SMLDR CATTLE DEV.

closed

The main objective of the Smallholder Cattle Development Project will be to supply cattle to smallholder farmers, for use as draft animals, to provide manure for sustaining crop production, and to raise farm incomes. The project, which would follow up on a smallholder cattle project supported by a loan from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), would finance: (a) procurement of about 76,500 selected breeding heifers and about 7,600 bulls and their transportation by private cattle traders; (b) distribution of these cattle to about 76,500 smallholder farmers, including transmigrants, local participants in transmigration schemes, and farmers near transmigrant communities; (c) distribution of first and second generation heifers to about 55,000 farmers; (d) cattle handling facilities, veterinary services, extension services, forage production and disease investigations; and (e) technical assistance and training for project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and disease eradication. Distribution of offspring would continue beyond the five-year project period, reaching in total some 237,000 small farmers. By providing cattle, land preparation would be speeded up, soil fertility and crop yields raised, and farm labor would be freed-up to clear reserve land, mostly for perennial cash crops.