coming where we have established animal disease-free zones. And from those zones, we have the smaller units called animal disease-free compartments, which meet the OAH standard, the World Animal Health Organization standards, so that we export beef which is disease-free. and we export a good quality beef from these disease-free compartments. So for us as government to achieve this, I've already indicated that we need to cooperate with private sector who can come and invest in the value chain of beef. While government is providing police direction, oversight and public infrastructure, we need to commercialize. If people are there to commercialize the production of animal, even in animal genetics, where we want to grow the animal size into exportable quality, partners are welcome to do that. So we can mobilize for animal disease control. We can also look at the abattoir mechanization, we can look at the cold chain and logistics involved in them. And also we are looking for livestock financing. I've said that 90% of our livestock is kept by small scale farmers. These, for them to have community based animal disease free compartments, they need support. so that at the end of it all, we have by supporting also benefit from what will come out of the animal disease free compartments. And today, as we discussed today here at the High Eye on the Farm, as a country, we already have an investment plan towards the beef export agenda. I want to encourage partners today to engage Openly and consultatively, we are also going to be pitching as a country on the same agenda where we are inviting partners to come and see and to come and invest in our livestock sector. Our target, mind you, is a $1 billion target that we want to export. With the support from partners, I'm very optimistic that we are going to be able to reach that. And we're also going to grow our livestock from where we are of about 5 million cattle to 11 million cattle by the end of 2031. So these cannot be achieved by us alone. We can achieve it with your support as partners. In short, I therefore call upon all stakeholders to come and join us as a country. We have good policies, we have good environment, we have good land, we have quite vast land in our country. So come and invest in our country's growth agenda of beef export. I thank you.

Thank you. So as you say clearly and eloquently, we need financing. So I am not going to turn to all different investors. Tanawat was also saying that sometimes investing in livestock may not be popular. Or also what we see around the world is There is a bit of confusion between what's happened in one country, what's happened in another, and why actually we need financing to just make the system better. Because livestock is not going to disappear, whatever people will say. So the question is how we can make it better. And yes, it has a cost. So I would like first to turn to Mr. Ivanov and to know basically from IFC how you manage to use blended finance in order to balance basically the economic development with the long-term sustainability and therefore how we can make sure that land is well treated and basically pasture land are not degradated but restored, how we can make sure we reduce methane emission because as we have also heard from Theresa from the panelists, livestock is suffering from climate change and livestock contribute to climate change. So how you make it happen, how you fix the problem from your side?

Thank you. Thank you for the question and it's a great pleasure to be here. As usual, as Mr. Thararatien said, we ask the hard questions. And this is why we are here, because we have to promote development. And back to what you said about demand in the sector, actually, in the countries where we work, and we work in developing countries, the demand is big. And a lot of countries, and some of them are here, want to invest. They're investors. We work with private companies. They invest in the sector, and the sector is growing. Now, back to your question about the externalities or the climate impact of the sector. So if you take the FAO numbers, business as usual will increase the emissions of the sector by 40%. So if we continue increasing production the way we are producing, and here is the honorable minister from Colombia. So if we produce beef in Colombia on one hectare of land, instead of three because you can produce it in on three--three animals on one hectare, then this is not sustainable. So that's why it's important as we grow to grow the right way, to improve the productivity, to improve the--to improve the way we produce. So this is--this is our philosophy. We invest in systems that can produce more, satisfy the demand on the market, because people are investing because consumers want more of those products. Now we have to satisfy the demand, but we also have to make it in a way that doesn't blow the boundaries of the planet. So we have to reduce the emissions. And also the second take away from the great work FAO has done on the climate impact of the sector, if you look at the pathway to reduce emissions, 80% of what is there is good business. Now the question is why so many people around the world in this sector are not doing good business and how we can help them do good business. But actually a lot of the emissions can be reduced with good business. And I would say the last 20%, it should be a partnership with the government if you want to go to net zero. And you have some good examples how you can do this. So we, as an institution, we have a very... strict view on where we invest. Actually, we have something called practices for sustainable investment in livestock operations. And one of them is that we invest in companies only that look at all the ways to reduce their emissions to the maximum possible. So that's one of the musts. And back to your question. So improving pasture management, that's a must. That's not an option. We don't invest in companies that actually degrade land. So, but then reducing the methane emissions, the second part of your question, there are many ways of doing this. Some are good business, improved fed management and so on. But some like inhibitors are not something that the farmers are doing. And And once again on this panel, somebody said, "Whatever we do, we have to do it in a way that the farmer earns money." So if the farmer doesn't earn money, then it doesn't work. Now, there are things-- and once again, let's reiterate, 80% of the good climate is good business. So this is where we invest, this is how we promote those systems, we put them as a model for the country, And we work also with the governments that's more on the public side of our institution to promote those practices in the sector so that the whole system grows the same way. Thank you.

