One Welfare: an innovative approach to resilient livestock farming

Contribute to the resilience of livestock systems, with a focus on "One Welfare", by implementing good practices for cattle and sheep based on animal welfare principles.

Context of the story

In Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, this initiative promotes a comprehensive approach to Animal Welfare, combining technical and traditional knowledge to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of cattle and sheep farming. From the Patagonian steppe alongside Mapuche communities, through the extensive livestock systems of northern Argentina, the dairy systems of southern Chile, and even the Cundiboyacense Plateau in Colombia, Good Livestock Practices with a Focus on Animal Welfare (GLP-AW) are promoted and adapted to each local situation. Under the concept of "One Welfare"—animal, human, and environmental—innovative and culturally relevant solutions are built, with strong territorial and intercultural roots.

Strengthening the co-participatory capacity of livestock-raising communities to implement the GLP-AW and disseminate the results of their adoption.

The implemented initiative

The regional co-innovation platform was consolidated in six ecoregions of Argentina, Chile, and Colombia through co-participatory workshops that facilitated the identification and prioritization of GLP-AW, adapted to local contexts. In Patagonia, northern Argentina, southern Chile, and the Colombian Altiplano and Llanos, the knowledge of Indigenous communities, cooperatives, universities, institutions, and farmers was articulated to address problems, adapt tools, and build collective solutions under the "One Welfare" approach, with co-responsibility, intercultural dialogue, and local innovation.

To develop and to validate through a co- innovation regional platform that values technology of process implemented together with farmers to increase production rates and to improve livestock system resilience in each country.

The technological solution

The co-innovation platform enabled the identification and prioritization of GLP-AW through a co-participatory methodology based on intercultural social technology, articulated with local production indicators. In Argentina, producers in the north prioritized key practices such as strategic forage use, calf welfare, chute management, and the application of sanitary treatments, while in the Mapuche community, they prioritized improving practices such as branding, shearing, and reproductive services. Potential demonstration units with the potential for scaling up were also identified. In Colombia, nematode control and heat stress and pain management were prioritized, and action plans were generated for potential demonstration units. In Chile, a participatory assessment defined an innovation roadmap that addressed milk disposal with antibiotics and the welfare of working oxen, integrating these challenges into the One Welfare approach and its link to the SDGs.

Capacity development is essential for improving animal welfare in practice, enabling farmers and communities to enhance productivity, reduce stress and disease, and improve livelihoods.

FAO, 2009. Link:https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/91e17bd9-2f14-4c2e-9f1d-37cf01bf1fb3/content

Participating countries

Type of project

Agronomic Practices

Results

During the first year, progress was made in building a baseline on practices and technologies related to animal welfare for cattle and sheep in each country. Seven co-participatory workshops, mobilizing some 188 local stakeholders. In Bariloche, the process strengthened family farming with a territorial identity through intercultural dialogue. In Chaco, the "One Welfare" approach was promoted, raising awareness among producers and encouraging more sustainable practices. In Chile, priorities were defined in the dairy sector, integrating animal welfare into key processes. In Colombia, action plans were designed on pilot farms based on technical and traditional knowledge. The initiative consolidated local networks, identified at least 8 potential demonstration units, tools and collective learning processes, and drove concrete transformations toward more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive livestock systems.