Beef cattle keeping by smallholders in a mountainous province of northern Vietnam in relation to poverty status, community remoteness and ethnicity

Vietnam’s national beef demand is continuously increasing, but is not able to be satisfied by domestic supply. Because land scarcity is a major constraint to beef production in many parts of the country, attempts to enhance beef production in Vietnam have focussed on small-scale household farms in remoter areas. The present study aimed to investigate the relation between cattle keeping and poverty status of household farms in Son La province, north-west Vietnam. In addition, altitude, community remoteness and technology adoption of the investigated households were considered for an evaluation of the feasibility of smallholder beef cattle production in the upland areas. Data on livestock production of 299 randomly selected households of different ethnic groups in the lowlands and highlands of Yen Chau district, Son La province, were collected by using structured and standardised questionnaires. The poverty status of the households was defined on basis of daily per-capita expenditures, dividing the investigated households into poor and non-poor farmers with daily per-capita expenditures below and above the rural poverty line, respectively. Cattle keeping farms in Yen Chau district showed advantages in terms of available land and labour resources compared with non-cattle keeping farms. Cattle were kept mainly by non-poor farmers, particularly the Thai, whose farm holdings are most commonly located in the lowlands. The number of cattle raised on farm was related to the poverty status of the households and remoteness. Cattle compete with other livestock in the use of limited farm resources. Cattle keeping farms more frequently applied feeding innovations to reduce feed competition on farm than the non-cattle keeping households. For the very poor, small animals are more appropriate than beef cattle production activities. Only in the identified advantageous regions, smallholder farmers might engage in beef production, if appropriate policies are implemented to support them in raising cattle. Consequently, the development of beef production under those conditions could contribute to poverty reduction by increasing smallholder’s incomes in the remote highland regions.