Fostering the sustainable transformation of agriculture in Africa through the inclusive green economy a study on livestock value chains in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The current agricultural husbandry in Africa is based on unsustainable practices that are not climateresilient and have negative implications on productivity and the sustainability of environmental and natural resource assets. This calls for an inclusive green economy, and for the sector to step up and improve the quantity and quality of animal products for enhanced human health. The agriculture sector is a significant contributor to the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for more than half of the total employment in sub-Saharan Africa. The transformation of African agriculture – livestock production in particular – presents the continent with much-needed opportunities for inclusive economic growth through value addition, increased productivity, sustained growth and employment creation in both upstream and downstream economic subsectors. The study adopted a mixed-approach research design, in which a combination of thorough desktop study, empirical survey by collecting both primary and secondary data, and stakeholder validation were used to understand the value chains. The results of the study show that there is generally a big opportunity for value chains mainstreaming, as there are many smallholder cattle owners who have been brought into the value chains by the land and agrarian transformation: however, their contribution in the red meat, dairy and leather products markets remains considerably low, even though they have enormous potential to drive the value chains.