A Path to Prosperity New Directions for African Livestock

The delivery of veterinary services to small farmers
in rural areas through private vets is identified as a
priority area. There is evidence of successful
utilisation of veterinary para-professionals and
public–private partnerships to meet rural veterinary
service needs, but such services need to be scaled up
through improved veterinary governance. It was
noted that neglected zoonoses are particularly
relevant to the poor. Whilst GALVmed is working on
several zoonoses already, including a newly-funded
initiative on African trypanosomosis, more might be
done in this area that takes advantage of GALVmed's
strong links with the pharmaceutical industry.
Bearing in mind the high levels of malnutrition in
SSA, the paper highlighted the importance of
improved ruminant feeding. Ruminants generally
utilise human-inedible food and a number of
emerging technologies were identified that might
increase feed utilisation and productivity. There are
good examples of how this has been done in the
small holder dairy sector, but more needs to be done
to test and adopt new technologies on a commercial
basis. Finally, domestic and regional market access
for small holders is considered crucial for
sustainably intensifying livestock production in an
equitable manner. A dynamic smallholder sector
generates local demand for locally-produced goods
and services. In turn, this can spur sustainable
non-farm employment growth in services,
agro-processing and small-scale manufacturing.
Doing this at scale and to the benefit of the poor will
require improved infrastructure and appropriate
policies at regional and national level. Public policy
has a key role to play in assisting private-sector firms
to reduce the transaction costs that increasingly
exclude smallholders from participating in growing
livestock markets. Few examples of contract
livestock farming were found in SSA and yet there is
evidence that contracting small farmers increases
profitability and productivity. Inclusion of small
businesses and agro-industry in market
development and value chain analysis remain key
challenges that GALVmed has expertise in.
GALVmed has an interest in building alliances,
understanding and agreeing on how best to ensure
these areas succeed, because a vibrant and
successful livestock sector is vital to GALVmed's
core business. The paper is designed to stimulate
discussion and partnerships to support Africa’s
livestock sector development.
The Impetus Strategy Paper I Page 51