Livestock improvement for smallholder farming system: a general framework for action

In spite of the long-standing animal dispersal programs of the government to introduce modern breeds, smallholder farmers in the countryside are continues to produce the predominantly nondescript indigenous stock of low genetic potential. On the other hand, business enterprises applying intensive animal production system have made highly profitable business out of the modern breeds. This wide difference may be explained by the fact that intensive commerical producers have adopted the high level of nutrition and management that the modern breeds require while the smallholder farmers allowed their animals to adopt to their low-input production systems. With the advent of trade liberalization in 1995 and the Asian financial crisis in 1997, imports of cheaper animal products have dramatically increased at the consternation of many of the intensive commercial livestock producers. Because of the high import content of the animal products that they produce, the local commercial livestock producers could not match the price of the import even at the local market. Indeed present socio-economic and political change offer a window of opportunity for smallholder farmers particularly in livestock production as part of their farming system. Aware that the genetic potential of the indigenous stock are much lower than what the farm feed resources could optimally support what is needed is a genetic stock that have been bred to profitably adapt to their local farming conditions. While animal breeding principles and practices have been focused mainly to intensive commercial production, they could be adopted to also apply effectively to smallholder farming conditions. While the implementation is admittedly difficult, the benefits that could accrue from improving the productivity of millions of Filipino smallholder farmers and to the national economy are quite enormous. What is required is a framework for action that integrate the bio-economic, genetic and organizational systems. In this framework, smallholder farmers, commercial livestock operators, private business sector, local government units, the Department of Agriculture, the research and development institutions, the non-government organizations and other stakeholder organize as partners in the implementation of a sustained animal genetic improvement program for the countryside