Herd reconstitution
Draft power reconstitution
Supplementary feeding of livestock to raise productivity.
5.01 This chapter takes three examples of rehabilitation policies pursued by governments and development agencies in order to examine in more detail questions of cost and return and the particular implementation problems involved in each case. The three policies examined here are: the reconstitution of pastoral herds, rehabilitation of farmers' draft power; and livestock supplementation- aimed at raising levels of productivity. There is a certain amount of project experience in each of these fields and material will be taken from a variety of sources in order to discuss the main issues involved.
5.02 The 9 schemes looked at here, and summarised in Table 5.1 all involve the distribution of loans or animals to herders to partially restore their livestock capital and to provide them with' income. In almost all cases, the credit scheme has followed a period of heavy losses among stock, badly affecting certain areas and groups within a country. Several projects were specifically designed for former pastoralists who had become totally destitute and remained in famine relief camps once other people had departed. In all but one ease, that of Oxfam-Kenya, livestock were intended to be distributed on credit rather than being a gift but repayment performance has often been poor, aggravated in many cases by continuing drought. For all but Oxfam-Kenya, relatively few animals were distributed per household, the stock being intended to supplement other sources of income and to provide a nucleus for herd growth rather than to be the primary source of support for the household.
5.03 Several important points emerge from a comparison of these schemes which relate to (i) the scale of the operation, (ii) the institutional framework within which it is carried out and (iii) the alternatives available to governments, agencies and populations if a herd reconstitution programme is not carried out.
5.04 Choice of scale: This must involve consideration of the number of people a scheme is aimed to help and the number of animals to be distributed per household. The aim of reconstitution schemes can be either to give an additional source of income to those in need or to provide for the total reestablishment of a certain number of households.
Table 5.1. Herd Reconstitution: A Comparison of Alternatives
|
Scheme |
Number of Animals allocated/Household and Species Mix |
Average Cost/Household and No of Households |
Framework of Scheme |
|
Tin Aicha, NE Mali |
1-3 cows, 1-3 sheep, depending on size of household |
US$165 for around 200 households |
Part of settlement scheme involving destitute nomads: farming, schools health, etc. |
|
Relance du mouvement Cooperati NE Mali |
5-10 small stock, largely goats |
US$75 for 5,000 house-holds |
Part of programme to re-establish co-operative movement among herders, setting Up grain reserves, irrigated gardening etc. |
|
Oxfam, Gourma, |
20-30 small stock plus small cash reserve for grain purchases |
US$450 for. 45 households |
Part of wider project to establish herders' associations |
|
Government of Niger |
Average of 1 cow, 1 sheep, 2 goats |
Average of US$140 per household |
Herd reconstitution scheme funded through Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole |
|
Oxfam-Habbanaae, Niger |
2-3 cattle plus some smallstock and transport animals |
US$150-160 for 300 households |
Project for destitute herders |
|
USAID, Niger |
1-2 cattle per household |
US$7S-150 per household for 200 pilot |
Part of Niger Range and livestock Project, including setting up co-operatives general credit fund, etc. |
|
UNHCR, SE Ethiopia |
1 cow, 1 donkey, 2-3 sheep and goats |
No data |
Re-settle refugee Somalis |
|
LMB, NE Ethiopia |
2 cows, 2 camels, 12 sheep and 15 goats proposed |
US$300 for 5,000 households |
Re-distribute post-drought livestock population between regions, help destitute |
|
Oxfam Kenya |
50-80 small stock' pack animals and domestic equipment and grain |
US$1200-1300 per household |
Pilot project for more extensive project 1985/86 |
Sources for Table 5.1Tin Aicha, NE Mali- AFSC, 1982
Relance du Mouvement Cooperatif NE Mali - Marty, 1975; Nieuwekerk et al, 1983.
Oxfam, Gourma, Mali - Mike Winter, personal communication of initial developments.
Oxfam, Habbanaae, Niger - Oxfam, n.d.; Harmaworth, 1984; Scott and Gormley, 1980.
USAID, Niger - Swift and Maliki, 1984.
UNHCR, SE Ethiopia.
LMB, NE Ethiopia-LMB, 1974.
Oxfam, Kenya- Hogg 1985.
Government of Niger- Rep. du Niger. 1985.
5.05 One constraint on choice of scale is imposed by the total number of affected persons. Where a very large number of herders have been badly hit by drought, a choice must be made between distributing a small number of stock over a large area and the complete reconstitution of herds for a few households. Most projects have opted for the former policy basing their decision on the desire to have an impact, albeit low, on a large population. Those households receiving a few animals must continue to pursue a wide range of income-earning activities' a strategy which will be easier for larger extended family groups than for smaller households. Thus, a survey of Tin Aicha village, in north east Mali several years after the initial distribution of livestock to households found that those who had built up a successful mixture of activities were those with sufficient labour, so that some members could be allocated to pasturing animals, some to cultivating the family's fields and some to engage in trade. Small households with very few members were not able to easily combine the demands of managing a few animals in addition to looking after their fields and as a result the animals they had received in the initial distribution had not flourished so well (AFSC, 1982).
5.06 The continued pursuit of a variety of activities by the household may be the best means by which to protect overall income from the risks attached to a particular sector. There may be a certain price to be paid in terms of lower productivity in each sector when these activities are combined in the same household enterprise than were they to be pursued individually. For examples herders who combine farming with looking after their herds experience lower levels of productivity in both livestock and crop production than if either had been pursued as a single activity, unconstrained by the labour demands of the other. However, the benefit of combining these different sources of income may be considerable in terms of reducing the risk to household income from dependence on one source of income alone.
5.07 Thus, in planning a herd reconstitution project, account needs to be taken firstly of the extent to which other income-earning activities are available and could be encouraged to provide the household with a mixed livestock farming-trade based enterprise. Where such mixed strategies are not possible, or only at great cost due to environmental conditions, it may be better to provide a viable herd for a limited number of households and to aid the rest of the population to move and re-establish themselves elsewhere. Secondly, in those areas where herding is one among a number of possible options, a variety of distribution strategies could be considered, although these would present certain problems for the selection of recipients. For example, the largest households could be given a small number of stock, since these domestic units are best able to deploy their labour among a variety of different income-earning activities while small households would receive a herd large enough to provide a viable source of subsistence and income so that the family's management of the herd need not be constrained by the pursuit of incomes from other sectors.
