| dc.description.abstract | The question of response to price by the
traditional livestock farmers in Africa has been a
-vexed issue for a long time. Some researchers
contend that response is basically a matter of
perception among these farmers~ Other researchers
contend that the traditional cattle farmers are
economically rational. Complex as it is, the
response of these farmers to prices has to be understood
in order for rural development planning to
be meaningfully designed.
This study investigates the response to
fluctuations in cattle prices by the small scale
traditional farmers in Botswana. The research is
carried out in the light of the implementations of
the Botswana Government's policy of raising cattle
sale prices as an incentive to increase cattle offtake
from among these farmers. The study area for
the research is the Mahalapye spb~district.
The research attempts to investigate two
basic hypotheses which summarize the problem and
the objectives of this study. First, whereas
agricultural cradit to small scale traditional farmers
might be expected to increase livestock production,
it is not likely to increase off take rates because
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farmers do not respond to price incentives. Second,
the Government's credit scheme in its present form
is likely to worsen income inequalities among small
scale traditional cattle farmers and among the rural
dwellers in general, since not all cattle farmers
receive credit.
The main technique us~d to examine the two
hypotheses is multiple regression analysis and
partial correlation analysis. Two multiple regression
functions were drawn, the Production Function
and the Response Function.
The results of the analysis of the primary
data show that credit has greatly increased the
number 'of cattle among those few farmers who received
it. Credit in the form of loans has also increased
the financial obligations ("immediate needs") of
the farmers so that these farmers have had to sell
more cattle in order to repay the loans. However,
credit acquisition has eventually resulted in more
cattle on the already overgrazed communal tribal
areas where the traditional cattle farmers operate.
Besides the above findings, this study has
observed that in Botswana the traditional cattle
farmers keep their animals mainly as a form of
wealth and to a less extent as a means of earning
an income. This is corroborated by the other finding
that the salaried young people in the formal sector
are taking advantage of the agricultural credit to
purchase breeding stock as a form of investment.
These two findings have important implications for
range conservation.
FOllowing from these findings, the main
recommendations for the development planners are
firstly that ways should be found to raise the
cash needs of these farmers in order to persuade
them to sell more cattle. Secondly, legislative
measures should be used to force cattle farmers out
of the overgrazed areas around the villages in
Eastern Botswana into the less densely populated
areas of Western Botswana. The main recommendations
for further research are firstly that there should
be investigations into the possibilities of inducing
tIle traditional farmers to invest outside the
cattle industry. Secondly, researchers should focus
on the economic relationship between farmers with
cattle and those without cattle in the rural areas | en |
