Smallstock Toolbox: Home

Smallstock in Development

Livestock in general, and smallstock in particular (including sheep, goats and poultry) have an important role to play in enhancing the livelihoods of the poor.

In poor households, these animals are often kept under scavenging conditions with little or no attention paid to supplementing feed inputs, or to disease control and housing. At the same time, these animals provide products for cash sale when a need arises, and provide the household with much needed protein.

The Smallstock in Development toolbox focuses on the role and importance of smallstock in development and poverty reduction. The toolbox also aims to provide a range of practical information and descriptions of techniques or "tools" to assist in increasing the efficiency of operations of smallholders and/or the productivity of their animals.

	Overview
	Rationale and Purpose
	The Role of Smallstock in Development and Poverty Reduction
	How to use this "Toolbox"

Increasing the value of production from smallstock has an important role to play in poverty reduction.

Smallstock are Important

Overview

Navigation

Buttons represent main topics addressed by the toolbox

Clicking a button leads to a discussion of that topic and concept maps leading to further information

Topics can also be accessed through the main menu

Information Products

The DFID Livestock Production Programme (LPP) produced a number of customised pro-poor information products on CD-ROM aimed at specific audiences – including civil society practitioners, extension agents, researchers, policy makers and literate farmers. These CDs incorporate "Knowledge Banks" for Researchers, e-Libraries and Toolboxes for practitioners such as NGOs, extension agencies, farmer organisatons, and policy makers.

Rationale for the Smallstock Toolbox

The Challenge for Smallstock in Development Livestock are an important part of the livelihood systems of many poor rural and urban populations in developing countries. Livestock also play an important role in farming systems and can decrease the vulnerability of households. Smallstock are important as they are more accessible to greater numbers of poor households.
Building on Experience The toolbox does not attempt to provide all the answers to what is a large and complex topic, but is based on the experience of recent research carried out by DFID's Livestock Production Programme and other bodies. This is supported by background information, further reading, and specialist information sourced from a wide range of organizations involved with livestock and with development.
A Resource This toolbox forms a resource for use by NGOs, extension workers and others involved in livestock development. The primary purpose is to provide those institutions or individuals that inform or interact with resource-poor farmers, groups of livestock keepers or farmer organisations and extension services, with appropriate information in a readily accessible manner to assist in tackling some of the problems they face. The tools include technical interventions, husbandry advice, policy change guidelines and empowerment suggestions. The overall scope is to improve the management of knowledge generated by research and generally improve the communication between farmers and the research institutions.
For more about toolboxes

Other toolboxes in this series include:
	Smallholder milk producers

	Draft Animal Power

	Coping strategies in challenging environments

	Click on an image for more information

The Role of Smallstock in Development and Poverty Reduction

For large numbers of small and marginal farmers, livestock are often the only capital reserve of farming households, to be sold when times are hard. Animal draught power and nutrient recycling through manure compensates for unattainable access to tractors and fertilizers. Livestock, in one way or another, are critical to sustaining poor farmers. A number of different factors serve to underline the importance of livestock in general, and smallstock in particular, to the livelihoods of poor farmers:

Small livestock are important both for food security and also for income generation.

Animal sourced food plays an important role in child nutrition, especially eggs and milk.

Smallstock can improve the overall nutritional status of poor families.

Livestock production can empower vulnerable groups.

Many farmers rely on common lands for grazing. With the general shrinkage of these common areas, smallstock - especially poultry - will play an increasingly important role.

Integrated livestock and crop production can increase farm productivity (livestock can help to maintain the status of natural capital).

Traditional livestock systems act as a form of social security, and play a role in establishing and maintaining social networks.

For many poor households, livestock are the primary form of savings. However, production risks are greater for the poorer households.

Smallstock Development requires careful integration of a range of different and sometimes conflicting components.

Standard documents present a linear approach where it is all too easy to lose sight of relationships between the various problems, causes, and conflicting goals. This results in problems being viewed in isolation and the loss of an integrated approach.

The Smallstock in Development toolbox makes extensive use of hyperlinks and also employs Concept Mapping to enable a greater appreciation of the larger picture.

For more about the Importance of Smallstock

The overall goal is the improved husbandry of smallstock by resource-poor farmers, and an increased contribution from smallstock towards the livelihoods of the poor. Tools are available in several thematic areas. These are based on information from recently commissioned research (by LPP and other acknowledged donor groups) as well as information (largely on husbandry practices) which has been in the public arena for some time.

The toolbox utilises the twin concepts of livestock production systems and different groups of livestock keepers. These categories are defined in a set of pages describing the background to the classification, the different production systems used, and the groups of livestock keepers considered. Mirroring the real-world situation, significant overlaps exist between these production systems as they are based on a combination of climate, topography, agro-ecological zone and geographic location. Consequently some of the activities of resource-poor farmers may be associated with two or more different production systems. Similarly, there is much overlap between the diverse groups of livestock keepers, but these classifications nevertheless provide a useful set of working definitions.

Fact Sheets

This toolbox enables you create your own fact sheets and posters for use in information or technology transfer. You can select sections that are of interest, and copy and paste into suitable text editing software. Add your own information and print the results. Respect copyright where this applies.

There are also a number of brochures, manuals and pamphlets that may of direct use in development and extension work.

For more information on information dissemination

How to Use this Toolbox

The toolbox organisation and navigation uses a combined approach, in the form of the menus for direct access to major topics, together with sub-menus on each page and a series of concept maps. These diagrams enable users to select a subject of interest, whilst at the same time not losing sight of other related and important issues.

The main menu - the buttons at the top left corner - indicate the major topics included in the toolbox. Clicking on any of these buttons takes you to a description of the topic. Sub-menus on the top-right the page lead to sets of sub-topics and related concepts.

Clicking on the "topics" within each concept map will also lead to the descriptions and discussions of the relevant issues. Use whichever approach you find simplest.

In addition to hyperlinked text, a number of standard buttons and icons also provide links to other pages or documents.

The		button will take you to another page. This new page replaces the original window. You may use the "Back" button in the browser to return to the previous page.
The		button opens a *new window* with additional background reference material.
The	icon opens an Adobe© Acrobat pdf document.

What is a Concept Map?

Concept mapping is a technique for representing knowledge and ideas by using diagrams. Nodes represent topics and links between nodes represent the relationships between these topics or ideas.

Concept maps are similar to Causal Diagrams - a technique used by PRA
practitioners.

Learn how to use them in your work as an effective means of communication.

For more information on Concept Maps

Many of the documents within the Smallstock in Development Toolbox are stored in Adobe© Acrobat PDF format and require that Adobe© Acrobat Reader is installed so that they can be viewed. You may download the viewer program by going to the Adobe© web site

CD-ROM

The Smallstock in Development Toolbox is also available on CD-ROM:

Campbell, K.L.I., Garforth, C., Heffernan, C., Morton, J., Paterson, R., Rymer, C. and Upton, M. (2006). Smallstock in Development, CD-ROM. DFID Livestock Production Programme, Natural Resources International Ltd, Aylesford, Kent, UK. ISBN: 0-9546452-8-6

Acknowledgements

Numerous individuals and organizations have contributed publications and other material to Smallstock in Development. For a listing, please go to the acknowledgements page.