5.08 Another constraint on the choice of scale is imposed by the local availability of livestock for distribution and pasture conditions. Where au herds have been gravely affected by drought losses, few animals will remain in the local region which are available for purchase and redistribution. However, stock may be available after a lesser drought in the hands of both herders and of livestock investors (farmers, traders) who were able to acquire animals during the drought, due to relative price movements of livestock and grain. Where livestock are bought locally, there is no increase in overall stocking rates, the existing animal population being redistributed among producers. If stock are bought from distressed herders, forced to sell animals due to an unviable herd size, the project could consider purchasing animals for loaning back to their former owners, as was done in the Habbanaae scheme in Niger (Oxfam-America, n.d). The alternative is to buy stock from better-off livestock-owners, who benefit from the high post-drought prices of livestock in general and of breeding females in particular. While the spread of benefits to the better-off is of questionable merit in a pest-drought rehabilitation scheme, there may be few alternative means to acquire the stock needed to carry out the programme. The number of stock available locally will determine the level of prices which must be paid. If there are few animals for purchase within a given area, the project must consider the possibility of buying significant numbers from less-affected regions where prices will be lower.
5.09 The advisability of bringing in livestock from outside the region depends greatly on the speed of pasture recovery after drought and on the suitability of livestock coming from a different area and possibly a different ecological zone. If livestock losses have been very heavy and rainfall returns to normal levels in the post-drought period, some pastoral areas will find themselves with insufficient stock to make use of available grazing. This represents a waste of resources and a loss in potential milk, meat and herd growth of particular significance if livestock are kept under less favourable grazing conditions in other parts of the country. There are strong arguments in favour of herd reconstitution programmes in such circumstances that involve the movement of livestock from more to less crowded areas through a restocking scheme, such as that pursued by the Livestock and Meat Board in Ethiopia in the post-1974 period (LMB, 1974). Moving livestock from one region to another will not be advisable where (a) such stock are not suited to the ecological conditions in the area to be res-tocked; for example, the Tin Aicha scheme in north-east Mali found that many of the sheep and cattle bought in markets further to the south could not survive the extremely arid conditions found at the project site (AFSC, 1982); and (b) where the effects of a prolonged drought on pastures has been so severe that a few years should be allowed to elapse before encouraging a substantial growth in herd numbers.
5.10 The costs per household of alternative schemes are compared in column 3 of Table 5.1. From this may be seen the great variation between projects, ranging from a low of US$ 75 - 100 per household to over US$1,200 for the Oxfam-Kenya project. The schemes with a low cost per household involve the transfer of relatively few stock, such as 1 or 2 cattle and/or several small stock. These are obviously insufficient to enable households to become fully self-sufficient and the future of such small holdings depends on whether households can gain sufficient income from elsewhere to allow livestock numbers to grow into a viable herd. The alternative policy of providing a herd sufficiently large to satisfy basic consumption requirements would be very expensive and, given the limited funds available to the smaller agencies, would prohibit the pursuit of a programme affecting a large number of impoverished households. Marty (1975) contrasts the livestock package asked for by herders in north-east Mali, containing 8 large and ten small stock and costing 342,000 Malian francs, with the policy actually carried out, involving a loan of 50,000 MF, capable of buying 8 to 10 small stock. Apart from the constraint on resources, a large scale project involving the reconstitution of herds for a large number of households is also likely to run up against the shortage of stock for sale, as noted earlier.
5.11 The institutional framework. Several issues need to be raised about the optimal institutional structure within which to carry out a herd reconstitution programme. Firstly, several writers have emphasized the importance of a close knowledge of the community which it is intended to aid, arguing that projects should aim to support local "adaptive strategies and traditional mechanisms for coping with harsh climatic conditions and periodic drought" (Harmsworth, 1984). Turton and Turton present a similar view in relation to formulating successful programmes of rehabilitation, using their observations among the Mursi of south-west Ethiopia as a guide; even ''to speak of the 'rehabilitation' of a people such as the Mursi is to run the risk of overlooking precisely those qualities of resilience, technical sophistication, inventiveness and sheer human determination to survive which must be tapped, rather than ignored, if outside intervention in their affairs is to be anything but counterproductive" (Turton and Turton, 1984, p. 178). The experience of past projects thus suggests that it would be useful to devote some resources at the start of a herd reconstitution project to gaining knowledge about the recipient community and discussing with them the species of stock best suited, the preferred method for buying stock and a workable system for the reimbursement of loans.
5.12 Secondly, the overall structure within which producers operate needs to be considered and the extent to which there are existing groups or social institutions through which to channel funds to recipients. This second point, in part related to the previous issue raised, has been recognised as of increasing importance by many researchers who have come to see how critical it is to establish an institutional framework for producer groups. Thus four of the schemes in the West African Sahel shown in Table 5.1 form part of a wider project aimed at building up co-operative structures in pastoral areas. These will not only provide a channel for current development work but, more importantly, a framework within which producers can generate initiatives and guide future interventions by governments and external agencies.
5.13 Thirdly, the advantages of giving credit in the form of cash or in livestock should be investigated. Clash has the advantage that the herder can then choose the stock he wants, rather than having to accept those bought by others. As is noted for the Tin Aicha scheme in north-east Mali, project staff made several mistakes in the choice of animal species bought (sheep and cattle rather than hardier goats) and in the particular beasts purchased, some of which were sterile females and some of which were so young that they could not be expected to calve for two or three years. These mistakes would have been reduced had the recipients themselves been allowed to choose the stock to be brought as herders will be more experienced than project staff in recognising the qualities of stock well-suited to their ecological zone (AFSC, 1982). The disadvantage about giving cash is the possible fraud involved, with recipients using the money for some other purpose. However, the risk of this can probably be kept fairly low by requiring au stock to be brought for inspection and marking after purchase.
