Does Fattening Pay for Smallholders?

This research was undertaken to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the fattening enterprise and to study the economics of cattle fattening in the crop-livestock mixed production system, North Gondar, Ethiopia. Data was collected from 112 farmers from purposively selected three districts and two peasant associations. The Tobit analysis resulted labor availability in the households, duration of fattening (length of stay of oxen in the fattening period) and feed cost have found to affect the gain from fattening negatively. Experience of the farm operator, number of cattle in the fattening activity, frequency of fattening in the year and selling in the export market have significantly enhance the gain from the operation. Fattening is found seemingly paying and profitable for most of the farmers and could be considered as a farm-business which can be used as one of the strategies to achieve transformation of the subsistence agriculture to market oriented farm operation.