Presented by S. Bahta (ILRI) and P. Malope (BIDPA) at the Conference on Policies for Competitive Smallholder Livestock Production, Gaborone, Botswana, 4-6 March 2015
Disentangling the origin of chemical differences using GHOST
Measurement of competitiveness in smallholder livestock systems and emerging policy advocacy: An application to Botswana
1. Measurement of competitiveness in smallholder
livestock systems and emerging policy advocacy:
An application to Botswana
S. Bahta (ILRI) and P. Malope (BIDPA)
Conference on Policies for Competitive Smallholder Livestock Production
Gaborone, Botswana, 4-6 March 2015
3. Introduction and background
• Agric. Dominated by livestock production, esp.
beef.
• Dual production systems, with communal
dominating
• Productivity low esp. in the communal sector
• Not clear as to whether beef production is
competitive
• Studies have relied on budgetary analysis and
limited household data
• Others have calculated comp. at macro level
4. Objectives
• Measure competitiveness of beef production using
household data
• Specifically the study seeks to:
• Identify the determinants of profitability
• Identify efficiency drivers
• Measure overall profit efficiency of beef production
• Come up with policy recommendations to improve
profitability of beef production
5. Competetiviness defined
• Competitiveness has many definitions
• Competitiveness can be measured at three levels,
macro; meso and micro-levels
• Study measure competitiveness at micro level
• Definition at micro level relate to profitability
• “the ability to sell products that meet demand
requirements in terms of price, quality & quantity and at
the same time ensure profits”
9. Results – Efficiency drivers
Variables Coefficient t-values
Constant -11.86 -2.47**
Age of household head -1.26 -3.44***
Education of Household head 0.043 0.14
Annual household non-farm income 0.26 2.64***
Distance market (commonly used) 0.56 2.42**
Herd size 2.48 4.92***
Gender (% female farmers) -2.82 -2.43***
Information access (Yes=1, No=0) 4.15 2.80***
FMD disease zone (Yes=1, No=0) -4.56 -3.84***
Crop income (Yes=1, No=0) -2.31 -2.94***
10. Conclusions and policy
implications
• Profits could be increased through reduction in inputs
prices, increase in output price and access to crop
land.
• Presence of inefficiency in the study reminds that
production models that assume absolute efficiency
could lead to misleading conclusions.
• The mean efficiency of 0.56 implies that there is a
substantial loss of profit due to inefficiency.
11. Conclusions and policy
implications
Policies to improve farm profit should be directed at
• Enhancing producer prices as well as ways to reduce
input prices
• Improving infrastructure such as roads and collection
points of livestock
• Improving access to crop land and
• Encouraging farmers to engage in crop farming,
particularly in feed production.