Livestock Sustainability: A perception analysis and SWOT application in Colombian municipalities

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize and carry out an awareness program in terms of implementation of environmental management good practices in three municipalities with livestock activity of Atlantico department located in Colombia. By means of a closed question survey addressing/including water, soil, energy and waste management, an overview of the current situation was obtained. The survey was applied to managers of roughly 44% of the total farms registered population. It was also used a SWOT analysis to identify aspects related to internal and external factors at livestock sector. Results indicate that there is an inappropriate management of waste as well as water and energy resources, which may lead to misuse of existing available resources, pollution, and losses of money to stakeholders. After the characterization process, workshops with farms managers were carried out with the aim of sharing environmental management concepts, give suggestions and discuss day – to – day situations from the productive field, in order to create strategies for the stakeholders to apply in their daily livestock activities. Despite the present research will certainly shorten the gap between local farmers and big companies from livestock sector by providing the formers with concepts of environmental management which could help them to enhance their production process, there is still a large gap considering the differences to access to high technology control systems and more technified processes.  The results of this investigation may offer valuable information to local decision-makers in terms of creating plans for small livestock farmers in rural areas to implement more elaborated sustainable strategies and therewith increase competitiveness of small farmers.