Smallholder Livestock Investment Project

The project is designed to help revitalize the smallholder mixed-farming system that was devastated by cattle diseases in the 1990s. The project will work to reduce the incidence of the two main cattle diseases and strengthen national capacities for disease control. It will also re-establish and restock poor smallholder farmers who lost their cattle to disease. The overall aims of the project are to increase crop production, food security and incomes for poor small-scale farmers by restoring their access to draught animals and allowing them to expand the amount of land they can cultivate.

The project targets poor farmers who do not own livestock and who have limited access to animals, but who would benefit from access to draught animals. It provides community organizations with locally purchased cattle to manage. In accord with customary practices, the cattle will be shared and offspring will be distributed to farmers, providing draught animals for farm work, as well as for manure. The project will ensure that improved disease control is carried out throughout the country, to allow poor households to build larger cattle herds over time. Related policy issues that will be promoted include:

• managing funds for vaccination campaigns
• formulating regulations for providing cattle to poor farmers
• assessing the viability of public field services, which are currently inadequate

Source: IFAD