Policies and institutions governing the beef cattle value chain in the north-west highlands of Vietnam

In the north-west highlands of Vietnam, beef cattle production plays an important role in the smallholder mixed farming system. In order to identify prospects for the development of the commercial orientation of this activity, the present paper analyses the policies and institutions governing the beef cattle value chain in this region. Institutions taken into account in our analysis include public regulations, as well as formal and informal rules governing the activities in the value chain, from cattle production to consumption. The research is based on interviews with actors of the value chain, as well as entrepreneurs, civil servants, and policy deciders involved in governing transactions in the value chains. Those interviews were conducted in the province of Sơn La from June 2011 to June 2013. The results show that the cattle breeding activity is supported by local authorities through two different types of policies defined at the national level: (i) livestock development policies, and (ii) poverty reduction policies. If poverty reduction programs intend to focus more on disadvantaged families and remote areas, both policies are based on the same types of policy tools. Those include mainly bank loans, grants, subsidies for technical improvements on forage and genetic, vaccination programs, and technical trainings. Infrastructure policies also play an important role to support the cattle trade and the meat markets, but until now, local authorities have not been able to invest significantly in setting up cattle market places and modern abattoirs. The study reveals two sets of institutions which seem to be of very high interest for the development of the value chain. