Module 1 - Guinea: Livestock Sector Partnership-Public Sector Herder Organizations and the Private Sector

Guinea has a strong pastoral tradition. More than 2.2 million cattle and 1.5 million small ruminants are kept by 210,000 households. Before 1984, the livestock sector was overwhelmingly dominated by the public sector. The government set cattle prices and imposed a mandatory off-take of 10 percent from each herd. The livestock public sector was overstaffed, highly centralized, poorly trained, and unable to provide adequate services to herders.

 

From 1987 to 1995, a structural adjustment program for national livestock services rationalized the sector and prepared for future transfer of productive and commercial functions to herders and the private sector. The public sector terminated 1200 government jobs, retraining dismissed agents as producers or animal health service providers. A line of credit, training plan, and study tours supported this reorientation. The government transferred state-owned clinics to the private sector, where private veterinarians demonstrated greater efficiency with better cost/benefit ratios. Herder organizations were formed to facilitate easier access to basic livestock services.

 

Project Objectives and Description

The National Agricultural Services Program helped to establish a new animal health services system based on (1) a rationalized, restructured public sector, progressively deconcentrated and refocused on core public functions; (2) a growing network of private service providers; and (3) herder organizations structured around socioeconomic objectives. The program established or facilitated:

• A unique mechanism for generating and diffusing technologies at the grassroots level through private agents (paraprofessionals such as auxiliaries or paravets) within herder communities to offer basic animal health services and broader livestock services.
  
  
• An environment conducive to national and foreign private firms to supply wholesale inputs and livestock products.
  
  
• Private veterinary clinics to help paraprofessionals in herder groups to distribute inputs.
  
  
• Coverage of the country’s main livestock zones by private veterinary clinics and private input providers to respond to the herders’ ever-increasing demands.
  
  
• Downstream construction of small commercial animal and meat markets for processing livestock products and subproducts (for example, hides and skin for exports).
  
  
• Strong involvement of herder organizations in production commodity chains. 
  
  
• Lighter, less concentrated public management of livestock sector institutions.