Assessment of the relationships between livestock production policies implementation and knowledge integration for the promotion of food security in Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper proposes a modelling approach to bridge policy gaps and provide decision-makers with a useful tool for more focused decisions in livestock supply chains. This approach, which is put into practice through institutional arrangements, has the potential to empower the role of coordination and cooperation in the livestock supply chain, link stakeholders/entrepreneurs to vertical upstream and downstream direct and indirect actors. While there are substantial contributions to the detail of this paper, one of its most important contributions lies in introducing public-private partnerships as a driver of livestock economic development. This study evaluated the impact of integrated knowledge on production, rural households’ income, and rural households’ food security using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. The database used in social accounting matrix (SAM) is also used as the base year data for policy simulations in the CGE models. The result indicates that adoption of scientific-technical breed selection and veterinarian knowledge could enable the region to obtain higher livestock production and income, thus leading to higher food security than region with indigenous and integrated knowledge adoption. The results indicate that integrated knowledge policies have more impact on livestock production, rural household income, and food security than indigenous knowledge policy implementation alone. The policies have a greater impact on the rural households’ income and food security in the merger case than in the indigenous technical simulation case. The findings imply that livestock production policies’ implementation and knowledge integration are still necessary for achieving food security, and eradicating poverty.

Keywords:

• public-private partnership
• indigenous and scientific disease management techniques,
• indigenous and scientific breed management practices
• livestock feed supplies
• green innovative
• nutritious and organic animal food supply
• social welfare

1. Introduction

Appropriate agricultural policies are the decisive strategies to improve the welfare of rural people by scaling up irrigation practices and increasing the adoption of agricultural technologies (Shikur, 2020a, Shikur, 2023b). However, most Sub-Saharan African countries have failed to design and implement appropriate livestock policies to manage and apply all or nearly all of the aforementioned factors to increase agricultural productivity and rural social welfare over the last two decades. As a result, agricultural policies in Sub-Saharan Africa have resulted in low crop and livestock productivity, low exports and per capita consumption of livestock products, and high imports of animal foods over the last two decades. All implemented interventions in the agriculture sector have been missing innovative system approaches and the absence of functional institutional arrangements and principal-agent problems to implement livestock policies (Shikur, 2023a). So, many implemented agricultural policies have little relevance to address low agricultural productivity; low livestock input supply, disconnected and dispersed diverse actors/stakeholders, unsatisfactory local resource mobilization, absence of systematic innovation capacity, lack of funding, and knowledge integration policies (Shikur, 2023a). Ethiopia faces a crisis rooted in misunderstandings of the roles of green innovative indigenous practices and a lack of private-public partnership, and interdisciplinary knowledge, which are frequently ignored in livestock policies. The crisis in livestock production systems is connected to disconnected and dispersed diverse actor/stakeholder integration, poor input and output markets, continual resource-based pressure, and a dearth of knowledge integration policies. Livestock programs in Ethiopia lack practice orientation in knowledge integration management and sharing and transferring indigenous technical knowledge to the community. These interventions in the livestock sector have been missing innovative system approaches to integrate different ethnic groups’ traditional knowledge into technical knowledge to increase agricultural productivity in the past and today. As a result, generational continuity is unattainable due to the loss of community and individual farmers’ indigenous knowledge and abilities, such as those associated with indigenous disease and breed management, livestock production, and livestock product processing. They might bolster the livestock economy, which may be affected even when the level of farmer emigration is not sufficient to cause a systemic breakdown. While early, well-targeted intervention in a livestock sector could completely halt the collapse, reaching tipping points that are dangerously close to collapse would annihilate current knowledge. Even if a catastrophic collapse is avoided, such unfavourable social consequences would have a negative impact on the livelihood's future economic and environmental repercussions (Manzano et al., 2021). Of course, these policy challenges are many reasons for the development of livestock economic development models. These proposed models in this study are expected to provide theoretical and empirical models that conceptualize the impact of knowledge management integration on livestock production and rural social welfare in livestock system. The study provides additional insight by explaining the link between oil seed, tariffs, taxes, livestock production performance, and organic food demand, which remains unknown. Therefore, the paper provides additional insights by shedding light on how integrated knowledge in livestock policy determines food security in light of the current situation of food shortages. Therefore, the study models livestock markets to assess the impact of knowledge integration policy shocks that have been overlooked roles in explaining livestock production and rural social welfare in the study areas. This study aims to synthesize the evidence of relationships existing between livestock production policy implementation and knowledge integration as part of the support calling for a revival of knowledge integration as one of the key mechanisms for the enhancement of livestock productivity in Ethiopia.

2. Background

2.1. Theoretical background

Over the past 20 years, more firms have started using knowledge management and integration to achieve a competitive advantage (Grandori & Kogut, 2002). Knowledge integration is a core organizational competency for integrating specialized knowledge into an organization’s production function and generating innovation outcomes in high-technology firms (Okhuysen & Eisenhardt, 2002). Malik et al. (2019) have built knowledge integration at firm level based on perspective of a firm, motivation-opportunity. They argue that knowledge integration can be achieved by skills-enhancing activities (training, development, and knowledge-challenging behaviors) as well as behaviors that increase motivation. Knowledge integration is significantly determined by culture, societal factors, environmental factors, and personal variables (Kang & Lee, 2016). At the community level, knowledge integration depends upon interpersonal networks, social capital, and a common cognitive system, and shared memories developed through a process of mobilization and communal activity.

