4. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR

4.1 Government and non-governmental

The role of government in livestock development on the African continent has been largely in the area of policy formulation to assist producers to accelerate production at costs that consumers can afford. Strategies to achieve this objective have centered on the following:

• ecological specialization in livestock production;
• sedentarization particularly of pastoralists;
• provision of feeds and fodder improvement;
• breeding to improve indigenous stock;
• provision of veterinary services to alleviate animal health problems; and
• provision of domestic credit.

The dismal failure in the livestock sector in post-independent Africa can be largely blamed on inconsistent government policies and gross under funding of the sector. Even in the colonial period some key developments like the diary industry in Kenya was undertaken largely at the initiative of the then European farmers who created a structure of services through the government and through their own independent efforts (Jahnke, 1982). The persistently woeful performance of this sector in many African countries reflects the lack of sustained governmental support for privately led initiatives.

Extension services in livestock production in Africa is in its infancy because even with the creation of World Bank-assisted agricultural development projects in Nigeria and other African countries, livestock extension was not ranked as important compared with the crop production sector. Hence, it is only in the last decade that the structure for incorporating such into extension services has become notable. Presently spiral inflation and unfavourable interest rates have ostracized the small-scale livestock producer from financed credits. The high risks involved in livestock production further discourage credit institutions to give necessary support to the sector on the continent. With primitive marketing infrastructure and inconsistent pricing policy, the livestock producer is left with the individuals' ability to discern and take advantage of opportunities of markets particularly during festivals to dispose products.

With huge funding assistance from foreign organizations being wasted when executed through government agencies, it has become imperative to find reliable non-governmental institutions with healthy track records to initiate efforts on livestock development in farming communities on the continent. This is in its infancy and significant efforts are still largely restricted to the crop production sector.

4.2 Research centres and universities

Most research centres and universities offering training in agriculture are ill equipped for solving problems of livestock production on the continent. With poor infrastructure, inadequate research personnel, unattractive remuneration and absence of dynamic transfer of information between researchers and producers, the impact of researchers on the sector has been minimal. Research undertaken however, covers the areas of forage development, livestock nutrition and disease, local genetic resources improvement and livestock housing. Although many African countries have programmes for livestock science and technology, in many cases these are only blue prints for development with little legislative clout and insufficient budgetary backing to achieve their stated goals.

Special mention must be made of the research focus of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The basic thrust of this institute is cattle, milk and meat; that is to increase the sustainable output of milk and meat from cattle in the mixed crop-livestock smallholder production systems of sub-Saharan Africa. ILRI's research programmes focus on these production systems because they appear to offer the best opportunities for increasing protein output and hence food production as a whole in the foreseeable future. Specific interventions and models adopted include alley farming, fodder banks, crop residue utilization and feed supplementation. A thrust of holistic utilization of crops and residues for production of ruminants and monogastric animals is a recently added dimension. Institutions in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in selected countries of sub-Saharan Africa are presented in Table 9.

Table 9. Institutions in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in selected countries of sub-Saharan Africa