Investigating the Sociological Aspects of Goat Raising in Lao PDR to Improve Goat Husbandry and Livelihoods

Abstract

<p>In the past two decades, goat numbers have increased rapidly throughout Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) due to rising demand for Lao goat meat from Vietnam. This provides an economic opportunity for Lao smallholders who are already benefiting from the growing goat trade. Despite increased market opportunity, goat production has remained traditional throughout Laos. The predominant management system is characterised by lowinputs, free-grazing, uncontrolled mating and opportunistic sale. Scientific literature suggests that the productivity of these systems is limited by technical constraints, including poor management, poor nutrition and prevalent disease. Previous development projects have begun to address these technical constraints through improved goat husbandry practices. However, there is little evidence of these practices being implemented by farmers in the long term or being adopted at a widespread scale. A contributing factor is lack of understanding of the social and cultural contexts surrounding goat production in Laos. In other developing countries, socio-cultural factors have had a profound influence on smallholders’ decision making. Their integration into the design of development projects has been linked to greater long-term livelihood impacts. To enhance the impacts of the research for development project titled “Goat production systems and marketing in Lao PDR and Vietnam” (LS/2017-34) funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), this Masters Thesis investigated the sociological aspects of goat raising. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 smallholder goat farmers across five villages in South-Central Laos. The semi-structured interviews revolved around three research questions: </p> <p>1. What are the goat raising experiences of rural households in Laos?</p> <p>2. What are the perceived benefits and burdens that small landholders have around goat raising?</p> <p>3. What role do goats play in cultural and social networks/practices, and social learning amongst households? </p> <p>Grounded theory methodology was used to analyse interview transcripts. The interviews revealed that goats occupy an agricultural niche in Lao smallholder farming systems that yield unique livelihood benefits. Goats were a profitable and liquid asset, providing income for small expenses that occurred frequently, such as paying utility bills and medical expenses, buying food and clothing and emergency expenses. Goats have been integrated into socio-cultural ceremonies, often replacing cattle and buffalo. This has enabled farmers to practice sociocultural traditions at a lower cost, more proportionate to their socio-economic status. Managing goats in free-grazing systems was considered easy and benefited the wider farming system by enabling household labour and land to be allocated to cropping, and for goat manure to fertilise crop plantations. The small herd size of goats (10-15 head) is unlikely to be increased dramatically without cancelling the time-saving benefits of current free grazing systems. This is because the trade-offs associated with free-grazing management such as occasional goat theft, goat injury through dog attacks and car accidents, and goat damage to crops, are likely to become unsustainable with larger, unsupervised goat herds. Low-input project interventions that enhance or at least do not interfere with goats’ specific roles, are likely to benefit the widest cohorts of farmers. Interventions that meet this criterion include improving goat kid management, goat house design and cleaning, and disease management.</p> <p>Farmers relied on their experiences and observations of goat raising in their communities to inform their management decisions. Farmers valued trial and error as a learning strategy to judge the efficacy of project interventions and modify them to suit their own contexts and constraints more appropriately. Farmers also took guidance from exchanging experiences with other goat farmers. This thesis questions the assumption that technical interventions are inherently optimal and beneficial for smallholder farming systems. Development projects should not advocate increased inputs into the goat enterprise without considering trade-offs to the whole farming system. An understanding of the unique roles and purposes of goats, farmer objectives, learning styles, and trade-offs to goat raising should inform the assumptions that underpin the strategies adopted by development projects and ideally lead to sustained impacts in rural communities.</p>