Overview
This project aimed to increase productivity, marketing options, incomes and livelihood choices of smallholder cattle farmers in Vanuatu; meeting markets and developing the industry.
About 17,000 households (50% of rural households) in Vanuatu raise cattle. Despite favourable agro-climatic and market settings for beef cattle production, turnoff has substantially declined in the last decade, leaving butchers and abattoirs unable to meet the increasing demand for meat.
This is widely attributed to decreased on-farm productivity of smallholder farmers, the costs of accessing formal markets and low prices for slaughter cattle.
Increased on-farm productivity and increased cattle sales through accredited abattoirs is vital to increase national beef production and meet expanding market opportunities.
Improved on-farm production and marketing practices will provide opportunities for increased household cash flow and access to goods and services that improve livelihoods.
This project aimed to describe the economic, policy and social settings within which smallholder cattle farmers operate and their livelihood objectives and strategies; sustainably increase beef production; increase returns to smallholder cattle farmers through whole-farm and cattle enterprise economic analysis, business training and marketing interventions; and create pathways to sustain and extend project outcomes and impacts beyond the scope of the current project.