5.14 Fourthly, au herd reconstitution projects face the problem of which households to select as recipients of stock. The target group is likely to be those households who have lost most if not au of their stock but who have access to sufficient labour and skills to be able to care for animals received. In two of the Sahelian schemes, the recipients were composed of totally destitute herders who had remained in famine relief camps at the end of the drought and had no resources with which to re-establish themselves except their own labour. Members of the community may themselves be best-able to choose those in greatest need. However, this will not always be the ease and it is probable that in some circumstances, those with economic and political power will try to direct project resources to their own benefit. For example, Rochette (1981) in his evaluation of the 'Relance des Co-operatives' of the 6th and 7th Regions of Mali, found that there was considerable variation in the development of co-operatives and their activities over the project area. While some functioned very successfully, with much member participation, others barely functioned or had been taken over by traditional elite groups as a new source of power and wealth. Thus, in a few eases, poor pastoral households no longer had access to loans for herd reconstitution, these being monopolised by those with power and used for purposes other than those planned by the project.
5.15 Fifthly, the choice between credit as against gift must be made. Where herd reconstitution- forms part of a wider programme, the development of a credit scheme serves the purpose of establishing a revolving fund potentially available for other uses and may help develop the management and accounting skills required in the development of co-operatives. Some writers have also mentioned that use of credit rather than gifts reduces feelings of dependency among recipients and thus minimises the loss of self-respect for those receiving this kind of aid. It is argued that gifts destroy a people's self-reliance and can undermine traditional systems of distribution within society and ways of coping with drought (Scott and Gromley, 1980). On the other hand, Turton notes that this preference for credit as opposed to gifts usually reflects an ideological belief on the part of the recipient population. He finds that there is a "growing resistance to the concept of relief with no strings attached"; for example most agencies opt for a food-to-work scheme rather than the distribution of free rations (Turton and Turton, 1984, p. 188). However, the gift of food or cash may be the best way of helping a society cope with a temporary inability to feed themselves.
5.16 If loans are to be used, the length of time and terms of repayment must be specified. A very short repayment period obliges the recipient to repay before the animals have had; much chance of growing in numbers. Too long a period deprives other potential recipients of the chance of a loan, where a revolving credit fund is in operation. Thus, Marty (1975) recommends a 3-year loan in the case of small stock, given their rapid rates of reproduction while a longer period of 4 to 6 years would be necessary for cattle and other large stock. The habbanaae system of the Wodaabe works on the basis of the number of offspring produced rather than a fixed length of time, a cow being loaned for the period required for her to calve 3 times, before being returned to her owner, the borrowing household keeping the 3 calves (Dupire, 1962; White, 1984). The system of serengoro, found among the Bambara of central Mali, works in the same way, but is less generous to the borrower, the first offspring being given to the female's owner and the second kept by the borrower when the female is returned to her owner (Fulton and Toulmin, 1982).
5.17 Account must be taken of repayment obligations in the event of livestock losses. Recurrent drought or an epidemic outbreak may make it impossible for recipients to repay and debts should be cancelled under those circumstances. The action to be taken in the event of occasional animal losses is less clear; some schemes have demanded that the loan be repaid regardless of loss, whereas others cancel the debt. The free distribution of livestock to households, in place of a system of livestock loans, has the advantage of having zero costs associated with the collection of repayments. Where administrative skills are scarce and where repayment is likely to run into numerous difficulties, due for example to a high risk of drought losses in future, the option- of giving livestock should be very seriously considered.
5.18 Alternatives to herd reconstitution. One alternative for the government or agencies is to take no action, either leaving the affected population to their own devices or continuing to provide famine relief to the destitute. The provision of food relief at a basic 0.5 kgs of grain per adult per day implies a total of 900-1,000 kgs per annum for a household of 7 people, containing 5 adult equivalents. The cost attributable to providing this grain ration depends on the price of grain, the size of transport costs and who pays the bill. For example, grain provided free to a particular government for distribution as food aid will cost the government little or nothing, depending on who is responsible for its transport and distribution within the country. By comparison, grain which must be bought on the open market will be much more expensive and will cost the government dear in foreign exchange and transport charges. The price of grain used in- this paper is US$300 - 400 per ton, to cover the cost either of buying local grains or of buying world market grain plus transport costs to local markets, which may be as high as US$150-200/ton for landlocked states with poor road networks (FAO, 1985d). A year's supply of grain to support the household thus costs US$300-400, which may be compared with US$150-200 per household for the cost of distributing a limited number of stock' insufficient to fully support the household' and with US$1,200 per household for the more ambitious Oxfam-Kenya project, in which the number of animals distributed can provide for most of the household's food requirements. In the latter case, the cost per household represents the consumption requirements estimated at the most basic level for a period of 3 to 4 years.
5.19 A second alternative is for the development of other income generating activities for drought-affected groups Given the aridity of many of the areas concerned, these have usually revolved around some form of irrigated' agriculture, although a variety of other options have also been suggested, such as resettlement of herders elsewhere or the establishment of industries making use of local resources, such as the Turkana fishing project in northern Kenya. Irrigated agriculture has long been considered an obvious solution to providing a livelihood for those living in semi-arid regions. However, it has met with only a limited degree of success, due to severe technical problems (Goldsmith, 1984), and to very high capital and maintenance costs. For example, the capital costs of irrigated agricultural settlement schemes in northern Kenya are put at between US$17,000 and US$60,000 per hectare (Hogg, 1985), with running costs which exceed the expected value of annual output. This implies a capital cost alone of establishing a household in irrigated agriculture of US$9,000-20,000, a figure far in excess of the re-stocking alternative taken up by Oxfam. The 2 schemes in north-east Mali both include a component for small-scale irrigation of crops, using very simple techniques and costing relatively little. These provide a supplementary source of food to families but are insufficient to support all the family's food needs.
5.20 Resettlement of impoverished herders elsewhere is put forward by many writers as the only long-term solution for the pastoral sector, given rising human populations, high risks of drought and livestock loss and a declining resource base (Perrier, 1985). Movement by the poorest members of pastoral society into agriculture has been taking place in the absence of government intervention over many centuries, as work among the Basseri of south Persia (Barth, 1961), among the Oromo of southern Ethiopia (Legesse, 1973) and north African pastoral groups (Johnson, 1973) has shown. For south-west Ethiopia, Turton documents the spontaneous settlement in farming of one-fifth of the Mursi population following the droughts of the 1970s and contrasts the success of this settlement with "the widespread failure of externally organised agricultural settlement schemes for 'pastoral nomads' in Africa" (Turton and Turton, 1984). They make the useful point that "it may be that the only sensible role for outside authorities in the settlement of 'pastoral nomads' is that of facilitating local initiatives, on the assumption that the only successful settlement schemes will be those... which have been initiated by the settlers themselves".
