Nguni cattle marketing constraints and opportunities in the communal areas of South Africa: Review

Abstract

Cattle production is the most important livestock sub-sector in South Africa. It contributes about 25 - 30% to the total agricultural output per annum. However,cattle productivity is declining due to diseases and parasites prevalence, lack of feed resources, and poor breeding and marketing management. To increase sustainability and contribution of cattle in eradicating hunger and poverty in communal areas, there is need to make use of locally adapted breeds. In South Africa’s communal cattle enterprise, the Nguni breed is becoming a very important socio-economic drive for the resource-poor farmers. Nguni cattle development projects have been initiated in South Africa to improve livelihood of communal farmers. However, these projects are mainly concentrating on solving production constraints and ignoring marketing factors. This paper reviews the neglected marketing constraints and opportunities faced by beneficiaries of the Nguni cattle development program.   Key words: Auction, beef, diseases, transactional costs, sustainability.