A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COSTS AND RETURNS TO CATTLE VERSUS SMALL RUMINANT PRODUCTION IN GAO REGION OF MALI

Mariam Toure

No 11050, Graduate Research Master's Degree Plan B Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Abstract: The Gao region located in the northeastern part of Mali was the largest producer of both large and small ruminants in the country before the drought of 1972-1974. Since then, particular trends have been observed in livestock production: (a) small ruminant herds almost reached their pre-drought level in 1976, whereas cattle herds were at 23 percent of their pre-drought level; (b) in 1976-1977, local consumption of small ruminants attained their highest level of the 1970's, whereas cattle consumption decreased at least by a factor of four; and (c) exports of sheep and goats have increased after the drought, while cattle exports are almost nil. These trends suggest that herders have shifted from cattle to sheep and goat production at least during the post-drought period. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the economic reasons for the shift to small ruminant production. It consists of comparing costs and returns of producing cattle, and sheep and goats on one square kilometer of range typical of the Gao region. The study also analyzes the prospects of small ruminants in Gao, and identifies the possible constraints to their expansion.

Keywords: Livestock; Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 75
Date: 1981
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/11050/files/pb81to01.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:midagr:11050

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.11050

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Graduate Research Master's Degree Plan B Papers from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().