Livestock and livelihoods: Trajectories in the production and marketing of large ruminants in the uplands of Northern Laos

The uplands of northern Laos are one of the poorest and most remote regions of the country. Yet agriculture in this region has recently been exposed to increasing commercialisation both in domestic and international markets. This commercialisation offers both opportunities and challenges for smallholder farmers. This thesis uses an interdisciplinary framework to analyse how the large ruminant industry in the uplands has developed in the context of market expansion. As large ruminants are an integral part of smallholder livelihoods, specific attention is given to how smallholder livelihood activities and strategies influence their large ruminant production systems. Investigating the impacts of increasing exposure to external markets also means a research focus on the marketing system of large ruminants in northern Laos. The use of a livelihoods approach as the conceptual framework allows for a detailed analysis of the large ruminant industry through the lens of smallholder farmers and traders. The approach allows the research to analyse their livelihood strategies and activities which may have an important impact on their large ruminant production and marketing systems. Fieldwork involved household surveys and semi-structured interviews with village headmen, officials at central, provincial and district levels, researchers and other industry participants in the four districts in the key upland provinces of Xieng Khouang, Huaphanh and Luang Prabang, along with marketing surveys through the interviews of key livestock traders in Luang Prabang and Xieng Khouang Provinces. The analysis also draws on data from government agricultural offices and livestock development projects. The results of the household survey report two studies at the district level. The first is an analysis of smallholders’ livelihood activities and strategies, and the second is an analysis of key management components of large ruminant production systems and the importance of these ruminants to smallholder livelihoods. The results of both studies highlight the interrelation between complex patterns of smallholder cropping activities and raising large ruminants in terms of household labour and land distribution. As cropping activities are prioritised, raising large ruminants is adapted to fit in with these cropping activities through the utilisation of grazing sources that households can access. Such interactions have led to households pursuing various types of extensive production systems for large ruminants instead of the fattening production system that the government has actively promoted. Analysis of the marketing system of large ruminants draws heavily on the investigation of the activities of key district traders. The results show that while the marketing system, in general, appears functional in servicing the rapidly changing domestic and international market channels, there are still several shortcomings in the system that may impact on smallholders’ engagement with these markets. In particular, pricing large ruminants using subjective visual appraisal rather than objective measurement by traders may create an asymmetry of price information to smallholder farmers with implications for price accuracy and the returns received by smallholders. Further research is needed to fully understand the price discovery mechanism. Based on the biological and economic information generated from the analysis of smallholders’ production and marketing systems of large ruminants, the analysis then focuses on the economics of the different extensive grazing systems and the fattening system. The findings reveal that the fattening systems do exhibit slightly higher net returns than the extensive grazing systems. However the more significant changes to livelihood activities, the availability of suitable forage land and seed, and the more complex management and knowledge required to optimize the integrated crop-livestock systems associated with the fattening mean that farmers would need to perceive more substantial and sustained economic gains before considering such a change. The thesis provides key analytical insights to understanding large ruminant development in the uplands of northern Laos. This study also has implications for government interventions in livestock development. The government is strongly pushing for modernisation and intensification with an emphasis on the use of fattening techniques within the industry, however to date smallholders have largely resisted this push. This thesis argues that livelihood and agro-ecological constraints prevent farmers from taking up the techniques and technologies used for fattening large ruminants. Consequently, the government may need to adopt a wider perspective on ways to improve large ruminant productivity that align with farmers’ livelihood activities. The thesis also highlights significant potential for improving large ruminant productivity through better herd management in some extensive production systems such as the individual or group-fenced fallow systems and the institutionalised communal grazing system.