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2011
Smallholders can capture opportunities presented by increasing demands for livestock products due to growing populations, incomes and urbanisation. This is only feasible if smallholders remain competitive. The dominance of smallholders among livestock producers, supplying at least half of total supply of livestock products in our target regions, is strong. This is particularly true in ruminant production (beef, small ruminants and milk) and remains the case in developing country pig and poultry (see Figure 1).
2003
This essay describes the views of Philippines livestock sector stakeholders concerning the events and issues associated with the rapid rise in hog and poultry production, based on rapid reconnaissance interviews and gray literature from studies in Southern Luzon, Iloilo and Northern Mindanao, and the impressions of the authors.
This essay describes the views of Philippines livestock sector stakeholders concerning the events and issues associated with the rapid rise in hog and poultry production, based on rapid reconnaissance interviews and gray literature from studies in Southern Luzon, Iloilo and Northern Mindanao, and the impressions of the authors. Changing demographic patterns, decentralized eco-governance, trade liberalization, and health and environmental policies have major impacts on further livestock intensification and on increasing scale of operations. Six factors appear to affect small farmers decisions to intensify or raise livestock, or remain in the livestock industry. These are 1) access to financial capital; 2) technical knowledge about livestock production and their sources of information; 3) social capital expressed as trust in integrators, in the primary buyers of the livestock, and in government; 4) demographic characteristics, such as gender and age; 5) farmer perceptions of the polic...
Indian journal of agricultural economics, 2008
Sustained economic and income growth, a fast-growing urban population, and the increasing integration of global agri-food markets are fuelling rapid growth in demand for animal food products in India. This implies tremendous potential for future growth of livestock sector and significant income opportunities for livestock owners, especially smallholders. Nearly two-thirds of farm households in India are associated with livestock production, and 80 per cent of them are small landholders (≤ 2 ha). Hence, it is argued that growth in livestock sector has more potential to reduce poverty compared to a similar growth in crop sector (Mellor, 2004; Birthal and Taneja, 2006). Smallholders' potential to capitalise from expanding demand for livestock products is, however, ambiguous. Their inability to access markets is one of the major limitations to capture the emerging opportunities. Livestock products are perishable and their marketing requirements are different from non-perishable products. These need to be sold immediately or converted into less perishable forms to avoid post-harvest losses. Individually, a small-scale producer has tiny marketable surplus, and on the other hand local markets are thin and trading in distant urban markets is uneconomical due to high costs of marketing (Birthal et al., 2005; Pingali et al., 2005). Thus, lack of access to markets reduces incentives to participate in markets and results in subsistence rather than market-oriented production systems (Holloway and Ehui, 2002). The increasing dietary diversification and concerns for food safety and quality are causing significant changes in food marketing systems (Jagannathan, 2007; Pingali, 2007). Traditional marketing systems, dominated by ad hoc transactions and intermediaries, are being replaced by coordinated systems, like cooperatives , producers' associations and contract farming. Further, the corporate sector is entering into the food retailing business in a big way, accelerating the process of
Innovation and Development
Agricultural research for development (AR4D) agencies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have increasingly turned to innovation platforms to enhance the impact of smallholder initiatives beyond program completion. Linking community-level IPs with IPs established at higher levels has been suggested as a strategy for addressing institutional barriers through linking actions across levels to create a conducive environment for innovation and achieve durable impacts. This research aims to understand the activities, actions or arrangements that were mediated by a multilevel set of IPs to sustain the use of livestock feeding practices in the Ethiopian Highlands. Two years after the multilevel IPs had been phased out data was collected to ascertain if innovation outcomes had been sustained. The study identified specific IP activities, actions and arrangements that constrained or enabled sustained use of the livestock innovations. The multilevel IPs and their activities were able to enhance technical changes around feed innovations that initiated a transition towards a sustainable feed system. Results showed that the sustained use of livestock feed innovation outcomes achieved depends on different factors and varied largely depending on how the feed innovations were tailored to the farmers' production objectives. Positive outcomes were identified for commercial-oriented farmers, especially where the feed innovations had been tailored to specific enterprises based on their needs for enhanced productivity, such as improved dairy farming. Conversely, for the majority of the subsistence-oriented farmers sustained use of some technical innovations was constrained by inadequate consideration of the subsistence farmers' immerging needs where there was uncertain access to forage seeds and affordable interlinked input services (breeding, financial, and veterinary). The study further discussed how livestock feed system transition enabled in case of commercially-oriented farmers and constrained in case of subsistenceoriented farmers and put a way forward in terms of mechanisms and strategies to inform similar future interventions that facilitate a context-specific combination of technological, organisational and institutional innovations necessary to make a difference. Finally, the study suggested a future research area could focus on understanding the role of multilevel IPs in dealing with multiple-scale demands across different sectors (such as cop-livestock-tree mixed farming systems) with strategies focusing on a specific theme (such as livestock value chain).
