Livestock production economics on communal land in Botswana: Effects of tenure, scale and subsidies

Abstract

This study looked at the economic and financial characteristics of three range-based livestock systems on communal land in Botswana. Small-scale traditional livestock keeping is inherently efficient and provides important household income. However, these private returns are attributable to subsidies, and economic efficiency is very low due to open access. Low input, unfenced, cattle post production is economically efficient, but the returns to land are low. Fenced commercial ranching is not privately or economically viable in the more remote communal land. The loss of favoured European market access for beef could make all the systems studied economically unsound. The current subsidies to livestock production might be more economically efficient if they were redirected, from input costs reduction, to directly support initiatives that enhance the average herd productivity.