ABSTRACT
Grasslands constitute the largest global land use and are an important part of agricultural and ecological systems on every continent, across a wide range of potential productivity conditions (Figure 4.1). Ruminant livestock grazing constitutes an important, and often the only viable, form of agricultural production on these lands. In most regions of the world, lands suited to some level of grazing (grasslands, woodlands, forestlands, and sparsely vegetated or barren lands) constitute the majority of the land use (Figure 4.2). In the world’s lower-income countries, grassland and woodland that support some form of ruminant grazing are proportionally more important than other land uses, compared with middle-and high-income countries (Table 4.1).
