LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AND LIVESTOCK …

1 HANS E. JAHNKE LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AND LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT IN TROPICAL AFRICA KIELER WISSENSCHAFSVERLAG VAUK HANS E. JAHNKE LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AND LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT IN TROPICAL AFRICA KIELER WISSENSCHAFTSVERLAG VAUK 1982 Hans E. Jahnke LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS -id- LIVESTOCK Development in Tropical Africa 1982 Kieler Wissenschaftsverlag Vauk Postfach 4403, D -2300 Kiel 1 ISBN 3-922553-12-5 IN MEMORIAM HANS RUTHENBERG (1928 -1980) V FOREWORD by Director General, ILCA LIVESTOCK are vital to subsistence and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. They provide a flow of essential food productsthroughout the year, are a major source of government revenue and export earnings, sustain the employment and income of mil lions of people in rural areas, contribute draught energy and ma nure for crop PRODUCTION and are the only food and cash securityavailable to many Africans.

2 The sale of LIVESTOCK and their pro ducts often constitutes the source cash income inonly of rural areas, and hence the only way in which subsistence farmers can buy consumer goods and procure the improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides needed to increase crop yields. Where LIVESTOCK develop ment has been successfully pursued, a steady increase in the pro ductivity of food grain PRODUCTION and in the growth of service and consumer industries is clearly observable. Many of the traditional LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS of sub-Saha ran Africa are now in decline. Their future survival depends on enhancing their capacity to satisfy the subsistence and income needs of their producers. It also depends on their impact on the land resources they use. The grasslands and browse in the pastoral areas of Africa are characterised by low levels of productivity and high variability in yields, both within and across years.

3 As human and therefore LIVESTOCK populations increase, pressure on these un predictable resources grows, and with it the threat of en'ironmen tal degradation leading to further decline. There is thus an urgentneed to find ways to accelerate LIVESTOCK productivity and output, so that it not only keeps pace with rising populatio~i but also creates surpluses for market disposal. Opportunities for substantial progress exist: in the improvement of grazing lands, health control,animal management practices, and marketing and institutional in frastructure. Research and development studies in more than a dozen institutes in tropical now several decades. TheseAfrica span efforts have resulted in substantial productivity gains in a number of specificsituations. However, of been man most these have achieved under Previous P knk VI agement conditions which are beyond the means of the majority of LIVESTOCK producers.

4 Development efforts have often stressed tech nical innovations without an understanding of the spectrum of con sequences that can flow from such interventions in pastoral socie ties, and the outcome of past investment in LIVESTOCK developmentprojects has been generally disappointing. The primary cause of failure in most cases has been the lack of adequate understandingof relationships between the biological, economic and social com ponents of each PRODUCTION system . Based on this premise, the research efforts of the International LIVESTOCK Centre for Africa (ILCA) have focussed on the need for a thorough understanding of these relationships before committingscientists and physical resources to detailed field and componentresearch within a given system . Our baseline studies, carried out in areas representative of the wid, range of ecological and socio economic environments of sub-Saharan Africa, support the hypoth esis that research on LIVESTOCK development must consider produc tion SYSTEMS in their entirety.

5 They provide the rationale for ILCA's SYSTEMS -oriented research strategy. Hans Jahnke, a staff member of ILCA from its inception in 1975, has been a key figurein the formulation of this strategy, and is in a unique position to provide a synthesis of the information accumulated by ILCA and other research and development institutes, adding his own careful and pragmatic approach to the interpretation of the usually scantyquantitative data available. The main aim of this book is to improve the planning base for LIVESTOCK development in Africa. The author's first task has been to provide a quantitative assessment of LIVESTOCK and land re sources, which forms the basis for dividing the continent into ecological zones. LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION in each zone is assessed bythe products provided, the functions performed and the contribu tion of LIVESTOCK to the national economy.

