Harare — GLOBALLY, livestock farming is fast becoming agriculture's most economically important sub-sector with demand for animal products projected to double over the next 20 years, especially in the developing countries, findings by the International Livestock Research Institute have indicated.

It is against this backdrop that developing economies need to direct their focus on research that will enable smallholder farmers, who ironically own most of the livestock units, to fully exploit the potential of their animals and turn the nutrient cycling on their farms faster and more efficiently.

In most cases, inappropriate policies, scarce livestock feeds, degraded land and water resources, devastating diseases and poor financial backing have crippled livestock development in the smallholder sector.

Besides this, inadequate extension, inequitable access to productive resources, poorly functioning markets, under-developed infrastructure and the risks associated with adverse weather have often checked the impetus of livestock development.

The Zero Draft Medium-Term Plan January 2010-December 2015 document recently produced by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion highlighted that lack of tenure had also impacted very negatively on investment in agriculture, with livestock production not spared.

The smallholder sector currently owns 90 percent of Zimbabwe's cattle, 98 percent of goats and 80 percent of the pig population. And 55 percent of the households own cattle while 70 and 80 percent own goats and chickens respectively.

The national herd is five million at the moment, a decline from 6,18 million in 2000. Of the five million, 650 000 are found in the A2 farms and large-scale cattle commercial farms, a drop from the total of 2,9 million recorded in 2000.

This has seen the offtake from the commercial sector that used to be about 20 percent plummeting as most producers are currently focusing on rebuilding their herds.

Dairy production has also been on the decline from above 100 000 cows in 2000 to about 38 000 in 2008.

It is, therefore, not surprising that among the priorities raised by the MTP document, a lot of emphasis has been duly placed on the revolution of the livestock sector, which would offer the poor rural farmers a pathway out of poverty and contribute to the development of the mainstream economy.

Some analysts have even concluded that livestock could easily act as a catalyst for the transformation of subsistence agriculture into income-generating enterprises and enable poor families to join the market economy.

Secretary for Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Dr Desire Sibanda recently commented that livestock was vital to the economies of developing countries and acted as a source of food, income, employment and foreign currency earnings.

"Livestock serves as a store of wealth for the low earners, draught power, source of organic fertilizer for crop production and a means of transport.

"It is, therefore, necessary to identify politically and economically feasible interventions that could have broad positive effects for resource-poor livestock producers. The interventions should be carefully tailored to have pro-poor effects," he said. Land ownership and livestock holdings are correlated. Poor livestock owners tend to have very little land or none at all and are in most cases dependent on common property resources like pastures, water, dip tanks and forests.

Intervention strategies should, therefore, be crafted in such a way that they improve common resources to benefit producers.

Historically, livestock policies have tended to limit their focus to large ruminants like cattle and governments have also extended support services to the same target.

One social commentator recently said the livestock sector had significant potential to improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers since the majority of them own livestock and derive incomes from it. Sadly, these historical factors, shortage of resources and institutional constraints prevent the smallholder and ill-equipped farmers from producing and realising the full potential of their livestock.

Expansion in the domestic livestock products market presents an opportunity to unlock the economic value of livestock.

Additionally, the size of land a farmer owns and the availability of recognisable security of tenure tends to affect the producer's capacity to support livestock or any other agricultural activity. Ample land normally points towards the availability of ample crop residues at the end of the cropping season and the ability to grow fodder crops too for the feeding of more livestock, a feat that is difficult for the smallholder producer.

It is also vital to appreciate the fact that agricultural income is episodic and dependent on the success of a season, especially for crops, as livestock can weather such difficulties better than vegetation.

Livestock generally provides significant sources of food and income and forms a central part of the social safety nets that farmers need. Domestic animals can be sold to meet major household needs or in case other components of the farming system fail. The ILRI says livestock provides a high return per unit of labour input, and can be sold at any time when the farmer needs cash in a market with reliable demand and prices. Livestock also provides manure to sustain yields, draught power and often the only opportunity for smallholders to accumulate capital.

Traditionally, farmers identify livestock ownership as a primary indicator of wealth, and factors that affect livestock production as primarily causes of poverty.

"Market-oriented livestock production can be a practical alternative to subsistence production and provides farmers with means to eradicate poverty.

"In the developing world, farm animals create the means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute poverty. Livestock contributes up to 80 percent of agriculture's Gross Domestic Product with over 600 million people in the rural areas relying on livestock for their livelihoods," reads an assessment report by the ILRI.

The expansion of Zimbabwe's agricultural sector is grossly dented by challenges ranging from the unavailability of adequate extension services to the general absence of an enabling environment to promote profitability of smallholder agriculture with special attention being given to the livestock sub-sector.

The Department of Research and Specialist Services has been hit by a massive staff turnover in the wake of the economic meltdown from which the country is just emerging.

Furthermore, the sector's potential is further limited by the susceptibility of the country to plant and animal diseases, high prevalence of HIV and Aids, which compromises the quality of labour, as well as environmental degradation.

The impact of increasing livestock productivity goes beyond merely improving household food security and raising farmers' incomes, but widens opportunities by creating demand for other goods and services.

This creates new capacities in the process and facilitates modernisation and commercialisation of the sector.

On the other hand, farming methods in most rural areas are slowly becoming more intensive, which is also triggering a reduction in the use of cattle as draught power and significantly increasing livestock rearing capacity in the process.

The Government, therefore, finds it imperative for households to complement cattle farming with pig rearing for more income generation while producers can always turn to locally produced agricultural products for livestock feeds.

Farmers can also help their cause by forming groups and approach service providers jointly, which makes it easy for them to access loans and other basic services as most service providers usually consider dealing with groups safer than dealing with individuals who can easily default.

The capacity of groups to repay loans or produce a crop under contract is usually miles ahead of that of the farmer doing it individually.

With most basic service providers like banks insisting on farmers producing collateral for them to secure loans, it may be time most livestock producers insure their livestock against losses to disease, unruly seasons and even thefts.

Farmers can devote portions of their land to growing of fodder crops or leave it fallow for some time to enable vegetation to re-establish so that their livestock can later get browsing and grazing material from these common resources.

Communal farmers in Kenya and Botswana have written their own pieces of history by pooling resources and producing some crops meant for the production of animal feeds with significant success.