To bridge the theory and practice gap, this paper proposes a modeling approach. This study aims to bridge knowledge integration and technology adoption gaps in the livestock sector at country level based on an innovative systems perspective. There are several criteria that govern the selection of a framework or model in this study, country, public-private partnership approach, transdisciplinary research approach, capacity building, and social assets for knowledge integration. It includes a transdisciplinary research approach to understand pastoralist transitions, as suggested by Manzano et al. (2021). The selection of the appropriate framework relies upon the potential factors of a country, among other factors that can be used to classify and choose the framework and models. The selection of the right types of theoretical frameworks and models is useful for the success of agricultural policies and interventions at the country level.

The study assumes the following underlying presumptions of the theory: private investors, particularly selected entrepreneurs, must be given incentives and subsidies. The federal government encourages private businesses to invest in research and development so they can continue to support integrated technological innovation. By investing in capacity building or training programs, one can scale up the returns on their investment in human capital. We can improve the quality of human capital in this way, which will increase productivity. The government should create regulations and incentives that promote the application of public-private partnership approach, which results in the establishment of new businesses and jobs. Investments should be made to improve infrastructure and manufacturing processes to achieve innovation in production.

In the paper, a public-private partnership approach is proposed as innovative systems approach. Innovative systems functions incorporate proactive entrepreneurs into each sub-livestock supply chains that make the easiest way to take advantage of business opportunities. Entrepreneurs’ participation in public-private sector investment in the sub-livestock industry are minimal (Kebede, 2019).. Therefore, it appears that entrepreneurship involvement in the implementation of livestock programs is one of the key components needed for the Ethiopian livestock development. The entrepreneurs should have deep motivation, livestock/pastoral back grounds, and adequate working capital to work as one of actors with public-private partnership stakeholders. They have an innovation process to handle public-private partnership programs effectively and efficiently. This concept is characterized by management structure of principal-agents, coordinating ability, proactive approach and degree of vertical coordination. The public-private approach well fits to cooperating adaptation project implementation of the intended beneficiaries if pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are to strengthen their conventional coping strategies in response to the severe consequences of climate change.

The approach is also operationalized through institutional arrangements, which have the potential to empower actors’ decision making, link stakeholders/entrepreneurs to vertical upstream and downstream direct and indirect actors in livestock input supply, and emphasize the role of coordination and owners/entrepreneurs. The functions of innovative systems are operationalized by patent rights and policy instruments. The numerous organizations, including communities, businesses, governments, and NGOs, are grouped according to their functional areas of expertise, such as developing forages, processing livestock products, creating innovative financial systems, integrating knowledge, and creating and disseminating new agricultural innovations. As a result, they have an understanding of how knowledge integration and knowledge sharing mechanisms contribute to the development of the livestock sector.

A comprehensive theoretical framework recognizes the importance of management structures, entrepreneurship, selection criteria, coordination and risk management frameworks in a public-private partnership approach, capacity building, motivation, social capital, institutional arrangements, agricultural policy, international agricultural food and input policies, environmental policy, industrial policy, and macroeconomic factors, in the adoption of agricultural scientific technical, indigenous, and integrated technologies as well as rural social welfare. The approach brings a set of new and previously disconnected and dispersed diverse actors/stakeholders together to mobilize local available resources, build systematic innovation capacity, and facilitate knowledge and innovation and the scaling of innovations, which have not been used as alternative solutions in the past decades. It builds new value propositions by creating new skills and competencies, introducing and disseminating livestock practices, adopting new organizational structures, and upgrading the livestock value chains. The framework contributes to the sustainable development of the region by solving existing problems, optimizing the use of available resources, and/or making greater use of present natural, economic, and socio-cultural advantages and tendencies.

Livestock production is determined by nonrivalry and rival indigenous knowledge management. Indigenous knowledge institutes are fundamentally justified by the standard replication argument. The replication argument does not require firms/institutes to create the idea of an indigenous knowledge each time. One option to achieve this is to construct an institutional arrangements, indigenous study institutes and entrepreneurs/firms across the regions and districts to double the rival inputs and the quality or quantity of the ideas. For instance, only individual farmers and/or one of their families have knowledge about indigenous veterinarian raw materials/plant species, usage rates, and other dimensions of this knowledge. The farmer or family with the pioneers’ knowledge must be recognized and incentivized to promote replication in different regions.

The theory is suggested by this study, emphasizes that changes to innovative green animal feed supplies are the outcome of the efforts of stakeholders, researchers, and entrepreneurs who respond to common motivation, and economic and social incentives. Anything that influences their efforts, such as agricultural investment policy, agricultural input tax, systematic innovation capacity, project funding, and irrigation policy, can potentially affect the long-run prospects of livestock production as well as social welfare. Identification of potential factors helps make improvements in grazing systems through regenerative techniques, or improvements in herd number management and fodder supplying, and optimization of animal feed production. Fodder policies through regenerative techniques result in overgrazing by encouraging herd numbers beyond sustainable number in pastoralist community. Consequently, it causes environmental degradation. The evidence from the Middle East, Northern Africa, and reindeer-grazed lichen rangelands in Scandinavia suggests that tactics for providing fodder are likely to be to blame for many instances of land degradation because they encourage herd numbers that are greater than are practical (Manzano et al., 2021). According to life-cycle research, intensive livestock husbandry has a greater impact on greenhouse gas emissions per product unit than extensive animal husbandry, even if this economic approach ignores numerous essential environmental services that pastoralists provide.