5.21 An alternative to the settlement of pastoralists, either in irrigated agriculture in semi-arid regions or in dryland farming in higher rainfall zones, lies in the development of income earning activities based on locally available resources, The extent to which viable schemes can be set up depends on the resources available and the cost of exploiting them. The development of resources in pastoral areas has tended to have little or no impact on aiding the herding community to develop alternative sources of income. Indeed, in several eases, resource development has reduced the viability of - the existing pastoral system, as when game parks have been carved out of a herding group's territory. Some projects, such as the Lake Turkana fishery, were established explicitly with the aim of providing those who had lost their livestock with another source of income. However, this does not seem to have provided a promising alternative to pastoralism for the Turkana (Hogg, 1985). Other options that have been considered provide at best a way of supplementing incomes, such as handicraft work, but are not likely to enable many people to support themselves on the proceeds. - i
5.22 The above discussion of re-stocking projects suggests the following conclusions:
(a) The scale of a herd reconstitution programme must take into account the extent to which households can sucessfully combine the care of stock with other activities. This will differ from one pastoral zone to another, depending on the other resources available in the region. It will also differ across households, with larger domestic groups being better able to pursue a number of income earning activities. The diversification of household income sources is valuable under risky conditions, such as those found in many semi-arid zones. In areas where the pursuit of multiple activities is possible, re-stocking programmes can spread a small number of stock over a large population. However, where ecological and socio-economic conditions preclude such a diversification of income sources, it would be better to help a limited number of households to re-establish a herd of sufficient size to provide for their subsistence needs while seeking alternative sources of income for the remaining population.(b) Re-stocking is an obvious policy to pursue where the post-drought distribution of livestock is very uneven and does not make effective use of large areas of pasture.
(c) knowledge of the local community and its effective participation in planning and implementing the credit scheme may have important advantages in the short term by reducing administrative costs and in the long term by consolidating the role that indigenous social structures can play in channelling resources and ideas.
(d) the choice between livestock loans versus gifts should be made on various grounds and should include the relative cost of administering the collection of repayments and what to do in case of deaths among distributed stock.
(e) the cost of complete herd reconstitution programmes are equivalent at most to the cost of providing a basic grain ration over 3 to 4 years to affected households. They are substantially lower than the costs of major irrigation schemes carried out in semi-arid areas.
5.23 Major drought-induced losses of work oxen can cause a significant shortfall in crop production in subsequent years. Several schemes have been pursued in the past in Ethiopia and Botswana to give farmers access to draft power with the aim of shortening the post-drought period of rehabilitation. A variety of options exists for governments and agencies interested in mitigating the impact of work oxen losses on subsequent harvests. These were presented and analysed in terms of their effects on different sectors of the economy in Table 5.2. Here the options will be compared in terms of their relative costs and the particular problems associated with the implementation of each. As in the previous case-study on herd reconstitution, the various policy options will also be compared with the alternatives, such as continued provision of famine relief.
5.24 Details of each policy option are shown in Table 5.2. Data on costs are taken from a number of different sources and should be treated with caution, as they indicate rough orders of magnitude rather than precise coatings. Each option will be discussed in brief below.
5.25 Work oxen credit to farmers. This involves the issue of loans to farmers in cash or in the form of animals for repayment over a period of years. A number of work oxen credit schemes have been carried out in different countries within general programmes of agricultural development, but - few have had the restoration of drought-induced oxen losses as their explicit objective. The main example of the latter was that pursued by the Ethiopian government over the first 6 months of 1974, during which an estimated 40,000 loans were given out to farmers in drought-affected regions (EPID, 1974). The questions raised by a work oxen credit scheme are the following:
5.26 - What are the possibilities for distributing one ox per farmer rather than a full team, farmers either sharing their animals or the scheme being accompanied by the introduction of single ox* cultivation techniques?
*such as the plough equipment developed by ILCA for the Ethiopian highlands which is designed to be pulled by one ox alone (ILCA, 1984).
5.27 - What are the number of oxen available for purchase either within the region or in neighbouring rangeland areas and the relative prices in each ease, including transport costs? As in the ease of herd reconstitution, projects need to consider the position of local impoverished farmers having to sell their last ox to finance food needs. Where the project buys such animals for redistribution to another, there will be little net benefit from the project's intervention, Alternatively, provision could be made for those farmers truly in distress to sell their ox to the project while remaining eligible for a loan in the subsequent distribution of animals.
5.28 - How satisfactory are the grazing resources in the region receiving the oxen? In the absence of natural pastures the cost of providing access to alternative supplies of fodder must be considered, such as keeping the oxen in neighbouring areas where pasture conditions are better or transporting fodder to animals in pasture-deficit areas, the latter probably being more expensive than other options given the high bulk of fodder and its high transport cost to remote areas.
5.29 - Whether to give cash loans to farmers with which to purchase oxen or whether to distribute oxen directly? There are many advantages to the farmer being the purchaser of his own ox. He makes the choice among available animals and thus is not forced to take an animal which he feels to be unsuitable for any reason. In addition, farmers will have a good knowledge of local opportunities for the purchase of oxen not so easily available to project staff. The overall effect on oxen prices is also likely to be lower where a large number of individual farmers spread their purchases over a region over weeks or months, in comparison with the large scale operations of governments or external agencies. On the other hand, the government or project may have access to sources of animals at lower prices from more distant areas, which cannot be so easily reached by individual farmers. However, transport costs will be higher when oxen must be brought in from far away. The overall effect of each option on price levels will depend on the relative availability of stock in local and more distant areas and the extent to which there are substantial regional variations in the market price of stock of which large agencies are better able to take advantage. For the oxen loan scheme carried out in Ethiopia in 1974, it was decided to give cash loans to farmers rather than be directly involved in the purchase and distribution of animals. The decision was based on the argument of the increased speed with which cash loans could be given out, in contrast to the more lengthy procedure of purchase, transport and distribution of oxen, and on the perception that purchases by individual farmers would have less effect on the level of oxen prices than if the government were to buy the animals directly.
