Socio-Economische Aanpak van Tropische Veeteelt

On November 19^th 2009, be-troplive organised a workshop on “Socio-Economic Approaches in Livestock Production in the Tropics” at the Colonster Castle of the University of Liège.

The day was moderated by Hans Schiere, an agronomist from Wageningen University with a large experience in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The complete programme can be found in the annexes. More than 80 experts attended the workshop. Besides the Belgian expert members of be-troplive, there were also representatives of the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGDC), of the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) and participants from African and European Universities. Students from the Master course in Tropical Animal Health (Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp) and students from the joint Master "Management of Vegetable and Animal Resources in Tropical Areas" (Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech Faculty and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Liège) were also present. In total, 23 nationalities with different backgrounds attended, allowing a multidisciplinary and multinational approach.

The host Prof. Jean Marchal, Associate Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Liège, officially opened the workshop and Jean-Paul Dehoux (Chairman be-troplive) welcomed the participants.

The rationale of the workshop (see annexes) was introduced by the moderator. He stressed that this workshop was the follow-up of the be-troplive workshop of 2007 where it appeared that a more multidisciplinary approach is necessary to fully comprehend all the different aspects related to sustainable livestock production in the tropics and to formulate adequate recommendations. Agriculture is now put on the development agenda again by most of the donors and implementing agencies. The challenge is to allow market access to smallholders in a value chain approach. Therefore livestock development needs input from other disciplines besides only from animal health and production.

The first part of the day included three keynote presentations. Rebeca Sultana, Master in anthropology and international health presented the different aspects of backyard poultry raising practices in Bangladesh with a link to the control of Avian Influenza in two districts of the country. Andrew Ainslie, social anthropologist and post-doctoral research associate at the Rhodes University, South Africa, highlighted the cultural economics of cattle production in southern Africa and stated that cattle sometimes can be a commodity, but sometimes they are not. The third speaker was Herbert Kyeyamwa from Uganda, where he is Principal Veterinary Officer. He holds a PhD in socio-economics from the University of Ghent. He explained in detail the Market Mechanism of Livestock in Tropical Africa in the frame of the new institutional economics (NIE).

The afternoon was devoted to groupwork. Participants were organised in three groups around the identification of social and economic tools to improve chances for smallholders in the marketing chain. The conclusions of each group were presented during a plenary session and a general discussion was lead by the moderator.

Eric Thys (Secretary of be-troplive) closed the session. He indicated that be-troplive membership was still increasing and that the actual number of members was 209. He thanked all the participants, the moderator, and the keynote speakers. He thanks also the Federal Public Service of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation for funding and the University of Liège for allowing the prestigious Colonster Castle to be available for the event. The workshop was closed by a reception.