ABSTRACT
Summary Herbivorous livestock provided during the 1970s an estimated minimum 7%-17% of the total dietary protein in Asia and Africa compared with about 30% in Latin America and just over 30% in the developed countries. Cattle accounted for approximately 70% of the world's domestic animals (calculated in units weighted for size), buffaloes for 10%, and sheep and goats for 11%. About 69 % of these animal units were in the developing countries, but productivity was higher in the developed countries. Forages, defined broadly to include all edible plant materials except grains and concentrates, provided more than 90% of the feed energy consumed by herbivorous livestock. Forages can make an important contribution to future world food supplies by providing greater amounts of meats and dairy products at acceptable prices. They can also help to increase supplies of plant foods for people by (1) replacing grains and other potential human foods now fed to herbivores, (2) allowing food crops to be grown on the arable land now used for forage production (through increased yield of forages on nonarable land), (3) improving the fertility of arable land, and (4) allowing economies in the use of fuel and nitrogenous fertilizer. Improvement of forage productivity is likely to be limited by the availability of labor and capital and by the decreasing quality of grazing land. Population growth alone will substantially increase the demand for foods of animal origin by the year 2000. Demand will also be increased by any growth in purchasing power, especially among the people of the developing countries. The failure of domestic herbivore numbers to keep pace with the human population during the 1970s indicates that the world's forage scientists face a major challenge.
