Planning for Pigs

This week I have been concentrating my field visits on Save’s Livelihood Groups. These groups are made up of ‘vulnerable populations’ that receive Title II USAID food aid that Save administers. In the next couple of months, Save is concluding their five-year program in Nakasongola and looking to start a new program in the war torn north. In response to this move, late last year Save began focusing much more energy on sustainability issues for their beneficiaries. When the Save program in Nakasongola concludes, so will the food aid.

With this in mind, Save began forming Livelihood Groups, made up of around 10 beneficiaries. They were given training on small business enterprise and then encouraged to come up with a project that Save would help support by providing some of the major inputs. Ideas ranged from goat and pig rearing, poultry farming, boat renting and feed production. In most cases, Save gave a few animals to start the projects.

There are now 159 livelihood groups incorporating thousands of people. I have visited a handful of these. groups Some are going very well, while others are struggling. Generally, for the livestock projects one or two group members takes on the role of primary caretaker while other members are expected to contribute time and small money for upkeep. In the case of animal husbandry, the primary caretakers are generally offered an extra animal when they birth as recompense. However, this was not always clear. At some sites, there seemed considerable disagreement over what was fare, particularly when other group member contributions were far less than expected.

Some of the problems emerged from unrealistic expectations by the beneficiaries. Very few groups have created a constitution or by-laws. When not clarified from the outset, expected inputs, labor, and ultimate profit (and profit sharing mechanisms) can be ambiguous at best. Some beneficiaries were discouraged when they did not reap profits as quickly as they expected.

The idea of using groups as a platform for livestock based production is an issue I plan to explore further. Coordinating producer organizations for post harvest handling, bulking and marketing makes a lot of sense, particularly for agriculture. Economies of scale come into play. When small farmers are able to act as a group, they can compete more effectively with large private enterprises.

However, for actual production of commodities and other products, the results of group based enterprises have been much more mixed. Livestock is particularly complicated for both group production and group marketing, as it is much easier to bulk and preserve maize than it is pigs. In the months ahead, I plan on conducting many more field visits in order to gain a better understand of general trends for group based enterprises.