Bring Together Global Resources for Animal Welfare-Friendly Livestock Development

An Interview with Director of Animal Production and Health Division of FAO, Mr. Berhe Tekola at World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Chinese government to take this initiative. I want to assure the government of China that FAO will be always at the side of China to promote and to scale up best practices of globe to and from China.”

According to Mr. Berhe Tekola, the FAO is delighted to work with China and will keep on working with China in the future as the Chinese government has shown its commitment, and he can see a lot of developments and improvements. Working with China is almost to work with the world as China is the largest producer and consumer of livestock products. Whatever the FAO do in China, it will be scaled up to the neighboring countries and to other international communities, and thus he is convinced that changes coming from China can change the world.

“China should be focusing now is quality, because in terms of quantity, China is producing and consuming a lot. So if focusing on the quality, indirectly, humane and welfare issues are addressed. The Chinese government is doing good in terms of economic development. If there is good economy, if there is healthy economy, there is possibility of catching up with international standards. The international standards are hard to be achieved, but it depends upon the level of commitment. Any poor countries cannot achieve as well, because there are other priorities. But for China, that is history now.”

“This conference shows a promising sign as many international organizations from the private sector, the civil society and the government gather together to hear of the best practices of China and to share their best practices from their countries. No individual organization can do the job alone. We have to bring our hands, we have to bring our resources together and achieve better results. We have to convince people to work together, not only from country to country, within the country, the private sector, the research institutions, the schools, universities, these all should have to work with the government, so that having different minds can go for the best results.”

Mr. Berhe Tekola is impressed with the presence and speech of Vice Minister Yu Kangzhen in the conference. That shows the level of commitment of the Chinese government. “China can catch up with the delay it had in the past, as it can be seen in World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare, all parties, including the government, the private sector, the civil society have joined in the milieu. China can reach what developed countries have reached today.”

Animal welfare is about how to improve the quality the best, because with stressed or sick animals, there would be less productivity and benefits. Welfare issues are interlinked with food security, poverty reduction, ethical concerns and environmental protection. Most of the research institutions and the private sector are now conscious of that advantage and the importance of welfare issues.

As for FAO’s role in animal welfare development in China, Mr. Berhe Tekola thinks that FAO will develop capacity and get involved with the development of guidelines and best practices, “What’s good in Europe, and we bring it here. What’s good in China, we bring it to Africa and Asia. So this is our role. It is like using our bridge between countries to countries.”  

According to Mr. Berhe Tekola, there are international guidelines that the FAO, OIE and other international organizations produced. Different countries have to try to adhere to the guidelines while adapting the guidelines to local circumstances. However, good scientific guidelines and standards are the bottom line. Depending on the capacities and resources, the guidelines can be applied gradually.

“Let’s start today and develop gradually. If we work on 10 percent of the issue today. Tomorrow, it will be 20 percent. After five years, it will be 60 percent. Somewhere, we can achieve the whole. So let’s show the advantages of healthy animals. We don’t take measures to address animal welfare 100 percent today. But let’s start it.”