The paper proposes integrated mechanisms that pool indigenous and scientific technical knowledge of agro-ecology and land use/cover types into a coordinated approach that provides potential palatable livestock feed resources. The study suggests expanding concepts of existing indigenous green innovative, disease, and breeding management capacity in order to open up new opportunities for locals’ socioeconomic development. The modeling approach can be applied to other countries by making the necessary adjustments, which involve developing the requisite, even if the scenarios are the main emphasis of this work. It is still generally ignored to provide a comprehensive picture of livestock productivity, including their inter-sectoral and geographic dispersion.

2.2. Practical background

Globally, the livestock sector is the fastest increasing and highest value-added agricultural subsector. The livestock sector contributes about 40% to agricultural GDP and delivers livelihood for about a billion poor people worldwide (Lukuyu, 2017). The sector provides many benefits such as well-paid jobs, essential protein and micronutrients, manure, draft and transport power, and better income for the world’s poor. However, the livestock sector is facing many challenges such as inefficient disease measures, poor genetics performance, feed shortages, inadequate nutrition supply, frequent drought, and poor managements (Msangi et al., 2014), inadequate institutional and infrastructure support services in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Ethiopia (Lukuyu, 2017).

The challenges of producers in livestock sectors remain unsolved puzzle in Ethiopia (Kebede, 2021). These challenges like low technology adoption and poor market coordination have been associated with missing innovation systems functions, such as policy, entrepreneur, knowledge diffusion and market development (Shikur, 2022b). As a result, no well-documented information can assist to design a feasible and geographically targeted development plan regarding the livestock sector in Ethiopia. Establishing a practical and regionally targeted development approaches for Ethiopia’s livestock industry is impossible without the use of trustworthy data.

For example, feed supply shortages in feedlot system are associated with the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP)‘s execution in Ethiopia. The implementation of SAP reduced the adoption of dairy technologies as well as cattle meat and milk production in urban-pre-urban, feedlot, and rural systems by reducing and animal feeds like linseed and nugnet cake due to reduction of number of enterprises (Habte et al., 2016). Supply shocks in linseed and nuge cake caused shortages of feeds, allocative inefficiency, and higher unit costs in the production of dairy and cattle (Shikur et al., 2020b). It reduced value adding activities of oilseed products by causing oversupply of imported edible oil in the local markets. Over oilseed supply caused many local oilseed producers to shot down their firms due to a negative net profit.

After 2003, industrial policy implementation in Ethiopia has influenced cattle production by increasing supply of byproducts of wheat processing enterprises (Shikur et al., 2020a). The policy also has promoted linkages between the agricultural sector and manufacturing like leather industries by providing investment incentives and export incentives (Habte et al., 2016; Shikur, 2022d). Due to lack of innovative approach, and ineffective incentives that force agro-processing firms to operate under full capacity, the total livestock sector has a tenuous connection to non-farm sectors (Shikur, 2020b).These policy trends have been linked to the ongoing denigration of livelihoods of pastoralists in livestock business, which are often seen as an inferior or outmoded alternative to other livelihoods.

In Growth and Transformation Plans I and II from 1991 to 2016, government has been involving in improvement of veterinary services, feed supply, water resource access (water points), extension services, regulations and markets for live animals and livestock products (Shikur, 2020a). These policies undermine the roles of wide variety of indigenous genetic resources and veterinarian solutions of the rural community in addressing livestock productivity. As the result, most farmers employ an unregulated mating system, which is detrimental to regional genetic development and livestock production (Bahta & Molope, 2014). Therefore, the framework used in this study will enable the country to improve a diverse range of livestock genetic resources and use indigenous veterinary services which could reduce global food sources by 20% and livestock production by 50% in developing countries (Lukuyu, 2017; Rushton et al., 2021).

3. Methodology

3.1. Mathematical specifications of the CGE

The paper defines the CGE model equations at the regional level. The models are commonly categorized into four blocks—price, production and trade, institutions, and system constraints blocks. The output produced in livestock industry is determined by value-added, which is dependent on integrated knowledge and factors of production as indicated in Equation 1. The mathematical specifications for the CGE consist of about 48 equations. This study focuses on the only equations that are essential for achieving objectives of this study.

(1) $LO=\theta C^{\delta }{F}^{\beta }$(1)

Where LO refers to the value of the total livestock output. C is the entire value of capital used for the production of livestock products; F denotes the total value of labor used for the production of livestock products. θ represents the degree of efficiency, while α and β represent the share of labor and capital used in the production of livestock.

Leontief technologies or constant substitution elasticity (CES) produce aggregated variables. It is known that the output of the CGE model is influenced by the choice of such elasticity parameters. The labor is an aggregate of rural workers with constant elasticity of substitution (CES). In the livestock sector, the production is represented by a Leontief function of intermediate inputs and value added. The livestock sector uses predetermined yield coefficients to produce production. A fixed share would give technology complete control over the mix or ratio of value-added and intermediate inputs per unit of output instead of producers (Thurlow, 2004). The value-added equation 1’s cost minimization determines the demand for the primary input. The equations 2 and 3 characterize labor and capital in the livestock sector as follow:

(2) $\mathrm{F}\mathrm{i}=\eta {\mathrm{P}}_{\mathrm{i}}\frac{\mathrm{L}{\mathrm{O}}_{\mathrm{i}}}{\mathrm{w}}$(2)

(3) $\mathrm{C}\mathrm{i}=\eta {\mathrm{P}}_{\mathrm{i}}\frac{\mathrm{L}{\mathrm{O}}_{\mathrm{i}}}{\mathrm{r}}$(3)

Pi, LOi, w and r are the value-added price, value of livestock products, wage rate, and price of capital, respectively.

Household income from factors is given by equations 4 and 5.

