Economic analysis of integrated game–livestock farming as an alternative land use option in Rural Limpopo province, South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe integration of livestock and game farming is an increasingly important alternative for optimal land use in South Africa. In addition to climate change and the increasing aridity of large sections of land, there is also a growing demand to feed the population. Hitherto such integration has been practiced on a relatively small scale by commercial farmers on privately owned land, and by smallholder farmers on communal land. The latter use the land for grazing livestock, but this readily leads to an overutilization of the resource, resulting in serious land degradation. This paper examines perceptions and costs/benefits associated with integrating livestock with game. While the cost–benefit analysis (CBA) result for livestock farming alone was 0.67, indicating that the project is not sustainable, the CBA for integrated game and livestock farming was 1.13, implying that it is sustainable. The net present value (NPV) for the game+/livestock farming was also positive, indicating that it is a worthwhile investment when compared with livestock farming only.