Thank you. So if it is good business, how we make sure that we put the right policies and we have seen example in different countries, but good policies is just one part of the equation. We need to make sure that private investors can come at scale. And so I would like to hear from you, Andre, in particular from the EBRD and the work done in Central Asia. Do you have concrete examples about how you can, with your own investment, attract more private investment at scale?

Thank you very much, David. It's an honor to be here and I'm really glad that it's a room full of people to discuss livestock on a Wednesday morning. This is quite inspiring, to be honest. I have quite some examples and I think maybe I can even share more after the panel if anybody's interested. But the best ones that I have come with blending finance. It comes with attracting development partners. It comes working together with other IFIs. So in Central Asia we realized a Nexus initiative together with OECD and it was funded by Germany as a donor where we provided grant support and TC support to our clients. And this helped build up several value chains. And to be honest, as you say, this also helped the private business and this also helped the private businesses invest more in themselves because the support that we provide is ongoing. It's not that we provide one loan to a company. We go on and do several in a row, year after year, as they grow. This continuous support is only enabled by our partnerships, by additional funds provided quite often by the governments too. And as Ivan was saying, the bottom line actually matters to our clients. EBRD supports private businesses. We focus on those. And maybe the best example that I have is actually from Mongolia. And we had a very productive bilateral meeting yesterday with Mongolian delegation, and we will continue to support more and more clients. The way EBRD often does it is go through aggregators, and then we make sure that the practices that we instill on the aggregators are then passed down on the farmers, passed down on the suppliers. And the best example of this is the Apu Dairy project we have in Mongolia where we work with a dairy producer that collects milk from very small holder suppliers. Mongolia is quite a unique case there where there are no large milk farms, where farmers are quite split up and we through our work with FAO managed to come up with practices, with examples, with demonstration farms, and with educational initiatives for the farmers where we show them, demonstrate to them the sustainable way of doing business. And I can't claim that the uptake was 100%, it's never true. But for me, even if again, we change those 20% that Ivan was talking about, If we manage to improve those lives, that's already quite an impact. And this is what EBRD is about. This is what we're looking for, the additionality in our investments. We understand that money by itself can come from many sources. But the education, the technologies, the additionality of it only comes with extra work, extra effort that is only available when partners come in. And for EBRD, FAO is a major technical partner here. We hope that we are a good financing partner for FAO. And yeah, if anybody's interested in any other examples, I'll be happy to share after the panel. Thank you.

Thank you. So yes, still a lot of people, people coming, people standing. So it's an example of sustainable intensification, OK? More production by unit of land.

Quite an impressive crowd overall, so thank you very much.

Now, so let me turn to Rod Basset. So we were talking about investor. Let's go to a private investor, but also an impact investor. So profit matters, but that's not the only thing. And you have seen the kind of complex ecosystem we are in. And from your side, what do you expect from international organization, in particular, like FAO, that doesn't provide money, but provide knowledge, provide partnership? and how we can all work together with national government to support the development of this sustainable livestock sector. Thank you.

