Abstract

This study aims to provide information on smallholder farmer access to livestock inputs and services and their husbandry practices in normal and shock years. A combination of qualitative techniques (community mapping with cards; scoring; etc) and a set of carefully designed semi-structured questionnaires were used to elicit information about the underlying livelihoods. The survey areas were purposively selected bearing in mind the geographical variations in levels of vulnerability and the intra-district variations in production potential and market access. Inter-household variations within each sampled community were taken care of by categorizing the households into three poverty groups (non-poor, poor and extremely poor) and implementing a sampling strategy that ensured adequate representation of each. The results suggest a strong need to improve not only public service delivery to the livestock sector but also to devise a multi-faceted system for enhancing productivity and market participation. This is especially critical during shock times.

Keywords:

Livestock inputs, mixed methods, services, smallholder farmers, Zambia,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.