(4) $LOhFi={\sum }^{S_{Ff}}(FW)$(4)

(5) $LOhCi={\sum }^{S_{Cf}}(Cv)$(5)

Where, F and C stand for labor and capital used in the process of livestock production, respectively.

Rural households’ food security depend on adoption of integrated knowledge, indigenous knowledge, price, income, and disease management mechanisms for livestock. Rural households choose how much food to eat to maximize their degree of utility, is dependent on income, the adoption of integrated knowledge, indigenous knowledge, price, livestock breed selection, and disease management mechanisms. Rural families’ consumption is sum of both self-produced goods valued at their farm gate prices and bought goods evaluated at market prices. The amount of aggregate goods and services consumed by rural households is specified below:

(6) $\mathrm{H}\mathrm{c}=\left(1-\sum _{\hspace{0.17em}}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{h}\mathrm{i}\right).(1-\mathrm{M}\mathrm{P}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{h}).(1-\mathrm{d}\mathrm{x}).\mathrm{Y}\mathrm{I}\mathrm{h}$(6)

Where H_c represents the household’s consumption, Sh_i denotes the share of net income of rural household h to institution i. MPS_h refers to marginal propensity to save for the rural household h, dx refers to the direct tax rate, and Y_Ih refers to the income of the rural household. Household consumption is the amount income that goes for households’ food expenditure after subtracting direct taxes, savings and transfers.

The number of closure rules is specified to ensure the balance of key macroeconomic accounts. The paper takes the premise that labor is unemployed (i.e., a fixed wage rate) and capital is fully employed and activity-specific in order to carry out the experiments with a general equilibrium model. This is because the closure option has the potential to affect the model results.

3.2. Data requirements and sources

A social accounting matrix has been developed using production, commodities and factors of production, household income and expenditures, government, trade data, and other balance-of-payments data. These data were obtained from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), and other institutions. Data on the inputs used in a variety of sectors, including the production of crops and livestock, services, manufacturing, and other sectors, as well as data on the wages, consumption, and expenditures of urban and rural households, are obtained from the CSA databases. The 2010 has been chosen as base year. Since the data on the income, consumption, and spending of urban and rural households are only available for 2010. Data on various taxes, private and public savings and investment, government revenues, and expenditures, and the rest of the world are obtained from MoFED databases.

The social accounting matrix (SAM) has been employed as database in CGE models to evaluate the impact of policies on emerging economies’ economic growth (Shikur, 2020a). The SAM defines how economic actors interact and circulate goods and services through the system (Thorbecke, 1998). To calibrate the CGE models, we use the regional SAM of Oromia. Each account is specified in the SAM. The production account is broken down into six categories: agriculture, livestock, agro-processing, animal processing, non-agroprocessing, and services. The study then used the Ethiopian national account system and the Ethiopian social account matrix to partition the intermediate input consumption of each sector across commodities. Among the many different types of commodities are those that have undergone processing in agriculture, livestock, other manufacturing and industrial activities, and services.

Factors of production are split into labor and capital. The labor force and capital are split into urban and rural households based on the CSA databases and the Ethiopian system of national accounts. The income and consumption are split into rural and urban household accounts based on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). The other institutions are the government (direct and indirect taxes), savings-investment, and the rest of the world.

In the simulation, the study conducts experiments to evaluate livestock interventions that increase technical knowledge (parameter (Lo) of Equation 1(1) $LO=\theta C^{\delta }{F}^{\beta }$(1) ) by 40% and 60% for each scenario (see Table 1). The counterfactual simulations are alternative realities, which have been happening (shock) and yielding outcomes for livestock production and rural household welfare. The study compares the baseline scenario with alternative scenarios for each simulation (see Tables 3, 4, & 5).

Table 1. Livestock policy options

Experiments	Description	Design
Scenario 1	Indigenous knowledge adoption	Increase indigenous knowledge adoption by 30%, and 60%
Scenario 2	Breed knowledge management adoption	Increase scientific technical and integrated breed selection knowledge management by 30%, and 60%
Scenario 3	Disease control mechanism adoption	Increase veterinarian scientific knowledge and integrated disease control mechanisms by 40%, and 60%

Source: Livestock policy options author’s suggestion

Table 2. The impact of selected policy instruments and Entrepreneur background

Outcomes	Subsidies	Tax on oilseed export		Entrepreneur behaviour type
	Incentive	Low tax	High tax	Type I	Type II	Type III
Scientific knowledge	+	-	+	5	3		2
Indigenous knowledge	+	-	+	5	3		2
Knowledge integration	+	-	+	5	3		2
Livestock productivity	+	_		5	3		2
Forage supplies	+	_		5	3		2
Browsing species	+			5	3		2
Grazing system	+	_		5	3		2
Herd size management	+			5	3		2
Improvement in climate	+			5	3		2
Agro-processing output	+	-	+	5	3		2
Oilseed output	+	+	+	5	3		2
Oilseed export	+	+	-	5	3		2
Value adding	+	-	+	5	3		2
Organic food supply	+	-	+	5	3		2
Income	+	±	+	5	3		2
Nutritious food supply	+	-	+	5	3		2
Food security	+	±	+	5	3		2

Notes: An encouraging sign (+) points to a rise in the use of conventional and scientific knowledge. A positive and negative (±) sign respectively denotes the increase and decrease of the output, income, or food security. Entrepreneur behavior type I refers to entrepreneurs with deep motivations, proactive behavior, livestock/pastoral backgrounds, and adequate working capital to work as one of the actors with project public-private partnership stakeholders. Entrepreneur behavior type II refers to entrepreneurs with deep motivations, proactive behavior, livestock/pastoral backgrounds, and inadequate working capital to work as one of the actors with project public-private partnership stakeholders. Entrepreneur behavior type III refers to entrepreneurs with high-profit motives, and adequate working capital to work as one of the actors with project public-private partnership stakeholders. The scores ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high) in Table 2 represent to what extent the policies impacted the outcomes in terms of forage supplies, livestock productivity, nutritious food supply, etc and institutionalization, etc.

