Public-private-community partnerships to improve food security and livelihoods in the Southeast Lowveld: Towards improved livestock production in Zimbabwe

Faye Bernard. 2009. Public-private-community partnerships to improve food security and livelihoods in the Southeast Lowveld: Towards improved livestock production in Zimbabwe. Harare : PARSEL, 72 p. (Project Thematic Bulletin Series 2 Livestok Component, 1) ISBN 978-0-7974-4111-8

Résumé : This bulletin series is a final product of a two short-term consultancies towards the project's objectives of achieving food security through livestock production. This initiative is part of the European Commission (EC)-funded project entitled "PublicPrivate- Community Partnerships to Improve Food Security and Livelihoods in the Southeast Lowveld and Mid-Zambezi Valley". The European Commission's conservation initiatives in Zimbabwe aim to marry conservation and rural development. Further, the P ARSEL Project aims to achieve conditions for a harmonious cohabitation between the stakeholders managing the wildlife and the small-holders farmers using agricultural spaces and livestock at the park surroundings. The first mission focused on the Livestock Thematic Working Group (LTWG). In the context of hyperinflation and economic failure in Zimbabwe, cattle represent a refuge value for the local communities. The main result is the continuous stocking of cattle (increased cattle population) and an over-stocking of small ruminants and other species (to be validated). In order to improve the efficiency of livestock farming in the Lowveld, it is proposed to include three (3) aspects namely health protection, market access and feeding strategy with five (5) types of actions: (1) surveys for improving local knowledge about demographic parameters, feeding strategy and livestock commodity channels; (2) equipping and rehabilitation of livestock infrastructure such as dipping tanks, irrigation schemes, water sources, cattle markets; (3) farmers' organization in order to provide a sustainable system for veterinary drugs provision; (4) training of farmers on poultry, goat and dairy production including diffusion of risk factors such as manual for kid mortality; (5) introduction of new technologies such as forage cultivation in irrigated areas, inventory of by-products and small stock farming. These proposals were discussed within the thematic working group. Further, a better knowledge of the farming systems in the project areas was suggested after the completion of the first mission in November 2008. For this, 3 activities were proposed: (1) a demographic monitoring of the herds using 12-Mo software, (2) a survey on the cattle commodity to quantify the importance of current flow within and out the Chiredzi district, (3) a typological survey in the Chiredzi district. The database was set-up and a typological data analysis was conducted during the present mission. Applied to 419 cattle farms from Lowveld, 3 main types of farmers were identified: (1) group of 184 farmers mainly from communal areas with small herd, more vulnerable (food aid, low disease management) and giving priority to the farm securisation, but catching opportunities to sell cattle for personal expenses because the crops are used mainly for subsistence (self-consumption or low marketing), (2) group of 183 farmers mainly from old settlement and communal with big herd, stocking cattle as far sighting people because they are vulnerable to the drought (high cattle lost, lack of grazing). Crops are not the main source of income but selling a part of them, (3) group of 52 farmers, mainly new settlers with medium herd size being cotton producers, destocking regularly cattle for the securisation of the farming system in which they invested regularly (better disease management), but limited by grazing and water constraint. Recommendations are drawn up for the three (3) types of farmers.

Mots-clés libres : Zimbabwe, Farming systems, Animal production

Auteurs et affiliations

• Faye Bernard, CIRAD-ES-UPR Systèmes d'élevage (FRA)

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/603857/)

Métriques

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