THE CHALLENGE
People living in Zambia’s Western Province are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Now climate change is presenting even greater challenges.
Zambian traditional cattle farming and climate change
For generations, traditional cattle farmers have grazed their livestock on the huge grassland plains of Western Province in Zambia.
But temperatures are rising and rains have become unreliable. Grasslands are suffering. Natural ponds are drying up.
Farmers walk their cattle long distances to water supplies or they stay close to the ponds and overgraze the land nearby.
And there are no animal health services to provide basic prevention and treatment.
What does this mean for farmers?
In most Zambian smallholder herds 51% of cattle die before they even reach market.
The few cattle that survive are low quality and farmers sell them for low prices to informal buyers. But with Mafisa’s interventions, we can transform livelihoods.
For every nine cows:
In our pilot areas, before we start work
- Two cows are sold
- Five die
- Two are lost, gifted or consumed
With Mafisa interventions, we expect
- Seven cows will be sold
- One will die
- One is lost, gifted or consumed
The Mafisa method
At Mafisa we work with cattle farming communities to transform health and livelihoods.