Table 3. The impacts of indigenous knowledge policy implementation on production, income, and food security

Experiment	Variable
	Production	Rural income	Rural food security
Base	30.51	26.60	24.03
SIM1	33.82	29.00	26.37
SIM1%	8.43	8.30	8.87
SIM2	36.52	31.52	28.76
SIM2%	16.54	15.61	16.84

Source: Own computation result based on Oromia region Social Accounting matrix (SAM) (Shikur, 2020a).

Notes: Figures in Table 3 show values in billions of Ethiopian Birr and percentages of increments in production, income, and rural household food consumption. Base refers to the reference year (without any intervention). SIMs 1 &2 refer to simulations 1 and 2 (i.e., scenarios 1 and 2 increase indigenous and technical breed management knowledge adoption by 40%, and 60%, respectively). SIM1 and SIM1% denote the expression of changes in monetary values and percentages due to policy implementation, respectively. SIM2 and SIM2% denote the expression of increments in livestock production, rural households’ income, and food security relative to the base scenario in monetary values and percentages, respectively

Table 4. The impacts of integrated breed selection technical knowledge policy implementation on production, income, and food security

Experiment	Production		Rural income		Rural food security
	WMerger	Merger	WMerger	Merger	WMerger	Merger
Base	30.51	30.51	26.60	26.60	24.03	24.03
SIM1	34.24	33.10	29.53	28.75	26.85	25.43
SIM1%	12.21	7.51	11.00	7.48	10.87	5.51
SIM2	35.47	33.98	30.59	29.26	28.03	27.20
SIM3%	21.61	11.21	20.16	9.10	20.76	11.65

Source: Own computation result based on SAM for the Oromia region (Shikur, 2022).

Notes: Figures in Table 4 show values in billions of Ethiopian Birr and percentages of increments in production, and rural households’ income and food security. The base refers to reference scenarios without technical knowledge of policy implementation, implying the livestock sector operates without intervention. The WMerger refers to technological-oriented intervention only, denoting intervention focusing on only technical change. Merged interventions refer to the integrated policy approaches that integrate indigenous breed selection technical knowledge into scientific technical knowledge breed management. SIMs 1–2 refer to simulations 1 and 2 derived from knowledge simulations. (i.e., scenarios 1 and 2 in the case of WMerger increase scientific-technical knowledge adoption by 40%, and 60%, respectively, and scenarios 1 and 2 in the case of Merger increase integrated knowledge adoption by 40%, and 60%, respectively). SIM1 and SIM2 denote the expression of changes in livestock production, and rural households’ income and food security in monetary values due to policy implementation. SIM1% and SIM2% denote the expression of increments in livestock production, rural households’ income and food security in percentages relative to the base scenario.

Table 5. The effects of the integrated veterinarian technical knowledge policy implementation on production, income and food security

Experiment	Variable
	Production		Rural income		Rural food security
	WMerger	Merger	WMerger	Merger	WMerger	Merger
Base	30.51	30.51	26.60	26.60	24.03	24.03
SIM1	36.48	34.00	31.92	30.14	28.87	27.26
SIM1%	19.57	10.26	20.00	11.77	20.14	11.84
SIM2	42.00	37.43	36.56	33.24	33.10	30.07
SIM2%	37.66	18.56	37.46	20.00	37.74	22.00

Source: Own computation result based on Oromia region SAM.

Notes: Figures in Table 5 show values in billions of Ethiopian Birr and percentages of increments in production, and rural households’ income and food security. Base refers to reference scenarios (without technical knowledge of policy implementation), implying the livestock sector operates without intervention. WMerger refers to the reduction of livestock disease at different rates by applying technical knowledge. Merger indicates merged interventions or integrated policy approaches that integrate indigenous veterinarian technical knowledge into scientific technical knowledge policies. It adopts the combination of scientific and indigenous knowledge of livestock disease control mechanisms. SIMs 1–2 refer to scenarios 1 and 2. SIM1 and SIM2 denote the expression of increments in livestock production, and rural households’ income and food security in monetary values. SIM1% and SIM2% denote the expression of increments in livestock production, and rural households’ income and food security in percentages relative to the base scenario.

3.3. The policy framework

Every agricultural policy has three components: objectives, instruments of policy, and rules for operating those instruments of policy. In other words, a policy is frequently framed in terms of a number of connected objectives that are pursued concurrently. The policy is the method in which the rules are established for the operation of the policy instruments that determine policy outcomes, which in turn control the degree to which each of the multiple objectives will be achieved independently.

