South African Journal of Animal Science 2014, 44 (Issue 5, Supplement 1) Peer-reviewed paper: Proc. 46th Congress of the South African Society for Animal Science URL: http://www.sasas.co.za Guest editor: J.P.C. Greyling ISSN 0375-1589 (print), ISSN 2221-4062 (online) Publisher: South African Society for Animal Science http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajas.v44i5.1 Invited Paper Research and development on climate change and greenhouse gases in support of climate-smart livestock production and a vibrant industry M.M. Scholtz 1,2# , H.C. Schönfeldt 3,4 , F.W.C. Neser 2 & G.M. Schutte 5 1 ARC-Animal Production Institute, Private Bag X2, Irene 0062, South Africa; 2 University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa; 3 Institute for Food Nutrition and Well-being, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa; 4 Red Meat Research and Development South Africa, P.O. Box 363, Silverton, 0127, South Africa; 5 Red Meat Producers Organization, P.O. Box 36802, Menlo Park 0102, South Africa (Received 4 January 2014; Accepted 5 June 2014; First published online 22 August 2014) Copyright resides with the authors in terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South African Licence. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/za Condition of use: The user may copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work, but must recognise the authors and the South African Journal of Animal Science. Abstract Climate change represents a feedback-loop in which livestock production both contributes to the problem and suffers from the consequences. The impact of global warming and continued, uncontrolled release of greenhouse gasses (GHG) has twofold implications for the livestock industry, and consequently food security. Firstly, the continuous increase in ambient temperature is predicted to have a direct effect on the animal, as well as on food and nutrition security, due to changes associated with temperature itself, relative humidity, rainfall distribution in time and space, altered disease distribution, changes in the ecosystem and biome composition. Secondly, the responsibility of livestock production is to limit the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) or the carbon footprint, in order to ensure future sustainability. This can be done by implementing new or adapted climate-smart production systems, the use of known and new technologies to turn waste into assets, and by promoting sustainable human diets with low environmental impacts. The following elements, which are related to livestock production and climate change, are discussed in this paper: (1) restoring the value of grasslands/rangelands, (2) pastoral risk management and decision support systems, (3) improved production efficiency, (4) global warming and sustainable livestock production, (5) the disentanglement between food and nutritional needs, focusing on nutrient rich core foods, (6) GHG from livestock and carbon sequestration, and (7) water and waste management. No single organization (or industry) within South Africa can perform this research and the implementation thereof on its own. The establishment of a (virtual) centre of excellence in climate-smart livestock production and the environment for the livestock industries, with the objective to share research expertise and information, build capacity and conduct research and development studies, should be a priority. Keywords: Food and nutrition, global warming, production efficiency, rangeland, water, waste # Corresponding author: GScholtz@arc.agric.za Introduction Food production has undergone a revolution in the last 40 years and is now globalised in a free market economy. Developed countries have developed large-scale, intensive and extensive, industrial systems of livestock and crop production which produce affordable food. Even today, however, 70% of world food is produced by several billion small-scale/subsistence/communal farming families, livestock keepers and pastoralists in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Hodges, 2013). Industrial food production and these small-scale producers will have to work together in harmony to successfully feed the exploding world human population. Climate change also poses both immediate and long-term threats to the life-support systems upon which all people depend – food, water, habitat, health and the ecosystem – as climate change is taking place faster than originally thought. Rural, small-scale, subsistence and communal farming families will ultimately be affected the most. Furthermore, population growth will continue through the year 2050 and will be accompanied by high rates of urbanization and a higher income, especially in developing countries, which will result in a rapid growth in demand for food, in both quality and quantity. It is projected that global