Thank you, David, and good morning to the audience. It's a question I wish I'd met David five years ago, actually six years ago, as we embarked on our investment strategy. But just for the benefit of the audience, we're a private strategic investment group out of London, UK. We have a global food security investment thesis that we've been working on for about seven years now. So what's that mean? Our strategy is to work with countries to deliver flagship investments or priority initiatives for a country. Drilling that down a little bit more to give you two live examples in the livestock sector, we're working on a $350 million integrated dairy systems investment in Ethiopia and a $500 million similar dairy investment systems investment in Nigeria. When we say systems, what are we investing in is we're trying, as I said, if you look at Ethiopia and there's 70 million head of cattle, but if you look at the dairy sector, only 3% of dairy production is in the formal sector. So you're looking at import substitution, how do we raise the productivity, the quality. So our job as private sector is how do we deliver high quality, highly nutritious, branded consumer goods. Now, if we're a lazy investor, it'd be easy just to come in and build a dairy factory and try and work with the local market. The reality is that's been tried in all of these markets, and you have factories sitting there 15%, 20% capacity. So as a strategic investor, we look at-- and I'll talk about the development process-- we come in as how do we collectively, through ourselves and with communities together, build the professionalism and the productivity and profitability of a sector. We come in to look at developing, building the backbone of the entire system, from branded consumer goods to the factory. Now to get critical mass into a factory, we need to do our own livestock, high quality, genetics, addressing disease. So on average, we're looking at about 10,000 milking cows to give us that critical mass. To feed those cows, You can't rely on the local market on high quality feed and forage. 10,000 milking cows sitting there, 25,000 animals on one site needs a lot of feed every day. So we have to further integrate up the value chain, but the system and have about 15,000, 20,000 hectares. Now our view is creating that backbone big and small can work together. We are impact investors as mentioned. We're very passionate about raising the standards, the farming methodologies, the sustainability of the communities around us. So that's the context answering this question. Entering a country for private sector is very difficult. Our focus is very much sub-Saharan Africa. Where do you start? And it's been one hell of a journey and as I said, I wish we had this discussion seven years ago. For a start, to de-risk Our investments, we do balance sheet sharing with institutional investors in the country. Aligned with the CAADP strategy, Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Plan, we are partnering with sovereign wealth funds and pension funds in country. So balance sheet sharing. And then we're looking to development partners such as IFC who are collaborating with us already in the Nigeria project early on in the technical assistance with the project. But really answering, getting straight to the question, how can FAO help? It really is around governments have a plan, a strategy, we have a process. They are not joined together at this point in time. We are putting in $50, $60, $70 million of private equity. Now, if I lose that amount of money, I'll never have a job again on behalf of my investors. We have a very rigorous development process aligned with IFC principles which have very high standards around environmental impact, community engagement, et cetera. It would be great for the FAO to sort of assist governments with policy, how to engage with private sector, how private sector can be part of the national strategy development, but also we talked about disease, hydrology, community. How can the FAO be the bridge between private sector and governments to coordinate the development process? We spend an enormous amount of time, teams on the ground, no disrespect to the governments, it's impossible to talk to your ministers as private sector. That's our experience. We need that bridge to communicate directly with the policy makers, the decision makers in the country, access to land. You know, 15,000 hectares is not easy to secure for feed and forage production, but it's essential, you know, supplying your local smallholders, teaching them what climate smart, sustainable practices look like. You know, it could be community land, it could be redundant state assets, whatever. But the process and the stakeholders that we have to meet is time consuming, it's expensive. So really, I see an opportunity for the FAO to be that bridge between government and private sector. There are more people like us, not that many, but there are. We do want to go into emerging economies. You talk about profit. If we can do this well, we know that our IRRs are well north of 15%. That's fantastic. And if we can transform a sector in a country, that's exactly what we're trying to do. And probably the last thing, and maybe not so many in the room, is We are very good and my head of livestock is here. Look, we know how to build a 10,000 cow dairy facility. We know how to do state-of-the-art farming and build factories. Private sector, we need to learn more about how to actively engage with rural communities. It's difficult. We're not operating in a capital city. We're out there in the wilderness, so to speak. We would love FAO to also be that bridge with development partners, government, talk to the development partners and co-create, co-design these systems with us. We genuinely want to work with smallholders. If we're producing 300,000 litres of high nutritious milk, we want 600,000 litres from the surrounding community. So I think it is a new path, you know, we're not scorched earth policy, we don't operate alone, we will get The rural communities will crush us if we don't operate collaboratively. So this is more about policy, coordination, creating efficiencies, let's run faster. If we can demonstrate, particularly in Ethiopia and Nigeria, these livestock projects, I know other investors will come in behind us and you'll see real impact on the ground. Thank you.

