Government policy effects on cattle and wildlife ranching profits in Zimbabwe
Issue Date
1994-07-01Keywords
Zimbabwedisincentives
opportunity costs
farm income
game farming
savannas
profitability
beef production
semiarid zones
cattle
range management
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Kreuter, U. P., & Workman, J. P. (1994). Government policy effects on cattle and wildlife ranching profits in Zimbabwe. Journal of Range Management, 47(4), 264-269.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002545Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
The profitability of alternative range-based production systems is frequently affected by government policies. Moreover, the comparative profitability of wild and domestic animal production systems on African semi-arid savannas has not been well analyzed. This paper presents a simple method for analyzing government policy effects on ranch profits and reports application of the method to 30 commercial cattle, 7 wildlife, and 13 mixed ranches in Zimbabwe. Ranches were selected in 4 contiguous woodland savanna areas with abundant wildlife and in 2 adjacent open savanna areas with sparse wildlife. Financial profits were calculated from 1989/90 ranch data and economic profits were estimated from the opportunity costs of inputs and outputs. A policy analysis matrix was used to estimate financial-economic profit-differences. Cattle ranches in the 2 areas with sparse wildlife were the most profitable group studied. Profits were lower (but similar) for cattle and mixed ranches in the areas with abundant wildlife. The financial profit was higher than economic profit for all ranch types, thus creating production disincentives. However, currency over valuation and implicit taxes on exported beef created greater production disincentives for cattle than wildlife producers. While the policy interventions negated the government's stated objectives of increasing foreign currency earnings and being self sufficient in beef production, they did appear to have beneficial range management consequences by encouraging fewer cattle on historically overstocked cattle ranches.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002545