An assessment of the policy framework and value chain analysis for livestock vaccines in South Africa

Abstract

The concept of value chain for livestock vaccines is linked to a continuum of activities such as production, processing, and delivery of the vaccine to the livestock farmer. Along with this is also the critical aspect of policy and regulation which facilitate the linking of producers to the markets and end-users. In the context of veterinary vaccines for smallholder farmers, the value chain processes are fraught with many challenges. For example, the way the veterinary vaccinology and advances in vaccine technology are developed has in most cases less to do with the role of smallholder farmers in this process.In many cases, there is less consideration of farmer's localised usages of animal vaccines. Thus, in the value chain analysis of vaccine development, a pronounced emphasis must be placed on the geography and unique insights of animal diseases and knowledge of animal medicine which the population of local farmers has. Taking cognisance of farmers as a resource-based population in the vaccine value chain would help better understand their attitudes and willingness to use veterinary medicines.This is especially important in the setting, such as South Africa, where many of the smallholder farmers have little or no formal education and thus may be unaware about the value of vaccines to their livestock. Furthermore, in South Africa many small-scale farmers reside in the rural areas where the provision of veterinary services is mostly constrained, further limiting their understanding of such services.