5.30 However, the granting of loans directly to farmers is not without risks of fraud, as it will be hard to monitor whether or not an ox presented as having been bought was in fact bought, borrowed from a neighbour or was already owned and so on. A given level of fraud is probably acceptable if it keeps down the overall cost and allows a large number of recipients to be reached. In addition, fraud involving the use of funds by needy recipients for purposes other than those intended is of much less importance than fraud involving the diversion of cash to those not truly in need.
5.31 - Should oxen be given as loans or as an outright gift and if the former, what should be the terms of loan repayment? The choice between loans and gifts of stock was discussed earlier in the context of herd reconstitution projects. It was seen that there may be circumstances in which the option of giving stock should be seriously considered, such as where the cost of collecting loan repayments is high and where high risks to stock from future drought will create many problems for reimbursement of credit.*
*The possibility of- providing insurance cover would help answer these problems, although in few African countries are livestock insurance policies currently available, due both to the general lack of insurance cover for risk and the particular monitoring problems associated with insurance of animals.
5.32 In the case of loans, the project must decide on what terms recipients should repay the credit. If loan repayments are set too high? the farmer may be Unable to save sufficient surplus to invest in new draft animals essential to the long-term rehabilitation of the farm's productive capital. The various schemes involving work oxen credit programmes which have been carried out in East and West Africa have had repayment periods of between 3 and 5 years, an upper limit on the length of time given to repay being set by the increasing risk of death among oxen as they reach the age of 9-10 years. For example, the oxen loan programme run by the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank in Ethiopia requires farmers to repay the loan over a 4-year period, covering both the principal sum borrowed and an annual interest charge of 11%. This scheme is aimed at areas of agricultural surplus in highland Ethiopia and therefore faces fewer problems concerning the ability of farmers to both repay loans and invest in new stock. The overwhelming level of demand by farmers to participate in this-scheme indicates that farmers perceive the repayment term as being relatively easy. By contrast, oxen credit programmes set up by the colonial administration in parts of francophone West Africa in the 1930-50s were not taken up by farmers in the more marginal farming areas because they feared the consequences of being unable to make loan repayments on the dates due' given the high risk of harvest failure. As a result, farmers preferred to build Up their oxen holdings slowly, by direct purchases of young male stock, rather than be faced with a high probability of being unable to meet debt repayments in some years (Toulmin, forthcoming).
5.33 Government-run tractor pools: These schemes are based on the government purchasing a fleet of tractors which are then made available to farmers to plough their land for a fee Benefits from such a scheme will be greatest where the terrain is suited to tractor cultivation, i.e. not too hilly and with few rocks and tree stumps, and where pasture and oxen shortages are so acute that no alternative sources of draft power exist. The costs of such schemes are, however, likely to be substantial, given the high foreign exchange costs of purchasing the tractors, spare parts and fuel which will be needed for their operation. Skilled labour is also necessary for the operation and repair of equipment. Shortages of any of the inputs required for keeping the tractors in working order will increase the cost per hectare of pursuing this option.
5.34 The EPID (1974) programme in Ethiopia of 1974 estimated the costs of setting up a tractor pool at E$ 20,000 per tractor, in comparison with E$ 60-70 per hectare using tractors rented from elsewhere. Using these figures, the establishment of a government-run tractor pool would only be cost-effective under the following conditions:
- if each tractor could plough a sufficient number of hectares to reduce the per hectare cost below E$ 60 - 70; in the above case, this would require each tractor to plough 8 minimum of 280-330 ha.- if the value of dry season work by the tractor pool, such as the transport of goods, is sufficiently great to compensate for a lower level of ploughing capacity in the farming season.
- if available draft capacity from other sources is so low, whether from oxen or from locally-owned tractors, that the relevant comparison to make is not that of the relative costs of preparing land by alternative techniques but rather the cost of ploughing using government-owned tractors versus the cost in foregone output of land not being cultivated at all.
5.35 While schemes for providing draft power to farmers after drought have focussed on the use of tractors, there may also be other alternative mechanical options worth considering, such as hand-held cultivators which can be used on small steep plots of land.
5.36 Loans for the hire of local tractor services. In some circumstances, there may be tractors available which can be hired by those farmers with insufficient draft power of their own. For example, in Botswana, even in normal years, farmers regularly hire tractors belonging to others in order to prepare their land. The governments of both Botswana and Ethiopia have in the past granted loans to farmers for hiring tractor power to compensate for drought losses of work oxen. The cost of these has varied from US$20 - 40 per hectare which the farmer is supposed to repay after the harvest, except in the case of crop failure. The government ran such a scheme in Botswana in the late 1960s but found the ensuing harvests were so poor that most debts had to be cancelled. Similarly, the Ethiopian government scheme in 1974 allowed for the hiring of tractors by 7,400 farmers in Harerghe province, but few of these or the work oxen loans made elsewhere, were subsequently repaid, due to the land reform and the general political situation in the post-1974 period. Evidently, the feasibility of a scheme such as this depends on the number of tractors available within a reasonable distance, their spare working capacity and the suitability of farmers' plots to this ploughing technique. There will be costs in the form of fuel, spare parts and skilled labour requirements but these will be borne by the tractor owners rather than the government. The main disadvantage of this scheme is that it does not provide farmers with a renewal of their productive capacity and they will need to find help from this or another draft source in the following years until they have re-built their oxen holdings.
5.37 Provision of hand tools. Hand tools are cheap in terms of the cost per unit and of the cost of equipping a farm household. The viability of a switch to hand-prepared land depends on how much land can be cultivated by hand in comparison with a ploughteam and on the possible decline in yield per hectare when land is prepared and weeded by hand rather than by the plough. The extent to which yields will be lower for hand-,as opposed to ploughteam-prepared and weeded land, will be determined by the importance of timely sowing and weeding, by the area of land cultivated per worker, and consequent tightness of land preparation and weeding constraints, and whether the passage of the plough in itself has additional benefits for plant growth and yields due to the creation of an improved top-soil structure.
5.38 In some areas ploughs may make little contribution to raising yields per hectare or per person, for example, where cultivated area per person is low, where soils are fairly light and where the timing of sowing and weeding operations is not of crucial importance to subsequent crop yields. However, under other conditions, where each worker farms a large area and where seed must be planted early to ensure a reasonable yield, preparation of fields with a ploughteam will be the only way in which a large surface can be effectively sown and weeded. For example, under the extensive farming practices of central Mali, where area per worker can be as high as 3-5 ha., ploughteams have a strong positive effect on yields of millet, as they permit this very large surface to be sown and weeded within a cultivation season lasting 6 to 8 weeks (Toulmin, 1983a). Farm households without their own ploughteam must borrow equipment from others, usually rather late in the season and suffer lower yields as a result, due to sowing much of their grain on unploughed land and to taking longer to finish the weeding of their fields, in both cases increasing the competition faced by millet from heavy weed growth.
5.39 In the case of Ethiopia, average land holdings are much smaller than the extensive areas found in the Sahel, with households farming between 2.12.5 ha in the highland region. While this smaller area in the Ethiopian case would lead one to expect a greater possible role for hand cultivation techniques, soils are so heavy that hand preparation of land is in fact very rare, being limited to the steepest hillside plots. Under these soil conditions' farmers resorting to hand cultivation will probably face a significant fall in the area that can be farmed.
5.40 In addition to a decline in area cultivated when land preparation must be done by hand, there are two other costs from the use of hand as opposed to plough cultivation techniques. Firstly, as mentioned above, soil preparation is likely to be less effective using hand tools' leading to less successful seed germination and more competition from weeds, producing lower crop yields per hectare. Secondly, the work involved in hand preparation is very considerable and makes demands on the household workers at a time when energy and food reserves are low.
5.41 As a complement to hand tool cultivation consideration can be given to the provision of fertiliser, aimed at compensating the farmer for a lower area cultivated and low yield per hectare. The advantage of such an approach is that farmers do not have to cultivate such a large area to get a given harvest. Disadvantages include the foreign exchange cost of fertiliser imports and the high costs of transport and distribution to areas of need. The overall profitability of such a project depends on the expected crop response from the application of a certain quantity of fertiliser per hectare. With fertiliser prices of around US$ 60 per 100 kg and application rates of 100 kg/ha, crop output must rise by at least 150-200 kgs/ha to make this scheme financially profitable. Economic or social profitability will require a lower percentage increase in yields where account is taken of alternative sources of food for farming populations and the value placed on re-establishing viable farming communities.
5.42 A comparison of costs of alternative policy measures. The fourth column of Table 5.2 gives estimated areas which can be cultivated for every US$100 spent on each policy measure. There is remarkable similarity between the alternatives in terms of their costs which, given the imprecision of the data used, would suggest that there is little to choose between the options as far as their financial cost is concerned. In making a choice between the alternatives the relevant issues are those concerning: (a) the availability of oxen, fodder and tractors in the region; (b) the suitability of soils for cultivation by tractor or some other machine; and (c) the shadow price of foreign exchange and skilled labour to the economy.
5.43 In all cases, the cost of action taken to rehabilitate farm production compares very favourably with the cost of providing continued famine relief for the affected population. On the assumption of an annual food need of 900-1,000 kgs per household, costing US$ 300-400, and the average yield of 400 kgs per hectare, all of the interventions give a benefit cost ratio far in excess of unity in a single year even if account is not taken of the wider benefits associated with the re-establishment of production in rural areas.
5.44 The spread of supplementary feeding programmes has been encouraged by governments and project agencies in most parts of Africa not only to aid post-drought recovery of the livestock sector but also as part of a general programme for intensifying livestock production. Supplementing natural pasture with forage crops and agro-industrial by-products is especially important in minimising the adverse impact of a long dry season on the main parameters of herd productivity and in counteracting weight loss among animals used for ploughing in the early rainy season. However, in many cases, there are only limited supplies of locally available supplementary fodder, high transport and distribution costs and high potential foreign exchange earnings from export of certain agro-industrial by-products. Consequently, projects aimed at increasing the domestic use of these materials for raising livestock productivity must consider carefully the optimal areas for their allocation, keeping in mind the opportunity cost of diverting supplies from elsewhere.
5.45 The three policy measures examined here have particular relevance to post-drought rehabilitation policy since they focus on increasing the rate of herd growth and the draft power of work animals in agriculture. Table 5.3 presents details on the three policy measures, giving rough coatings of alternative schemes and the gain associated with each. The final column of the table mentions some of the problem of implementation and the constraints on profitability. The assumptions on which the costs and returns have been estimated are outlined below.
5.46 Raising fertility rates. Calving rates among Sahelian zebu cows kept under traditional conditions lie between 60 and 65% per annum (Wagenaar, 1983). Substantial improvements in these rates have been achieved under research station conditions through the supplementation of females during the dry season, with calving rates rising to 70-75% (Coulomb et al, 1971). Supplementation towards the end of the dry season improves calving performance, both by reducing the chances of miscarriage and stillbirth due to the nutritional stress of the mother and by increasing the speed at which the female returns at the start of the rainy season to sufficient body-weight for ovulation and conception to occur. For the purposes of this example, it is assumed that as a result of distributing supplementary feed to females of breeding age, the calving rate will rise from 60 to 70%. For a herd of 100 animals, containing 40 breeding females, the increase in calving rate implies a rise in the number of calves born per year from 24 to 28. Supplementary feeding of 40 cows thus produces 4 extra calves.
5.47 Taking calf mortality rates of 30% from birth to 12 months and of 10% from 12 to 24 months (the average of figures cited by Wagenaar, 1983), and assuming no change in these from the intervention, of the 4 extra calves born, 2.8 will survive to the age of 12 months and of these, 2.5 will survive to the age of 24 months. The value of a calf aged 24 months is taken as US$25-30,* so that 2.05 calves of this age are worth US$62.5-75.0. If a time discount rate of 20% per annum is assumed, the net present value of these calves at the time of supplementation is US$36.2-43.4. It is arguable, of course, that these market-based figures underrate the true values of calves as potential rehabilitators of farming systems which, if not quickly restored, will require continued and very expensive famine relief to keep their human populations alive. The value of the calves to government may be greater than the market price. Nevertheless, market prices represent a preliminary approximation to true value and one can then apply sensitivity analysis and see how much higher (or lower) than the market price the true value would need to be before it becomes economic (uneconomic) to adopt this instrument for rehabilitation rather than another.
*equivalent to 12,000-15000 FCFA for 24-month calves in Sahelian markets.
