agropastoralist

An agropastoralist is a person or community whose livelihood combines crop production with the herding of livestock, integrating farming and animal husbandry within a single livelihood strategy. This mode of subsistence emphasizes the inseparability of crop and livestock components in managing resources, risk, and household needs.

In agropastoral systems, households cultivate crops for food and income while maintaining herds of cattle, sheep, goats, camels, or other livestock. Livestock provide a range of outputs—milk, meat, traction, manure, and a store of wealth—while crop residues and fodder support animal feed. In many regions, families practice seasonal movements to access pastures or rotate cropping areas, a form of transhumance, though some communities keep animals on cultivated plots year-round.

Regions with semi-arid, highland, or marginal landscapes—such as parts of the Sahel, East Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Andes—have long incorporated agropastoral practices. These systems are often finely tuned to local climates and soils, balancing soil fertility, water availability, and grazing resources. They can enhance resilience to drought and price shocks through diversification, but they may also face pressures from population growth, land fragmentation, and policy shifts toward specialization.

Policy and development debates emphasize supporting sustainable mixed farming, secure land tenure, and access to markets and inputs, while avoiding forced sedentarization or the erosion of traditional agro-pastoral practices. See also: pastoralism, mixed farming.