Classifying herd management systems in Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract Sustainable livestock development needs to address multiple, potentially conflicting goals. The farming systems approach has emerged as a very useful tool to deal with the enormous diversity of smallholder farming in the tropics. Previous global classification of livestock farming systems has been useful at the global scale, yet its application becomes limited at the local and granular scales: It is less useful for delivering targeted advice to livestock farmers, identifying study populations and tracking changes in livestock management practices. To close this gap, we develop and test a novel approach that complements farm level classifications with a classification of herd management practices at the herd level. We define the herd management system as a typical combination of herd structure, feeding, and herd management, and their interlinkages. It is thus a sub-system of a household’s farming system. To develop the classification, we used an iterative process of reviewing, coding, and classifying primary studies on livestock in Sub-Saharan Africa. In a second step, we validate the classification's empirical consistency and usefulness using a secondary dataset. The classification can be useful to researchers and practitioners, as it (1) represents the complexity and diversity of livestock management practices as 12 distinct herd management systems; (2) enables more accurate targeting of livestock surveys and interventions, as the identified categories are more homogeneous regarding management factors such as livestock holdings, feeding practices, and hired labor; (3) improves communication and surveys with livestock farmers through a shared understanding of herd management practices, which can be translated into improved surveys with straightforward standard variables and better data structures; and (4) facilitates more granular assessments of change in livestock production.