Livestock, Disease, Trade and Markets: Policy Choices for Livestock Sector in Africa

Eldis - Pastoralism

This 50-page working paper is somewhat too lengthy for one after a hard day's work.  However, by browsing through it I can still identify some interesting points in the paper:

1. The two narratives of pastoralism in Africa.  One is focusing on improving local pastoralism and addressing diversity; the other is focusing on exporting pastoral products.  This is somewhat similar to the debate on Tibetan pastoralism now.  The authors point out that these two narratives are not mutually exclusive.  But there are some tensions.


2. Disease renders the main obstacle to replicate southern Africa's success story in livestock marketisation.  A package of counter measures was proposed but needs considerable investment.


3. Three strategies are proposed to facilitate pastoral export: bilateral deals, commodity-based trade (is being attempted in Tibet, too), and local trade and markets.


4. In terms of disease control, should limited resource be directed to transboundary diseases, or some more dangerous but local diseases?  This will involve a series of policy choices and trade-offs.

A number of factors will influence the livestock and animal-health policy, including the structure of economy, the political context, the relationship between livelihood and livestock, geography and politics of the markets, the quality and effectiveness of existing infrastructure, the capacity of public veterinary, regulatory and certification services, the capacity of the private sector to invest in R&D or market/delivery infrastructure.