SUMMARY
Global demand for foods of animal origin is growing and it is apparent that the livestock sector will need to expand. The detrimental effects of extreme weather adversely affect livestock. Climatic extremes and seasonal fluctuations in herbage quantity and quality will affect the well-being of livestock, and will lead to a decline in production and reproduction efficiency.
The overpopulation and the high rate of people density in Nile valley and Delta is a major challenge. Therefore, the Egyptian Government has boosted the agricultural sector during the last seven years by constructing many projects in desert areas of Egypt. According to Egypt vision (2030), we have to exploit the available natural resources under the desert and harsh environmental conditions and to make the livestock production a real sustainable development tool for the Bedouins.
Research Staff of Animal and Poultry production Division at the Desert Research Center are investigating their research programme to deal with the ecosystem of the desert which is suffering from a deficiency in fresh water, long draught season, a severe shortage in the conventional feedstuffs, animal diseases at the boarder governorates, etc..For example, In the field of animal breeding, a good program was started to implement the recent techniques of marker-assisted selection to improve local strains of sheep and goats productivity. In the same way, the utilization of agro- industrial by-products, desert shrubs and salt tolerant plants in animal and poultry feeding appeared to decrease the drastic gap in animal feeding under desert condition were taken into consideration. The recent molecular techniques such as next generation sequencing and classical cultivation techniques to identify camel rumen bacteria and fungi and their ability to produce lignocellulolytic enzymes were also investigated. Moreover, sustainable value chain approach for livestock by products (milk, meat, wool, fur) based on livelihood strategies for Bedouin communities for sustainable development strategies were discussed.