The paper outlines several objectives for the livestock policy, which can be summarized as supporting livestock producers’ incomes and food security, increasing livestock productivity and efficiency, stabilizing livestock input and product markets, ensuring regular organic and inorganic animal milk, meat, and egg supplies (which could be interpreted as a commitment to achieving an unspecified level of food security and nutrition), and ensuring fair prices for consumers. Supporting agro-pastoral and pastoral farming communities in more isolated and neglected areas (what is referred to as a “regional component of policy”) and protecting specific habitats and landscapes are additional objectives (an environmental dimension). This study recommends a number of livestock policy instruments to promote the adoption of local and scientific-technical knowledge in order to increase livestock production and social welfare (Table 1). The livestock industry did not benefit from numerous incentives, such as access to land, five-year tax rebates, duty-free privileges, and a credit program, to entice investment for the creation of high-value-added goods for export (Shikur, 2020b). In general, the government places the highest attention on export-oriented goods, and livestock is not one of them yet. State and commercial banks are wary about lending money to the livestock sector. Since banks only want to give money to companies that process milk, expanding dairy farming operations is an example of something that cannot be financed (Shikur et al., 2020a). The livestock industry is not given priority in the lending practices of microfinance organizations, not even locally.

To accomplish the whole range of objectives, the government should adopt numerous different sorts of policy instruments for affecting the behavior of the livestock sector. These policy instruments include investment grants, forage production subsidies, input subsidies or credits, export subsidies, intervention buying to support prices, production subsidies, and import tariffs. These several measures are dominantly used to address the livestock efficiency that has been attributed to a 50% by managing drought, a 50% by managing markets, a 25% by managing breeds, and a 25% by managing milk marketing and processing (Manzano & Yamat, 2018).

The demand and prices of livestock products have alarmingly increasing in developing countries due to inappropriate livestock policies, low livestock technology adoption, poor linkages, shortage of feeds, extensive livestock diseases, high per capita income and high population pressure. This situation results in a big livestock product supply and demand gap which presents serious policy issues. Increasing livestock technology adoption is one of critical goals of livestock policies to enhance livestock productivity, and increase the productivity of scarce resources and social welfare.

The framework for innovation systems functions is used to evaluate the supply chains in the livestock industry’s missing connections. Livestock supply chains miss entrepreneurs/private sector who are willing to work collaboratively with stakeholders of private and government organizations and/or non-governmental organizations to bridge livestock integrated knowledge adoption gaps, modern agricultural technology adoption gaps, and improve implementation and adoption of agroecology and various land uses or covers types’ policies to remove the effect of climate change. Proactive entrepreneurial involvement is necessary to implement livestock programs successfully. The paper classifies entrepreneur behavior in type I, II and III. It assumes that entrepreneur behavior type I is person who can take advantage of business opportunities and handles the public-private partnership approach most effectively and efficiently than types II and III (Table 2). Coordination and risk management are critical components of livestock policy success.

The study proposes an exemption from customs duty tax, tax on capital goods, and profit tax as incentives for firms/investors/entrepreneurs that are engaged in feed processing, fodder development, and meat and milk processing based on private-public partnership approaches. Investment grants refer to subsidies for long-term purchases of machinery, and irrigation equipment. An increase in private investments might help approximately a billion smallholders use livestock technology as a means of escaping poverty, as observed by Campbell et al. (2021). Higher added value can offer food security and progress despite not reaching food self-sufficiency. Japan only produces 10% of its food, yet its processing is perfectly food-secure (Habte et al., 2017; Manzano & Yamat, 2018). Public investments in infrastructure at all stages of the distribution chain attract investors, maximize profit, minimize cost of transaction and production as well as increase flow of goods and services by providing adequate capital services (Shikur, 2020b).

The application of the new framework could ensure enough high-quality livestock inputs and green feed supplies at local markets. A production subsidy is a fixed or proportional payment made for each unit of forage production in semi and arid regions. Input subsidies or credits are payments made per unit of a variable input/knowledge used.

Producers may receive incentives to increase the quantity of land reserved for agroecology if they agree to limits on other uses. Since, livestock production is highly associated with the quality and availability of browsing species which are impacted by agroecology, rainfall, and temperature patterns, which in turn limit biomass output and nutritional value. The primary types of natural pasture browse are useful for animal grazing in semi-arid areas with variable eco-environments. The primary sources of browse feed, such as bushes, shrubs, and woody vegetation, stay evergreen throughout the year and offer superior forage quality when grasses dry down. Offering cheap financing for the purchase of inputs/improved indigenous inputs will produce the same outcome.

The study proposes payments per hectare of grassland cover to livestock feed resources. Adopting a private-public partnership approach during the design and implementation of the project could significantly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of land use policy implementation and influence its outcomes. The approach is motivated by the expansion of cropland and the invasion of unpalatable wood vegetables in grasslands in dry and semi-arid environments. The grassland cover as a source of animal feed improves grazing systems through regenerative techniques. It encourages livestock producers to adopt agroecology and various land use policies, which are the biggest barriers to the production of cattle in semiarid and arid regions of Ethiopia. Up until now, temporary relocation or nomadic living in areas with excellent grazing have been the most common coping strategies for dealing with feed and water shortages. Lowering the number of cattle, reserving grazing/standing hay, and converting to browsing livestock species are other preferred coping techniques to handle climate-related difficulties (camel and goat).

Implementing irrigation policy is a necessary condition for livestock productivity and social welfare (Shikur, 2020a) in areas where the use of cattle species is unsuitable for the environment or where temperature changes induce changes in plant communities and increase grazing sensitivity. The effect of climate change has not been manifested in agricultural production since a number of institutional and programmatic reforms and innovations have been adopted by government to promote the use of small-scale irrigation systems and large-scale irrigation systems (Shikur, 2021b). The country may use feed imports as alternative solutions that the policy translates into, as the irrigation infrastructures are not accessible in some areas. This implies that the Ethiopian government should manage the markets for oilseeds and edible oil products along the oilseeds value chain to ensure a sufficient supply of edible oils and animal feed. The livestock sector profited from this oilseed policy. Regarding export incentives, the government increases the export tax on oilseeds, which helps the productivity of both livestock and enterprises that process oilseeds (Habte et al., 2017).

