Measurement of competitiveness in smallholder livestock systems and emerging policy advocacy: An application to Botswana |
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| Institution: | 1. Professor, Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA;2. Professor, Department of Applied Economics, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA;3. Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Applied Economics, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA;4. Senior Field Researcher, Managing Risk for Improved Livelihoods PLC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;1. Oviedo Efficiency Group and Durham University Business School, United Kingdom;2. Oviedo Efficiency Group, Department of Economics, University of Oviedo, Spain;3. Energy Policy Research Group and Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom;1. School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), PO Box 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway & Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia;2. Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1039, USA;3. Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), Lusaka, Zambia |
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| Abstract: | Farm level cross sectional data of 556 randomly selected livestock producers were used to investigate the competitiveness of smallholder beef farmers in Botswana. The results show the presence of inefficiency, with about 74% of the variation in actual profit from maximum profit (profit frontier) between farms mainly arising from differences in farmers’ practices rather than random variability. Further the mean profit efficiency level of 0.58 suggests that there is a substantial scope to improve beef profitability in Botswana. Significant profit efficiency drivers include, among others, education, distance to market, herd size, access to information and access to income from crop production. Considering the importance of livestock sector for wealth creation and poverty eradication in the rural areas where poverty is more pronounced, there is a need for appropriate development strategies and policies directed towards addressing these factors. In particular there is need to invest in market infrastructure in order to improve market access, hence profit efficiency of smallholder livestock farmers. |
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| Keywords: | Competitiveness Profit efficiency Livestock Botswana |
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