This report by Lokman Zaibet, Salah Hammami and Mohammad Jabbar of ILRI on Durabilité des systèmes d’élevage des petits ruminants en Tunisie: une approche de santé animale et marketing was released on 6 April, 2009.
This monograph builds on the findings from Tunisia of a previous research project Small ruminant health: Improved livelihoods and market opportunities for poor farmers in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. The first chapter highlights the main diseases at flock and individual levels. Farmers identified abortion as a major health problem, thus understanding the causes of abortion was considered essential. The second chapter discusses the performance of farmers in terms of animal health, in light of the direct links between good animal health, improved livestock productivity and enhanced incomes for farmers. The third chapter discusses the assessment of the efficiency of small ruminant markets by a transaction costs approach. The assessment attempted to find linkages between market access, animal health and transaction costs. The fourth chapter also discusses the market system but focuses on the marketing channels in order to identify the marketing constraints that small ruminant farmers face, based on the relationship between farmers’ characteristics, choice of market location, transaction costs and animal health status. The fifth chapter discusses a survey of consumer perceptions of the quality of meat products which influence purchase decisions. Current trends following food illness outbreaks indicate that consumers are becoming more concerned about hygiene and quality. Finally, Chapter 6 presents a business plan for a small ruminant enterprise to address the problems of poor access to markets and animal health services. Collective action can help small ruminant producers to overcome these problems, thereby improving animal productivity and reduce transaction costs.
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