5.2. Draft Power Policy Measures: of Alternatives.
|
Project |
Initial Cost |
Associated Cost |
Area cultivated per USS100 spent |
Issues arising |
|
Work oxen credit to farmers |
Loan for oxen purchase of US$140-180 per ox |
Administration, vaccination, insurance fodder |
1.00 -1.50 ha. |
Oxen locally available? fodder supplies adequate? |
|
Government tractor pool |
Purchase of tractor at US$ 15-20,000 |
Fuel, spare parts, skilled labour and administration |
2.00-2.50 ha. |
Soils and terrain suitable |
|
Loans for local tractor hire |
Loans to farmers at US$20-40/ha |
Administration Other costs borne by tractor-owner |
2.00-3.00 ha. |
Tractors available locally? Terrain suited? One year only. |
|
Hand tools |
Purchase of tools at US$5 per unit |
Distribution, high cost of labour, fertiliser option |
2.00-10.00 ha. |
Variability in soils means wide range in area prepared by hand. |
Table 5.3. Alternative Uses of Scarce Domestic Fodder Supplies
|
Target of policy |
Objective |
Ration |
Gain per kg. of fodder used (US$) |
Problems and issues raised |
|
Breeding females |
Raise calving rates from 60 to 70% |
2-3 kgs/cow per day for 90 days |
less than 0.01 |
Selection of females most likely to benefit from supplementation |
|
Calves less than 1 year |
Increase calf survival rate |
0.5 kgs/calf per day for 90 days |
0.04-0.05 |
Selection of calves most vulnerable to death would raise benefits gained |
|
Work oxen in poor condition |
Raise farm output by improving performance of oxen |
2-3 kgs/ox per day for 90 days |
0.15-0.26 |
Selection of work oxen below critical weight threshold for feeding; availability of extra land for increase in area cultivated |
*Assumes only those oxen below critical weight threshold are fed and consequently there is significant improvement in working performance.N.B. In all cases, there are major problems which arise from the high costs of transport and distribution of animals fodder which will be especially severe for extensive and very mobile systems of livestock production, as found in large parts of the semi arid range areas of sub-Saharian Africa.
5.48 The cost of supplementation depends on the commodity taken, the country concerned, transport costs and on whether the domestic or the export price is taken. An FAO study of domestically available livestock feeds for several Sahelian states quotes prices per kg for groundnut and cotton seed cake, rice and wheat bran ranging from 20-40 FCFA, equivalent to US cents 4-8 (FAO 1985 a,b,c). In contrast to these figures, trade statistics indicate an export value per kg of groundnut and cotton seed cake of US cents 1517 (FAO, 1982). While the lower price of US cents 4-8 per kg will be taken in the examples here, the high export price of these commodities should be kept in mind, to be discussed later in this chapter. Taking the above cost of supplementary feed and a daily ration per cow of 2-3 kgs over a 90 day period, the overall cost for 40 cows will be US$288-864.
5.49 It can be seen from the example taken above that the cost of supplementary feed given to all breeding stock will far exceed the benefits gained from extra calf production (estimated at $40 see pare 5.47 above) on the basis of the assumptions used. This makes it crucial for the success of such a policy that only those cows be fed for which there will be a marked effect in terms of improved calving performance. These cows will typically be those which normally calve only once every other rainy season and which take a long time to regain bodyweight and fertility at the start of the rainy season. Returns to supplementation will also be higher where the extra milk produced per cow due to better feeding finds a ready market, for instance where the herd is close to a town.
5.50 Reducing calf mortality rates. Calf mortality Under Sahelian conditions is high, averaging from 20-40% for those from birth to 12 months (Wagenaar, 1983), resulting partly from their poor level of nutrition, as they must compete for limited milk supplies with the herder, and partly from specific health problems, such as parasites and diarrhoea. Mortality rates are quite variable from one year to the next, depending on the severity of pasture shortages during the dry season.
5.51 Supplementary feeding of calves has been suggested by a number of researchers as a means to reduce these high rates of mortality and several research programmes have been carried out to assess the merits of alternative supplementation regimes. Mesnil's study (1979) of calf supplementation in the Abala region of central Niger had as its main objective to compensate the young calf for high milk offtake by the herder. Calves of more than 3 months were given a ration of 0.5 kg/day of mixed animal feed (rice flour, groundnut cake, salts and vitamins) and their performance was compared with a control group of non-supplemented calves. The findings of the study were not very significant, as the number of the calves involved in the study was small. Also, herders increased their milk offtake from the mothers of calves receiving supplementation. In addition, the good weather and pasture conditions means that all cattle were under less stress than is often the case by the end of the dry season. Nevertheless, there was an estimated improvement in calf survival rates of 5 percentage points as a result of the supplementation. Mesnil refers to another study in which supplementation had a far more marked effect on raising survival rates (Bres, 1972). This latter study was carried out under much harsher ecological conditions; as a result, non-supplemented calves had a mortality rate as high as 22% in a single month, in contrast to no deaths among supplemented calves.
5.52 The calculations made here will be based on the assumption of a decline in calf mortality rates from 30 to 20% over the first 12 months of life as a result of receiving supplementary feed, this assumed improvement lying between the results of the two studies described by Mesnil (1979). In years of good rainfall, the gain in survival rates from supplementation will be less marked, while in poor years supplementary feeding of calves will produce a major gain in calf survival rates.
5.53 Taking a herd of 100 animals, in which 24 calves are born in the year, the fall in calf mortality over the first 12 months of life reduces the loss of calves to 12 months from 7.2 to 4.8, giving a net gain of 2.4 calves aged 12 months. Assuming no change in the calf mortality rate among calves from 12 to 24 months (taken as 10%), 2.4 calves aged 12 months will leave 2.16 calves aged 24 months. Each of these 24 months calves are valued at US$25-30, giving a total value of extra calf production of US$54-65. Using a time discount rate of 20% per annum gives a net percent value at time of feeding of US$4S-54.
5.54 The cost of supplementary, feeding is calculated for a ration of 0.5 kgs/day over a 90-day period for the 24 calves, giving a total cost of US$43-86, if 1 kg costs US cents 4-8. This cost range compares with the estimated value of extra calf production of US$45-54, suggesting a small margin can be gained on the project when the lower price is taken for the cost of feed. The return to supplementation would increase if account was taken of other benefits to herd productivity arising from the supplementation programme, such as the faster rate of calf growth which should lead to earlier age at sale and earlier age at first calving. The return from supplementation will also rise if only the most vulnerable calves could be selected for feeding.