The study suggests input subsidies to encourage the adoption of livestock technologies. The bulk of Ethiopia’s smallholder farmers were unable to benefit from agricultural innovations and business opportunities in the livestock industry. The approaches are still necessary to accelerate integrated knowledge adoption and reduce poverty by managing transboundary animal diseases in Ethiopia.

Efforts to understand the challenges of low agricultural productivity journey in the context of the livestock sector in Africa identified low clarity about weak integration of scientific techniques with indigenous management in the livestock sector, which are the most dominant practices in the livestock farming system. Particularly, diseases like Blackleg, foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, anthrax, and bovine pasteurellosis, all of which can be managed using this technique (Gizaw et al., 2020). These diseases reduce livestock productivity which has negative implications for the availability of protein and nutrition, income, and consumption (Msangi et al., 2014). A comprehensive theoretical framework recognizes the importance of institutional and macroeconomic factors, as well as industrial policy, in the adoption of agricultural technology like the agricultural innovation systems approach.

We propose payment per cow to encourage the best indigenous breed management practices. It is motivated by the existing unregulated mating system that remains an unresolved puzzle in Ethiopia. Selecting and creating livestock breeds that are appropriate for areas that frequently experience drought. These incentives are useful in, encouraging the use of conventional breeding and selection knowledge and skills, and reviving knowledge integration as part of the mechanisms to manage low livestock productivity, which is made worse by low adoption of indigenous livestock knowledge and livestock technologies. A formulation of the need of integrating such knowledge is critical to improving offering inexpensive finance for the purchase of inputs can lead to the same level of livestock technology adoption. By using the typical use of high breeding and selection expertise and livestock protection skills, pastoralists have been able to develop stock that is well-matched to the environment (Sow & Ranjan, 2021).

The concept of food security is broad and complex. Food security is affected by a wide range of agro-physical environments, social, climate, unstable social and political environments, population growth rates and biological factors, the adoption of new technologies, the use of disease management techniques, physical and natural resources, financial resources, and appropriate institutions in the literature. The developed conceptual frameworks in this study are designed to influence food security by altering above mentioned factors like agrophysical, social, climate, biological factors, knowledge integration, the adoption of new technologies, the use of disease management techniques, physical and natural resources, financial resources, and appropriate institutions.

The best way to evaluate the food security of rural households is to use consumption and income as proxies. Consumption and income are utilized in this study as proxies to measure the effect of livestock policy on food security in rural households. This is due to the fact that consumption more properly represents long-term welfare and households’ capacity to meet their essential needs. But, this study uses income and consumption as the proxy variable for food security to evaluate the impact of traditional and scientific-technical knowledge-based livestock management on food security.

4. Results and discussions

The results in Table 3 show that indigenous livestock policies and livestock management practices increase rural household income and food security. This result is consistent with the work of Kereto et al. (2022). It implies that a wide range of self-generated inputs like disease prevention techniques, genetic improvement management, animal pasture management, pest control, and drought management mechanisms have a crucial role in boosting livestock productivity, as observed by FAO (2017). The finding further implies that utilizing indigenous knowledge enhances rural households’ intake of eggs, meat, milk, and milk products. Increased consumption of animal food sources, especially dairy products, improves nutrition and reduces the chance of developing chronic diseases like osteoarthritis, hypertension, and maybe cancer. Nutritious meals are essential for the development of physical and mental health. Eating animal products is positively and significantly associated with better child growth, cognitive development, and physical activity, as well as better pregnancy outcomes and lower morbidity from illness in Egypt, Kenya, and Mexico.

The approach provides an opportunity for the country to take competitive advantage of the food trade. There is a significant shift in consumer demand from inorganic to organic foods worldwide. Demands for indigenous knowledge in the livestock sector are driven by high prices and demand for organic food. Health consciousness influences consumer attitudes, thereby influencing the prices of organic food. Organic foods are perceived as more nutritious, natural, and environmentally friendly by consumers than non-organic or conventional foods (Gundala & Singh, 2021).

The results in Table 4 demonstrate that increasing scientific technical breed management knowledge adoption has a greater impact on livestock production, rural households’ income, and food security than adoption of indigenous breed knowledge management. This shows that addressing low cattle productivity and production just through indigenous knowledge management is insufficient. Increased production from the adoption of livestock technologies is closely tied to increases in farmers’ real wages (Pica-Ciamarra et al., 2014; Shikur, 2022b). Scientific technical breed management knowledge adoption benefits the poor both directly and indirectly by boosting pay for employees who are essentially landless and by raising employment opportunities and food prices (Shikur, 2020a, 2022b). However, adoption of technology creates livestock productivity gaps and welfare inequality among rural people (Shikur, 2022e). For instance, implementation of these policies could cause a strong bias in favor of larger and wealthier farmers due to their ability to optimally utilization of technologies beyond the means of smaller and less fortunate farmers.

The results in Table 5 indicate that veterinarian technical knowledge policy implementation has more impact on livestock production, rural households ’income, and food security than merging the scenarios (i.e., integrating indigenous veterinarian technical knowledge into scientific technical knowledge policies). The results of the study show that interventions based on innovation systems perspectives are essential tools for raising livestock productivity, ensuring adequate supplies of raw materials, vital nutrients, and micronutrients, raising the productivity of industries that process livestock products, improving employment opportunities for the underprivileged, and meeting the rising demand for animal sources of food (Shikur, 2020b; Shikur et al., 2020b).