6 This analysis leads to a classification of the predominant PRODUCTION SYSTEMS in the region,ranging from extensive pastoral SYSTEMS to intensive landless sys tems. The Jlassification is justified by its usefulness in identifyinglivestock development possibilities. The viewpoint expressed here is that of an economist: change and improvement in different pro duction SYSTEMS depend on relative factor endowments, technology and pricing structure, as well as on the changing nature of pro ducer objectives and managerial skills. A central theme of the book is that LIVESTOCK development cannot be viewed as a parallelexpansion in all existing SYSTEMS ; priorities must be set and devel VIu opment choices made on the basis of the relative importance and potential of each system . Like other processes of change, LIVESTOCK development is dynamicand open-ended.

7 SYSTEMS at different stages on the development path face widely differing constraints on their further improve ment. Dr. Jahnke's book is particularly valuable in this context, as it formulates specific development hypotheses amenable to empiri cal testing in specific PRODUCTION environments. The research task implied by this analysis is therefore one of ILCA's major objec tives. It is our hope that this book, which synthesizes much of the material in other ILCA publications, will prove a valuable source of information for improving food PRODUCTION and economic devel opment in sub-Saharan Africa. Addis Abeba, Ethiopia January 20, 1982 IX Acknowledgements This book has arisen from my work at the International LIVESTOCK Centre for Africa (ILCA) between 1975 and 1981. Without impli cating anybody in errors and omissions and without claiming to present a synthesis or consensus of views held there, the book is a product of the work of that organisation, drawing on resources provided by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

8 The complete list of direct and indirect contributors at ILCA simply is too long for inclusion here and I can only ask the staff of ILCA as a whole to accept my sincere thanks for their general support and for their valuable inputs. The book was started and brought to conclusion under the directorship of Mr. David Pratt and it is to him that I owe my major debt for intellectual and administrative support and for continued moral encouragement to accomplish the work. The members of ILCA's Programme Committee under the chair manship successively of Prof. Tribe and Dr. A. Provost have provided valuable suggestions and criticisms on earlier drafts. For their particular efforts I must mention Prof. W. Schaefer-Kehnert, Prof. Spedding and Prof. H. Ruthenberg. Valuable background material was provided by FAO; Mr. G. Higgins helped with statistical data and Dr.

9 J. Hrabovszky provided planning figures and background calculations and he took the trouble of commenting extensively on an earliei draft. The Institut d'Elevage et de Medecine Veterinaire des Pays Tropi caux (IEMVT) granted me access to their archives; its Director Gene'ral Dr. A. Provost and its Assistant Director Dr. G. Tacher took the time for long discussions and provided numerous valuable suggestions. The final draft of the work benefitted substantially from sug gestions and criticisms by my colleagues at the University of Kiel, in particular by Prof. Hanf, Prof. W. Scheper, Dr. R. Miller Dr. R. Herrmann and Dr. Schmitz and by Prof. G. Weinschenk of the University of Hohenheim. Finally I am grateful for competent technical support at first at ILCA and then at the University of Kiel, where Ms. S. Lildtke, Mr.

10 Page BlIY. x F. Platte and Mr. Schadek compiled statistics, Ms. H. J~irgensen and Mr. F. Killsen prepared the drawings, Ms. S. Lemke typed earlier drafts and the tables, Ms. E. Fey and Ms. M. Krause prepared the final typescript and Ms. H. Kross undertook the tedious editorial work. Hans E. Jahnke March 31, 1982 Kiel, Federal Republic of Germany XI CONTENTS List of Tables XiV List of Figures XVIII Acronyms of Organizations Units and Abbreviations XIX XX INTRODUCTION 1 Background 1 Aim and Scope 3 Approach 6 2 RESOURCES FOR LIVESTOCK PReDUCTION 9 2. 1 LIVESTOCK 9 Land 15 2. 3 Resources by Ecological Zone 20 3 LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY 24 Sector Contribution 24 LIVESTOCK Products 27 Foods 27 3. Materials 29 Manure 31 Work , 32 Animals -Reproduction and Growth 35 3. 3 PRODUCTION and Productivity by Ecological Zone 36 4 LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 42 LIVESTOCK Development 42 Performance to-date 42 The Case for LIVESTOCK Development 46 4.