5.55 Work oxen supplementation. Supplementation of draft oxen aims to moderate dry season weight loss, thereby improving draft performance at the start of the cultivation season. Potential benefits accrue to farmers in the form of an increase in the area that can be cultivated by each oxen pair and increased crop yield from improved timeliness of sowing and weeding operations. The size of the actual benefits gained by the farmer will depend on: the improvement in oxen performance resulting from their supplementation' the availability of extra land that can be brought into cultivation and the significance for crop yields of timely sowing and weeding.
5.56 The improvement in oxen performance is itself dependent on the amount of weight lost by supplemented and non-supplemented animals and the demands made upon them in terms of the intensity of draft required and the length of the working day. There is likely to be some critical threshold below which weight losses substantially impair the work ability of draft animals. Supplementation of animals whose weight has fallen below this threshold will have a significant effect on their ploughing performance. Where the weight lost is less than this amount, however, supplementation may have little or no impact on draft performance. The size and significance of weight losses during the dry season will depend on the fodder availability at different seasons, as this affects the speed with which animals can regain their weight at the start of the rains, the reserves they carry through into the dry season and the amount by which dry season fodder intake falls short of that required to maintain body-weight. However, this critical weight threshold must also be related to this demands made upon the animals. These demands will be greatest where much of the ploughteam's work is done while pasture resources are still scarce, where land preparation is the main task done by draft and where the actual force required for ploughing is high, due to heavy or water-logged soils.
5.57 Improved oxen performance can be translated into high crop output either by an increase in the area cultivated per team or by improving the timeliness and care with which land is prepared, and crops are sown and weeded. The relative size of each of these benefits will be determined by the availability of land with which to increase cultivated area and by the significance of timeliness for final yield, factors which will vary across different regions according to population densities and the pattern and volume of rainfall in relation to plant requirements.
5.58 A number of studies have been done to estimate the fodder requirements of draft oxen of different weights according to the work demanded of them under varying climatic conditions (Goe and McDowell, 1980). A series of supplementation trials carried out in a Sahelian farming village in Mali has shown, under the conditions operating there, that supplementation leads to no statistically significant increase in work oxen performance (Traore and Soumare, 1984). This can be explained by: the availability throughout the dry season of low quality- forage around the village which limits the total weight loss of nonsupplemented animals, the light sandy soils of the region and the low demands made on oxen, due to the minimal tillage carried out. In addition, a variety of factors other than nutrition are of importance in affecting oxen performance, such as the qualities of the workers guiding the oxen and holding the plough and the stimulating effect on one oxen team of working alongside another oxen pair. While no result of statistical significance was found between the performance of supplemented oxen and the control group, the former were found to cultivate an area slightly larger than the latter by an amount of 1.15 ha. The value to the farmer of this marginal increase in area depends on the crop with which it is cultivated. Taking an average yield of 400 kgs/ha., gives an additional output of (1.15 x 400) kgs or 460 kgs, valued at US$138-184.*
*Grain being valued at US$300-400 per ton, as explained in the section on herd reconstitution.
5.59 Within the Ethiopian context, supplementation of work oxen is likely to lead to improved tillage and more timely sowing of fields, rather than a significant expansion in area cultivated, given the shortage of unoccupied arable land in most farming regions. However, it is estimated that substantial improvements in yields are possible from better cultivation techniques' such as more timely sowing and better seedbed preparation (Whiteman, 1977). Yield increases from improved techniques are estimated as ranging from 17-18% for wheat and teff to 45% for sorghum (Min. of Ag., 1979), or by an average of 210 kgs/ha Given a mean holding per work oxen pair of 1.52.00 ha., the increment in output due to better oxen nutrition and performance can be estimated at around 300-400 kgs, worth US$90-160 (taking the price of grain as US$ 300-400/ton).
5.60 Costs of supplementation are based on an assumed ration of 3 kgs/day over a 90-day period for each ox, the ration consisting of a mixture of groundout and cottonseed cake, rice and wheat bran' priced at US cents 4-8. This gives a total cost per oxen pair for the period of supplementation of US$21.60-43.20.
5.61 The returns from work oxen supplementation can be calculated from the above figures. These indicate that there are positive benefits from this policy if output increases by an amount worth more than US$21.60 - 43.20, as a result of the improved performance of the draft team. Significant benefits will be less probable where there is sufficient dry season grazing available so that animals can maintain their body-weight above some critical threshold and where the work demanded of them at the start of the rainy season is not too arduous. Benefits will increase where supplementation is restricted to those animals which have lost a substantial amount of their body-weight and whose subsequent work ability is likely to be much impaired.
5.62 A Comparison of alternative uses of fodder. The calculations made above suggest that supplementary feeding has its highest value in the supplementation of work oxen which would otherwise be in poor nutritional state. The returns from alternative measures depend crucially on the assumptions made about likely performance in the absence of supplements and the extent to which performance is improved by the distribution of rations to stock. Thus, for example in the case of calf supplementation, in a year when pasture conditions are good, calf mortality rates will be low and supplementary feeding will have negligible impact on survival rates. Conversely, when pasture and milk supplies are scarce, supplementation of calves will have a much higher return. If those calves most at risk can be identified and selectively fed, the returns from this policy measure will also be much higher.
5.63 Against the comparison of alternative domestic uses of fodder in livestock production must be set the other Uses of these resources. These will comprise for example, the foreign exchange earnings on exports of agro-industrial by-products and the value of other commodities which can be derived from the raw materials, such as oil for human consumption from cotton-seed, alcohol from molasses, etc. With export prices of around US cents 15-17/kg for feeds such as groundout and cottonseed cake (FAO, 1983), the only livestock-related domestic use of higher value is that of work oxen supplementation. Non-selective calf supplementation produces a gain lower than that obtained from exporting these commodities while the non-selective supplementation of breeding cows produces very much lower returns.
5.64 The question of the returns from feeding stock during drought periods, as compared with the post-drought period, has not been looked at explicitly here. It has been the object of some research and discussion (see for example FAO, 1982). It will just be noted here that such a policy raises a number of complex issues to do with the optimal survival rations for stock, selection of animals to be fed, longer term consquences for pasture regeneration, priority to be given to transport of fodder versus human food supplies and so on.
