Read today in the New Agriculturalist
Livestock and pensions provide the main source of livelihood for the farmers living around the Hoachanas settlement situated in the Kalahari Sandveld of Namibia. Small stock, such as goats and sheep, are crucial for food and income, with the area too dry for crop and feed production. But mortality of animals due to dry season feed shortages and poor animal health are a major constraint. However, an initiative to bring partners together to discuss and implement opportunities to improve production has stimulated a public-private partnership (PPP) to provide animal health services and inputs.
The initiative, supported by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), was set up in 2008, as part of a wider Livestock and Livelihoods (LILI) project*, to help facilitate discussions amongst relevant stakeholders to improve livestock markets in southern Africa. The approach, known as an Innovation Platform (IP), to bring partners together to identify bottlenecks and opportunities and collectively generate solutions is working in three countries, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Systemwide Livestock Programme 