Okayama Hue International Masters program

Why keep
livestock if you
are poor?
Assoc.Prof. NGUYEN HUU VAN
Student: Cao Thi Khanh Chi

a Heifer-in Trust project

Sell
offspringmy
transformed

I acquired in 1996
life by
ncome and employment. It is everything

Who and where the poor?

Key issues and concepts

3
4
5
6
7

Livestock keeping, food security and rural

livelihoods
Contribution to increase agricultural production
Livestock investment, insurance and tokens of
relationship

Livestock in climatically marginal environments

What is the future of livestock keeping by the poor in

developing countries

1. Who and where the poor?

In 1999, the lower
poverty line
was
set at about US$ 1 a
day, and the upper
one at US$ 2
Indicators of global
progress in poverty
alleviation,
and
more
meaningful
poverty lines are
those developed by
each country for its
own conditions.
2008: US$1.25 as
the global line. In
2015,
the
new

Source: Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016

Sustainable Livelihood
Framework

Table 1. Principal roles of livestock by

livelihood strategy
Livelihood strategy

Principal livelihood roles

Hanging in

Subsistence
Complementary production
Buffering
Insurance

Stepping up

Accumulation
Complementary production
Market production/ income

Stepping out

Accumulation

The SL framework is based on 5 types of capitals: natural, human,

financial, physical and social. The World Bank Report, suggests
that the poor focus on assets rather than income and therefore
link their lack of assets (physical, human, social and

Table 2. Extent of rural poverty in developing country regions,1994-95

Region

Number of rural poor

(millions)

Share of rural to total

(%)

East Asia

114

81

South Asia

417

81

South-East Asia

121

83

Latin America and the

Caribbean

76

42

West Asia and North Africa

40

50

248

88

1,016

76

Sub-Saharan Africa
Total

Table 3. Number and location of resource-poor livestock keepers

Resource-poor livestock keepers in
different
livestock production systems (millions)
Extensive
grazers

Mixed rain
fed

Arid or semi-arid

63

213

Temperate, including tropical

highlands

72

85

89

Humid, sub-humid and subtropical

Landless

2. Key issues and concepts

Key issues and concepts

Ownership
, control
and
access to
benefits

Labour

Land

Knowledge

Markets

Gender

OWNERSHIP,
CONTROL AND
It is not always easy in traditional small-scale
ACCESS
livestock production
system to TO
decide who is the
"owner" of an animal.
BENEFITS
Ownership" is not a simple or indivisible
concept, but a "bundle of rights".
Neither ownership nor control necessarily
relates to access to benefits - a much
wider pool of people might expect to share
in benefits such as milk and meat or the
proceeds when the animal is sold

The people who look after an animal a not

necessarily those who own or control it or have
access to its benefits.
The division of labour by age and gender
determines who looks after an animal.
Labour is a key factor in livestock development,
particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa Many of the
technologies developed for improving livestock
feeding are more labour-intensive than those they

Land tenure interacts with

production in complex ways.

livestock

Livestock-keepers may reply primarily on

their land
The evolution of the land-tenure system
has a major effect on livestock
production.
Lands "common" and subject to the socalled "tragedy of the commons"
=> Overgraze and degrade common

Knowledge of livestock and of the

resources that sustain them is a key
factor
in livestock
production.
Livestock
systems change
as production
intensifies and crop and live-stock production
become integrated.

sion and research systems can respond to these needs in w

Market
keepers

affect

all

livestock-

Market are now global

Market
products
are
highly
perishable
and
livestock
themselves have unique practical
constraints on how they are
marketed

Gender roles are the socially

constructed expectation for
women & men

Gender roles are important in the

way livestock-keepers think about
livestock ownership & control, the
division of livestock-related labour,
and the transmission and validity if

Livestock keeping, food security and rural livelihood

Livestock keeping

Reason for animal domestication: Problem of

unpredictability of food supply associated with
unpredictable weather.
The number of animal species domesticated
increased as the model of production has change
with increased intensificati-on in response to
increasing demand for animal products.

The
natural
of
the
contribution of livestock
to
household
food
security varies from place
to place
Poor livestock-keepers sell
the animals or their
production for money to
buy cereal and leguminous grains.
Poverty-stricken livestock
keep-ers use the smaller
mammals and poultry
more food than the larger
species.

Improving the husbandry of livestock kept

by the poor

Rural livelihoods
The sale of live animals and their
products, and leasing of draught
animals, generates income for
livestock keepers.
Many patrol societies involved in the
sale of live animals, milk, and hides
and skin for in-come
Wool, hair, manure contribute to income of
livestock keepers.
Animals were hired to graze after crop harvest.
Use of animals for commercial transport another
growing in-come generating activity.

4. Contribution to increase agricultural production

Draught animals permit more land to be cultivated in timely
manner and with less human drudgery.
A new approach to animal traction, with appropriate
equipment for most farm operations, is playing a significant
role agricultural intensification.
Pack and transport animals are of great importance, especially
in drier and more mountainous areas, and among pastoral
communities Used to fetch water & fuel wood & in
transportation during pastoral migration
Households without draught animals reply on a number of
customary arrangements: draught animal sharing, hiring &
exchange of draught power for human labour or a share of the
crop or crop residues.
Livestock are important as a source of nutrients for crop
production in all mixed farming systems: manure in soil
fertility, crop-livestock integration in one homestead is the
reduction in transaction costs for each enterprise.

5. Livestock investment, insurance

and tokens of relationship
Livestock
allow
what
consumption smoothing

economists

call

Livestock
are
an
example
way
of
accumulating wealth over the year or even
over generations in system
Livestock act as an insurance against drought
that plague many dry-land areas, although
livestock
themselves
are
extremely
vulnerable to drought
Livestock are a means of creating and
maintaining social relationships, through
marriage payments, as an allotment to
children or wives, and as a traditional forms
of livestock loans.

6. Livestock in climatically marginal environments

Marginal environments are principally high
mountain areas and arid zones (average annual
rainfall < 400mm, the shortness of the growing
season, the variability of rainfall, and the lack of
surface water) far from power centers and
markets.

Livestock are primarily important in

these areas because of their mobility:

They can make use of water and forage resources

scattered in low concentration across the landscape,
and growing seasons too short for food crops.
This mobility has given rise to the traditional ways of
life referred to as pastoralism, agro-pastoralism or
transhumance, where some or all of the livestockkeeping household moves with the livestock, and
where traditional knowledge and flexible forms of
property.

7. What is the future of livestock keeping by

the poor in developing countries
Livestock keeping contributes to on-farm diversification
and intensification Strategy for poor households to
escape poverty.
Problems: the vulnerability of the poor in terms of access
to economic and social assets and services
An important rural development dimension closely linked to
livestock keeping by the poor focuses on the effects of
policy and legal and institutional aspects on farm
production.
Sub-Saharan Africa has much to learn from South Asia,
where huge investment have been allocated to vertical
integration: linking farm production to agro-processing,
value addingofand
marketing.
Availability
tools
for feed conservation and product
processing, and infrastructure improvement factors
support livestock keeping by the poor.

Conclusion
Livestock keeping provided food security and
furthermore improvement of livelihood
for poor
households but the considering about the vulnerable
with access to the market, policies, etc. of poor
people is required.
New pathway for sustainable approach to
livelihood:
- Focuses on the livelihoods of the poor, since poverty
reduction is at its core
- Rejects the usual sectoral entry point (e.g.
agriculture, water, or health) and instead begins with
an analysis of peoples current livelihood systems to
identify an appropriate intervention
- Emphasis on involving people in the identification
and imple-mentation of activities where appropriate.
An acupuncture approach to development

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