Livestock Science, 2011
Intensification of livestock production is widely advocated to meet the increasing demands for livestock products and to contribute to improving the livelihoods of rural households. This paper discusses the impact of livestock intensification on smallholder farms using village poultry, integrated agriculture-aquaculture systems, small ruminants, and dairying casestudies. Driving forces for intensification in crop-livestock systems act at international, national, regional, and agro-eco system levels. Whether or not individual households respond to these drivers depends on the availability of household resources, the family situation, and livelihood alternatives. As livestock systems intensify, the relative importance of the various functions of livestock changes. The case-studies confirmed that, in terms of 'returns', there is a livestock ladder with the smallest benefits accruing from village poultry and the largest benefits provided by dairy cattle. Small animals are an appreciated secondary activity, or an essential source of security and small income for the very poor. The potential of intensification of small animal systems to substantially increase incomes of rural households appears to be low. Nevertheless, small animals are more suitable for micro-credit and livestock loans-in-kind programmes than large ruminants. Innovations in livestock production will only be adopted by smallholders if they fit farming household priorities and resources.
2012
We examine smallholder competitiveness in pig production using data from a survey of 1,051 households across six provinces representing six agro-ecological zones and two urban centers in Vietnam. Results from various analyses employing descriptive statistical analysis, econometric modelling, and partial equilibrium modelling of the pig sector in Vietnam support the hypothesis that smallholder, household pig production are competitive and will remain significant suppliers of the fresh pork market. This competitiveness is underpinned by the strong demand for fresh, unchilled pork, thereby ensuring sustained opportunities for smallholders to supply this demand while also providing natural protection from imported chilled or frozen pork. Long-term prospects for smallholder contribution to total pork supply are good. Even in the worst case scenario of stagnant technological advances in the traditional, smallholder sector, they are projected to remain dominant players in the pork market. Currently, the modern, large scale pig sector is small at 5% of total market share; this is projected to expand to 12% in the next 10 years. The empirical evidence also suggests that overall efficiency gains to the pig sector are not likely to be generated from increasing herd sizes due to the observed lack of economies of scale in household pig production. In the current situation, ways should be explored to reduce the cost of production. Attention should be given, for example, to increasing the supply and reducing the cost of domestically produced feeds for pigs and utilizing available supplies more efficiently. Technological improvement in feeds and in pig production thus plays an important role in the development of the sector. Policies that will enhance productivity across all producer types will be preferable, rather than a targeted policy directive focusing on developing large, industrial farms. Limitations in land and household labor may also limit potential for expanding scale, thereby further supporting the case for sustaining smallholder competitiveness.
Closing the gap between actual and potential yields of food staple crops is increasingly recognized as critical for meeting future global food needs and for containing food price increases. Paradoxically, the evidence suggests that supply is relatively unresponsive to higher food prices where there is greatest technical potential for raising levels of productivity: smallholder agriculture in developing countries. Efforts to increase research and development as a basis for improved levels of productivity have limited success at promoting a significant supply response to high food prices unless smallholders’ participation in food markets is strengthened. However, neither smallholders nor markets are homogenous. Smallholders face widely different sets of constraints to both their ability and their willingness to increase production for sale in a broad range of markets, many of which change in terms of their access requirements through time. As a result, policy makers are faced with sig...
