Cattle are one of the most important livestock species in West Africa, providing multiple services to farmers and contributing to national economies. Various breeding strategies have been implemented to enhance their productivity and have improved farmer livelihoods. This review describes cattle breeding experiences across West Africa, spanning the N’Dama breed in Mali, Senegal, and The Gambia to the breeds Azawak Zebu, Fulani Zebu, and taurine Baoulé in Burkina Faso. The main objectives of most breeding programs have been to optimize meat and milk performance of taurine and Zebu cattle as well as trypanotolerance of taurine cattle. In some cases, “closed nucleus” schemes have proven limited and so have evolved into “open nucleus” schemes. Recent community-based breeding programs have shown promise. The major challenges of breeding programs remain defining realistic breeding objectives and securing the involvement of stakeholders. All the strategies reviewed here have been funded externally within development or research projects that are often too short to yield tangible genetic improvement, and whether they will continue beyond those projects is uncertain. This review highlights the need for continuing government support to ensure the sustainability of local cattle breeding programs.

High‐throughput genomic markers provide an opportunity to assess important indicators of genetic diversity for populations managed in livestock breeding programs. While well‐structured breeding programs are common in developed countries, in developing country situations, especially in West Africa, on‐farm performance and pedigree recordings are rare, and thus, genomic markers provide insights to the levels of genetic diversity, inbreeding and introgression by other breeds. In this study, we analysed key population parameters such as population structure, admixture and levels of inbreeding in three neighbouring populations of African taurine and taurine × Zebu crosses managed by community‐based breeding programs in the South‐West of Burkina Faso. The three populations were pure Baoulé (called Lobi locally) in sedentary production systems, Baoulé x Zebu crossbreds in sedentary systems and Zebu × Baoulé crossbreds in transhumant production systems, respectively. The total sample analysed included 631 animals and 38,207 single nucleotide polymorphisms after quality control. Results of principal component and admixture analyses confirmed the genetic background of two distinct ancestral populations (taurine and zebuine) and levels of admixture in all three breeding populations, including the presumably pure Baoulé group of animals. Inbreeding levels were moderate, compared to European dairy and beef cattle populations and higher than those of Brazilian Nellore cattle. Very few animals with inbreeding levels indicating parent–offspring or full sib mating were observed, and inbreeding levels indicating half sib mating were also rare. For the management of breeding populations, farmers were advised to exchange best young bulls. The crossbreeding levels of presumably pure Baoulé animals are of concern to the breeding program due to the high level of endangerment of pure African taurine cattle populations across West Africa. Future rounds of bull selection in the community‐based breeding program will make use of genomic information about admixture levels.

Attempts to structurally transform segments of the agri-food system inevitably involve trade-offs between the priorities of actors with different incentives, perspectives and values. Trade-offs are context-specific, reflecting different socio-economic and political realities. We investigate the potential of structured boundary objects to facilitate exposing and reconciling these trade-offs within the context of multi-stakeholder social learning processes with pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Building on boundary objects as items flexible enough to be understood by all without having one common definition, structured boundary objects visualize actors’ input in a comparable format to facilitate knowledge sharing. Stakeholders in each country used a simulation tool and board game to explore the implications of changing livestock stocking and management practices for the environment and for actors’ future socio-economic priorities. Using structured boundary objects elicited trade-offs between household food and animal feed, and between livestock for income, labour, and/ or cultural functions, reflecting the context-specific and subjective evaluations actors make when attempting to plan livelihood changes. Our findings suggest to policy and decision-makers that sustainable transition plans can be developed when stakeholders in local agri-food systems employ approaches that allow shared understandings of trade-offs inherent to sustainable agriculture to emerge.

Livestock keepers in southwestern Burkina Faso hold the local Lobi taurine breed, local Zebu cattle, and their crosses. Some communities in the region have begun to implement community-based cattle breeding programs (CBBPs), which involve animal tagging and recording and, potentially, also bull sharing. Based on the hypothesis that the participation of livestock keepers in CBBPs depends on their attitudes towards these programs, we used questionnaires to survey the attitudes of 125 farmers towards cattle breeding strategies and tools. Results were analyzed using principal component analysis. Farmers showed a highly positive attitude towards maintaining the features of their preferred cattle breed, but their attitudes varied substantially towards crossbreeding for breed improvement. Farmers generally agreed that performance was more important than animal appearance, and most of them were willing to cooperate with breeders’ associations but were skeptical about sharing their bulls with other farmers. The majority was reluctant to record performance data, which may be due to a capacity deficit and their confidence in being able to select the best animals based purely on phenotype. Our analysis suggests that breeders’ associations, as a key component of CBBPs, should lay down clear rules and obligations for their members from the outset. Timely consideration of farmers’ attitudes towards different breeding tools may improve their uptake and guarantee the sustainability of CBBPs.

Demand for animal sourced food is predicted to double in the upcoming 20 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is simultaneously a big opportunity in terms of poverty reduction and a significant threat to the environment. The objective of this paper is to present an approach to co-create a set of viable and acceptable development pathways for the livestock sector that maximizes benefits from increased production, exploits the synergies between livestock and the environment, while minimizing the negative effects. It engages local stakeholders and actors into a computer-assisted participatory process, through which local trade-offs and synergies between livestock production, livelihood benefits and environmental impacts can be explored. Scenarios reached by consensus among local stakeholders challenge the dominant discourse of livestock intensification. They suggest that combining extensive and intensive modes enables increased production of animal sourced food with lower additional pressure on the environment than current production modes. The right combination of extensive and intensive production allows for an efficient use of the local biomass and feed resources, and offers opportunities to improve livelihoods for all stakeholders despite their differing economic circumstances, values and traditions.