Thank you. So you have raised clear things to do. And I think FAO has been on the ground for 80 years, so we have a knowledge. But how we operate with public and private actors, in particular in a globalized context, can be challenging. But we have been lucky because His Excellency Remy Raman Kanyantore from Uganda has joined us. And here we may have concrete example about public-private partnership. and how actually Uganda has managed to becoming an important dairy exporter on the regional side. So I would like to know if you can tell us from the experience of Uganda, how we make it work with public-private partnership. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Let me start on existing protocol. First of all, I want to thank FAO for providing this forum where we can share experience and challenges and identify opportunities for investment. Uganda livestock sector is structured with 16.4 million heads of cattle, 40% of them improved breed. We have 17.5 million goats, we have 5 million sheep, 8 million hogs, and approximately 120 million poultry. And Uganda's experience in transformation is actually to make the livestock sector more efficient and productive by make improving on our breeding program, improving animal feed and animal nutrition security, and also make sure that we control disease. Now, the dairy sector in Uganda, we are now producing 5.3 billion liters annually. We have about 821 collecting and making center, 23 barking center. We have a fleet of about 371 sealed refrigerated tankers ferrying milk from where it is produced to factories. We have 162 small, medium, and large processing plants. And our installed capacity per day is 5.5 million liters. 4 million liters a day. In Uganda, we export dairy products in the region and the dairy sector employs more than 4 million people directly involved in the dairy sector. So transforming the livestock sector is that we are looking at mindset change We are trying to move away from pastoral herding practices by encouraging farmers to do farming under controlled areas so that we provide water, we address issue of feed, we vaccinate. We have actually increased our vaccination capacity and we vaccinate our animals, especially with FMD, biannually. So we have controlled disease and we thank FAO because we have partnered with FAO. Last time I was here, we presented our investment opportunities and we have people who are invested in animal feeds. Uganda is on the equator. We don't have winters. We are really having one challenge of climate change and to mitigate the effects of climate change, We are making sure that we irrigate, we do irrigation, we are doing mechanization, we are attracting investment in these areas where we have challenges, especially on the feed and water for production. So to mitigate the effect of climate change, we are partnering with different private sector stakeholders to make sure that the challenges we have, they cover the gaps. So on the other hand, we think going forward is to make sure that we regulate whatever we produce, we improve livelihood, and that's how far in Uganda we have gone. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So now we've -- the panel is finished. But we are going to have closing remarks from Hakim Razab Elwaer, our Assistant Director General for Near East and North Africa. So, Hakim, if you can join us.

Thank you, David. Let me start by greeting all excellencies here and distinguished panelists, guest speakers, and all the participants here today. Today, the discussion has reinforced a simple but a very powerful message. Livestock is not only about animals. It is about nutrition, food security, One Health, livelihoods, economic development, resilience, and the well-being of rural communities. Livestock systems support billions of people worldwide and provide income, employment, nutrition, and nutritious food, and social protection, particularly for smallholders, pastoralists, and vulnerable communities. Key challenges were highlighted by the distinguished speakers today. include, despite its importance, the livestock sector faces unprecedented challenges. Climate change is on top of that, is increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, heat stress, and other shocks affecting animal productivity and sustainability of production systems. But also we are facing challenges of animal diseases, zoonotic threats, and antimicrobial resistance continue to threaten food security, public health, trade, and economic growth. Many livestock producers still face limited access to quality animal health services, improved technologies, and finance, markets, and infrastructure. Rapid population growth has to be also borne in mind. Urbanization and changing consumer demands are increasing pressure on livestock systems to produce more while using natural resources more efficiently and sustainably. However, these challenges also provide opportunities. And I try to summarize at the same time, livestock offers one of the strongest opportunities to accelerate transformation of agri-food systems. And we've seen many of those opportunities today presented by the speakers. Strategic investments can improve productivity, support better nutrition, create jobs, and stimulate inclusive economic growth. Investing in animal health, disease prevention, surveillance, and One Health approaches generates benefits that extend far beyond the livestock sector. Innovation, digital technologies, and data-driven decision making are also essential. Climate-smart practices are opening new pathways for more resilient and efficient livestock systems. And we shouldn't forget about investments in value chains, processing, food safety, market access, and producer organizations can help unlock economic opportunities while ensuring smallholders are not left behind. Now, these are summaries of the key findings between opportunities and challenges and key messages of the speakers. But I would like to close with the key actions and a call for action. The discussion today has shown that the solutions are available. What is needed now is greater collaboration and investment at scale. Support FAO initiatives such as the Global Partnership Programme for Transboundary Animal Diseases, GPP-TAD, the Plan of Action for Sustainable Livestock Transformation, and the One Health Joint Plan of Action. We must strengthen Partnerships among governments, international organizations, development partners, financial institutions, the private sector, and the producers. We must move from short-term projects to long-term investment strategies that deliver measurable impact for people, economies, and the environment. Most importantly, we must recognize that investing in livestock is investing in better nutrition, better livelihoods, greater resilience, and more sustainable agri-food systems. Let us use the momentum of this forum to turn ideas into investments, partnerships into action, and commitments into tangible results for communities around the world. I thank you.

Okay, so we are just two minutes late, so thank you very much. This session is now closed. I want again to thank all the panelists. So please have a great day during this Wednesday at the World Food Forum and go online to check the investment plan of the investment forum that can give you ideas. Take a picture of the group. Excuse me.