5. Conclusions and policy implications

The modeling livestock market is useful teaching tool for uncovering the linkage between the policy and livestock development. Despite its usefulness as a teaching tool, because it could solve interconnected problems in the livestock farming systems, its application to livestock sector was limited. The livestock production framework, to the best of our knowledge, has not been applied to exploit the existing vast and largely rural community indigenous untapped resources that will be extracted from its context and applied and replicated in new settings. The result implies that knowledge management and integration can provide opportunities for a country to achieve a competitive food trade advantage. Knowledge integration is a core country competency for integrating indigenous knowledge into livestock’s production function and generating innovative outcomes in a country knowledge-based perspective on the country that discusses how well a country can use innovative systems approaches for long-term economic growth and food security.

The theoretical and conceptual frameworks for knowledge integration encourage agricultural policy implementations that take into account the main factors of knowledge integration, such as coherence, information exchange, knowledge sharing, and geographic information. Cultural, societal factors, environmental factors, and personal variables have important roles in that accelerating information and knowledge sharing. The integrated knowledge view of livestock production is built upon in this study to give a theoretical and empirical model that highlights the significance of livestock indigenous practices to livestock production management. Cultural, societal, environmental, and individual elements are also drivers, barriers, and enablers of knowledge integration that should be taken into account in livestock policy. Additionally, it promotes skills-enhancing activities and knowledge-challenging behaviors as well as behaviors that increase project performance. This implies that livestock policy can affect knowledge-sharing behavior which is scarce in the Ethiopian livestock sector because this activity is typically seen as occurring at the communal level.

The developed conceptual framework in this study is used to influence food security by altering factors like land use, social, climate, biological factors, knowledge integration, the adoption of new technologies, the use of disease management techniques, physical and natural resources, financial resources, and appropriate institutions. The use of artificial insemination (AI) and certain bulls for natural mating should be encouraged by the policy. Enhancing livestock production techniques and managing livestock illnesses will continue to be essential for supplying the rising demand for animal-based diets around the world and eradicating poverty. The indigenous and knowledge integration policies could have positive implications for meeting worldwide consumers’ food demand that has significantly shifted from inorganic foods to organic foods. The results imply that the integrated approach is a critical strategy for ensuring national food security and organic food supply. This approach, which is put into practice through institutional arrangements, has the potential to empower the role of coordination and cooperation in the livestock supply chain, link stakeholders/entrepreneurs to vertical upstream and downstream direct and indirect actors.

Entrepreneurs in public-private sector investment in the sub-livestock industry are minimal. Therefore, it appears that entrepreneurship involvement in the implementation of livestock programs is one of the key components needed for the Ethiopian livestock development. In reality, the institutional economic system’s built-in incentive structure may be able to explain why knowledge integration and new technologies in the livestock industry have not developed as quickly as they might and have been adopted later. Therefore, the institutional economic system’s built-in incentive structures are essential tools in order to enhance livestock productivity, income, and consumption. Farmers in the livestock business should get subsidies to adopt contemporary methods of livestock production and mechanisms of animal illness prevention. Coordination and risk management are critical for livestock productivity and food security by enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of flows of information, agricultural inputs, and services in the livestock input supply chain.

The study provides additional insight by explaining the link between oil seed, tariffs, tax, livestock production performance and organic food demand which remains unknown. Therefore, the paper provides additional insights by shedding light on how various integrated indigenous knowledge in livestock policy determine food security that also in light of the current situation of food shortages. Therefore, countries should integrate oil seed processing industrial policy, oilseed export tax, technical livestock enhancement, and an organic livestock production system into their policy formulation and implementation to increase food security. A framework makes the country supply organic animal foods with low production costs and sells them at higher prices.

Our results show that implementation of indigenous policy remains the necessary condition for ensuring food security and adequate organic meat, and milk supplies and meeting demand for products worldwide, and that the overall enhancement in livestock production and productivity by adopting integrated policy contributes substantially to poverty reduction and nutrition improvement in the long run. The contribution is made in particular through improvement of local breed selection and management, alleviation of feed constraints, strengthening interaction of oilseed sector and livestock feed supplies, and quality subsidy system to reduce poverty. linkage between economic growth remains a necessary condition for poverty reduction and that the overall improvement in the quality of institutions contributes significantly to reducing poverty and income inequality in the long term. Thus, results therefore call on policymakers to improve livestock policy framework and these dimensions with the perspective to enabling the rural people to improve their social wellbeing.

The results imply that implementation of land use policy remains the necessary condition for ensuring livestock feed resource supplies, fodder supplying natural pasture supplies with land management improvement, climate change, essential environmental services, number management and, optimization of animal feed production that have positive implications for livestock production and productivity. Particularly, implementation of these policies in pastoralists and agropastoralist communities is significantly associated with livestock production enhancement by altering ecosystem service like water/rainfall availability; livestock quality and quantity feed availability; and disease outbreaks. The result implies that a number of small and large scale irrigation policy reforms adopted by government could remove the effects of climate change on livestock production effectively. Therefore, applications of land use and irrigation policies significantly increase livestock production, house households’ resilient capacity and food security by altering ecosystem services.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Author did not receive fund from funders. [000].

Notes on contributors

Zewdie Habte Shikur

Zewdie Habte Shikur is a PhD Assistant Professor in the Agricultural Economics. He is a senior lecturer and researcher at Wolaita Sodo University in Ethiopia. His primary research interests are in agricultural policies, transportation policies, agricultural market analysis, industrial policies, trade, climate, value chain analysis, transaction cost economics, economic growth, and financial development.