The financial impact of an outbreak of FMD in 2010 on 62 smallholder cattle farmers in four villages in southern Cambodia was investigated by a financial impact survey questionnaire. Financial losses associated with FMD infection were severe with variation depending on whether the animal survived or died or was used for draft. The average post-FMD loss varied from USD 216.32, a 54% reduction from the pre-FMD value because of weight loss and treatment costs, to USD 370.54, a 92% reduction from pre-FMD values if the animal was treated, died and a rental draft replacement was required. Partial budget analysis identified a strongly positive incentive for cattle to be vaccinated biannually for FMD, providing USD 31.48 per animal for each animal owned. However low vaccination rates suggest that farmers are mostly unaware of the need or averse to the practice of vaccinating their cattle for FMD. This may be due to poor understanding of preventative disease strategies such as vaccination, unavailable disposable income for purchase of vaccines, and failure to recognize the full costs that are incurred when the disease occurs. Enhancing smallholder cattle productivity through the introduction of forage growing systems has been suggested as a pathway for alleviating rural poverty in the Mekong region. As our financial analysis identified a net benefit of vaccination for smallholder farmer enterprises in an endemic FMD area in Cambodia, it is considered important that farmer education strategies aimed at improving cattle productivity, also include both access to vaccine and training in preventative disease risk management and biosecurity practices in Cambodia.

Future food security has become a major global concern and is particularly important in the Greater Mekong Subregion where several countries have seen rapid urban economic development and increasing demand for red meat. In Cambodia, the majority of livestock producers are subsistence or semi-subsistence rural smallholder farmers using cattle as a source of protein, fertiliser, draught power, and asset storage. Potential income from smallholder cattle is limited by a range of factors that compromise productivity, including endemic diseases, poor nutrition, and lack of knowledge of husbandry techniques and marketing practices. To address the developing opportunities to improve rural incomes from cattle production in Cambodia, a 4-year longitudinal study was conducted to examine ‘best practice’ interventions that could improve productivity and profitability of cattle within smallholder farming systems. The study involved six villages from three provinces, with two villages in each of the provinces of Takeo, Kandal and Kampong Cham paired and designated as either high intervention (HI) or low intervention (LI). A best practice intervention program was introduced to the HI villages to develop the husbandry skills of farmers, including implementation of forage technology, disease prevention through vaccination for foot-and-mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicaemia, deworming, and education in nutrition, biosecurity, disease control, and marketing. Between April 2008 and February 2012, eight repeat-measures capturing data on animal health and production, including cattle weights used to evaluate the impact of interventions on average daily gains, were completed. Cattle in HI villages had significantly (P < 0.01) higher mean liveweight during the last three sampling periods, and average daily gains were 2.4 times higher than in cattle of the LI villages. This study provides evidence that best practice interventions resulted in improved cattle productivity, farmer knowledge and positive impacts on household income over time, offering a pathway that can address food security concerns and more rapidly alleviate rural poverty in the GMS.

No abstract

Increased demand for red meat throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) presents smallholder cattle and buffalo farmers with an opportunity to supply better quality animals to expanding regional markets. Cattle were target-fed in Cambodia with introduced forages to achieve gains of 0.19 kg/day over a 104-day period and this practice was compared with traditional cut-and-carry feeding practices where animals lost on average 0.04 kg/day. Target-fed animals were predicted to gain, on average, 25.9 kg more weight than animals fed in a traditional manner (P = 0.057), and to improve their estimated value by more than US$60. These outcomes were similar to outcomes in Lao PDR, where cattle and buffalo in fattening stalls gained 0.32 and 0.22 kg/day, respectively, over a 4-month period, and 0.04 and 0.09 kg/day when free-grazing. Greater weight gains are possible if farmers feed forages at the recommended 15% of bodyweight on a fresh-weight basis per day. Lack of knowledge of animal weights by farmers and traders was addressed by the creation of an accurate weight tape to provide a cheap and easy tool to monitor animal production and health, and to assist in negotiating a fair sale value. However, increased knowledge of appropriate forage plot size and feeding requirements of animals to be target-fed is required for farmers to change from being livestock keepers to livestock producers. To increase supply for the growing demand for red meat, an ongoing, multi-disciplinary extension program should be a priority for livestock improvement programs in the GMS.

The coconut industry of North Sulawesi, one of the primary coconut-producing provinces of Indonesia, is dominated by a small number of products that are primarily exported overseas. As they only comprise a small share of the global coconut product export market, demand for coconut products from North Sulawesi is generally very elastic. Conversely, the supply of coconuts is highly inelastic, especially in the short to medium term. Hence, small shifts in supply and demand lead to large fluctuations in farmer incomes. In this context, an equilibrium displacement model is used to examine the intra-industry consequences of R&D investments in farm productivity and product development. These investments are assessed in terms of the producer surplus benefits that they generate.