IN Zimbabwe, beef cattle farming constitutes a significant proportion of agricultural activities and contributes to the sustenance of the rural populations.
Beef cattle production is affected and influenced by natural and socio-economic factors at varying degrees in different sectors of production.
These include land area, topography, prevailing conditions and availability of water during droughts that influence carrying capacity of grazing land, diseases, pests as well as breed of cattle and their ability to adapt to soil and vegetation.
These aspects allow a measure in performance of the value chain (VC) as well as an understanding of how the value chain functions.
A value chain is defined as ‘a method for accounting and presenting the value that is created in a product or service as it is changed from raw inputs to final product consumed by the end user’.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) (2014): ‘Beef value chains are linked to, and influenced by market systems, political systems, natural environment, farming systems, infrastructural systems, legal and regulatory, financial, global trade and social systems…’.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) describes the livestock value chain as: ‘The full range of activities which are required to bring a livestock product or service from conception, through the different phases of production that involve a combination of physical transformation and the input of various producer services, the delivery to final consumers and final disposal after use … with the focus on market collaboration among different stakeholders who produce and market value-added products’.
Economic factors have a direct influence on beef cattle production as it affects efficiency and competitiveness of the industry as well as the value chain.
Although the national beef cattle population has been steadily increasing, the beef sector is not without its challenges and concomitant effect across all the livestock value chain from input acquisition, production and marketing to the processing of livestock products.
The droughts of the recent past reduced dry season natural grass resources in the main beef producing areas of Matabeleland, Masvingo, Midlands and in the northern parts of Mashonaland provinces, that resulted in increased bovine mortalities.
According to the Meat Graders Section of the Department of Livestock Production and Development (DLPD) that monitors cattle slaughters in abattoirs, the numbers of cattle slaughtered has been declining. This is attributed, by some, to the downturn in beef demand by consumers, mainly due to diminished disposable income as well as competition from lower-priced chicken.
It is anticipated that in future, slaughters may continue to decrease as farmers increase their herds after the good rains this season (2017).
The livestock value chain covers the range of activities required to bring a livestock product or service through the different phases of production from conception.
These activities are identified either as primary activities that directly contribute to value addition, or support activities that have an indirect effect on the final value of the product, taking into account the input of various producer services for the physical transformation of a product, attention being market-focused collaboration among the different stakeholders who produce and market the products (ILO 2009).
In Zimbabwe, livestock processing generated from by-products can contribute greatly to the nation’s economic growth potential of locally produced processed meat products that are currently non-competitive in relation to similar regional products.
To improve the economic value and competitiveness of by-products of livestock processing various recommendations have been made by stakeholders.
After extensive consultation with stakeholders a value-chain focused livestock policy for Zimbabwe was developed, though the new policy framework has yet to be formally adopted by the authorities and accompanying strategies have not yet been developed to implement it.
To enhance efficiencies along the live stock value chain and ensure equitable development of livestock for livestock stakeholders along the value chains; protect consumers against possible biological, moral and ethical risks arising from livestock development and to secure livestock resources against natural and man-made disasters, were some of the recommended objectives made by stakeholders for an effective value-chain focused livestock policy for Zimbabwe.
Abattoir waste products such as blood, bones and feathers can also be transformed into valuable inputs in the value chain through the manufacture of stock feed.
Other abattoir by-products such as fat and trimmings from carcasses feed into a growing meat processing industry manufacturing sausages, polony and tinned meats.
The livestock sector is a major user of locally-produced feed raw materials including maize, bran from maize and wheat, soya bean cake, cotton cake and molasses.
Given the current low production of key inputs required by the livestock industry, the sector must rely heavily on imports to support livestock farming.
Local production of these raw materials needs to be encouraged in order to lower the cost of locally produced feed raw materials, thus also lowering the cost along the value chain.
Currently, there is an increase in global demand for food of animal origin such as meat, milk, cheese, butter and eggs, among other products. This has important implications for the development of Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.
Although over 40 mammal and bird species have been domesticated worldwide, food production from livestock relies on a small group of species.
Cattle, chickens and pigs account for about 88 percent of the world’s annual meat production from livestock, while only cattle and buffaloes produce 96 percent of milk and chickens only provide 92 percent of eggs. (FAOSTAT 2011)
Animal proteins are essential to a well-balanced diet. Animal-source foods provide the nutrition that contains a wide range of essential micro-nutrients such as iron and zinc; particularly essential for mothers and infants during the first 1 000 days of their lives. Meat in children’s diet improves their long-term cognitive ability.
Animal-source foods are a rich source of vitamins, including vitamin A, whose deficiency leads to blindness; they are a source of vitamin B12, whose deficiency can lead to anaemia and permanent nerve damage, and vitamin A, whose deficiency can lead to blindness.
Milk contains calcium which improves children’s growth — lack of milk in the diet can irreversibly stunt a child’s growth, especially in a child’s formative years.
Zimbabwe should capitalise on its enormous wealth in natural pastures and livestock to gain access to new markets opening up in Asia — particularly the relatively affluent and nearby Middle East — and expand exports to Europe and North America.
This could be the key to the much-needed growth impetus for stagnating agricultural economies, particularly for the dry agro-ecologically fragile region of Matabeleland including, Masvingo, Midlands and the northern parts of the Mashonaland provinces where rural poverty tends to be concentrated.
With over 90 percent of cattle held in the smallholder farming areas, and an estimated 60-75 percent of rural domestic smallholders owning cattle in Zimbabwe, livestock production is crucial for smallholder farming systems in order to boost livelihoods, health, income, national employment and economic growth.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, lecturer, musician, art critic, practicing artist and corporate image consultant. He is also a specialist art consultant, post-colonial scholar, Zimbabwean socio-economic analyst and researcher. e-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com