Livestock Science, 2010
… -Wageningen Journal of …, 2012
This paper assesses why participation in markets for small ruminants is relatively low in northern Ghana by analysing the technical and institutional constraints to innovation in smallholder small ruminant production and marketing in Lawra and Nadowli Districts. The results show that the limitations experienced by smallholders, i.e., water shortages during the dry season, high mortality and theft of livestock, persist because of institutional constraints. These include structural limitations related to availability of arable lands, weak support systems for animal production and health services delivery, community values that are skewed towards crop production more than animal husbandry, ineffective traditional and formal structures for justice delivery, and gaps in the interaction between communities and district and national level organizations such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, district assemblies, rural banks, and non-governmental organizations as well as traders and butchers. Confronted with such constraints, the strategies that most smallholders have adopted to be resilient entail diversified sources of livelihood, low input use in small ruminant production, and maintaining the herd as a capital stock and insurance. Only a few smallholders (i.e., ‘positive deviants’) engage in market or demand-driven production or exhibit successful strategies in small ruminant husbandry. It is argued in this paper that for the majority of smallholders, market production, which requires high levels of external inputs or intensification of resource use, is not a viable option. The main implications of the study are (1) that other institutional constraints than market access constraints should be addressed, (2) that commercial livestock production should not be idealized as the best or only option (as is being done in many contemporary interventions that aim at incorporating smallholders into commodity value chains), and (3) that different types of small ruminant system innovation pathways should be explored by making use of local positive deviants.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
The small livestock advantage: A sustainable entry point for addressing SDGs in rural areas This report presents selected achievements and lessons learned from the growing portfolio of small livestock investments supported by IFAD. There is no universal and unique definition of “small livestock”, but in the context of this publication, the following species have been considered: poultry, swine, small ruminants, guinea pigs, and rabbits. The Introduction presents IFAD’s key messages on investing in small livestock development. The Case Studies section features a review of five relevant projects from IFAD's portfolio (in Afghanistan, Lesotho, Nepal, Senegal and Venezuela) that provide concrete examples of how IFAD is working to support small-scale farmers. Lessons learned from IFAD’s support for this sector, and some potential ways forward, conclude the report.
Future Internet, 2016
The aim of the study was deepening the knowledge of livestock innovations knowledge on small-scale farms in developing countries. First, we developed a methodology focused on identifying potential appropriate livestock innovations for smallholders and grouped them in innovation areas, defined as a set of well-organized practices with a business purpose. Finally, a process management program (PMP) was evaluated according to the livestock innovation level and viability of the small-scale farms. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the impact of PMP on the economic viability of the farm. Information from 1650 small-scale livestock farms in Mexico was collected and the innovations were grouped in five innovation areas: A1. Management, A2. Feeding, A3. Genetic, A4. Reproduction and A5. Animal Health. The resulting innovation level in the system was low at 45.7% and heterogeneous among areas. This study shows the usefulness of the methodology described and confirms that implementing a PMP allows improving the viability an additional 21%, due to a better integration of processes, resulting in more efficient management.
animal, 2018
Many breeding programs have been implemented in developing countries, many of which have been unsuccessful. To better understand the failure of these breeding programs, it is proposed to analyze their adequacy with innovations that are actually adopted by smallholders. The proposed methodology takes account of these innovations, the reasons for their adoption and the objectives of livestock keeping. The N’Dama cattle-breeding program in Senegal was used as a case study. Surveys were carried out among 54 farmers: 27 breeders who participated in this program, 17 of whom recently resigned, and 27 breeders who have never participated. Feeding was the most frequently cited area of innovation, followed by infrastructure. Genetics, animal health and reproduction held the third rank. Milk production appeared as an important objective of breeders, although the context remains one of strong multifunctionality. Principal component analysis highlighted three categories of breeders according to ...
2012
Livestock production and associated products offer significant opportunities for economic growth and poverty reduction, especially among the rural farmers in Zambia and other developing countries. However, smallholder livestock producers are characterized by low levels of market participation (Negassa, Rashid, and Gebremedhin 2011). Among many reasons cited in the literature, smallholder farmers do not participate in livestock markets because of remoteness of livestock producers from the main urban market centers, and poor road infrastructure that result in high transport costs. Understanding the determinants and livestock marketing behavior of smallholder farmers will contribute to the knowledge gap in the country regarding why poverty remains high even among households owning livestock.
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