Role of Government in the provision of livestock services: an examination of the Livestock Advisory Centre Policies for Competetitive Smallholder Livestock Production 4-6 March 2015 Malope, P., Mmopelwa,D. & Bhata, S.

Structure of Presentation Introduction and objectives Methodological approach Results and discussion Conclusion and policy implications

Introduction Vet. Services earmarked for privatisation in 2000 Provision of AHS done by the LAC and private 2008 an attempt to offload some services to private sector but reverted back because of complains by famers LAC offer a number of services such as sale of vaccines and drugs; supplements and animal equipment

Objectives Aim is to determine as to whether the public sector provision of animal health services is crowding out the private sector. The specific objectives are: To critically examine the services offered by the LAC and determine those that could best be provided by the public sector or the private sector for both efficiency and effectiveness. To identify factors influencing the choice a supplier for both livestock services and clinical services (AHS).

Definitions Private good – consumption is rival and excludable Public good – consumption is non-rival and non- excludable Welfare economics – in the absence of externalities, public goods, informational failure and economies of scale the private sector is the most efficient way of organising delivery of services. But in instances where these are present the public sector must step in

Services provided & their economic attributes ServicePublicPrivateEconomic attribute Animal drug/vaccine distribution √√Private good Animal equipment√√Private good Supplementary feeds √√Private good

Utilisation of AHS

Choice of a service provider 94 % indicated LAC as first point of contact because 72% its cheap 13% its reliability 8% close proximity Private 55% reliability 27% quality

Price comparison ItemLACPRIVATEDIFFERENTIAL Botulism (20 doses) (30) DCP (42) Drought pellets (25) Burdizzo (large) (52) Syringe metal (Auto) (26)

Regression results – choice of a supplier Older farmers most likely to use LAC More educated farmers likely to use private Herd size increases the likelihood of using LAC Incidence of reported cases increases the likely hood of use of LAC Farmers Views 87% LAC should continue selling as it is 12.8 LAC should be closed and private sector take its role

Conclusions LAC offer services that are private in nature and hence stifles the development of the private sector DVS supports offloading the LAC There are areas where the private sector can not operate because of profitability Private sector concentrated in urban areas where there is demand Efforts to privatise should consider marginal areas as the private sector can not operate in those areas

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