Changing the Livestock System in Georgia to Benefit Smallholder Farmers
This collaborative case study from Mercy Corps, Alliances, and The Springfield Centre illustrates how an M4P project is going about changing the livestock system in one region of Georgia to the benefit of small-scale farmers. It focuses on one area of intervention, cattle breeding, and tells the story of how the project staff found the right players to work with, how they persuaded them to adapt their roles, how they helped them do so and how they are continuing to work to ensure the modest success achieved so far is likely to endure long after the project finishes.
Market Alliances Against Poverty (Alliances) is a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funded project operating in the Adigeni, Aspindza and Akhaltsikhe municipalities of Samtskhe-Javakheti region in Georgia and implemented by Mercy Corps. Alliances aims to improve the incomes of poor rural households by helping small-scale livestock farmers gain better access to markets, information, services and technologies. The project began designing its strategy in October 2008 and running pilot activities in July 2009.
Full implementation began at the start of the 2009 to 2010 agricultural season. The cattle breeding intervention described in the case study was one of the first to get underway. This interim case study assesses the new approach being taken by the project, with specific reference to the intervention in cattle breeding. It also analyses the initial outcomes and prospects for future impact. This phase of the project is due to finish in December 2011.
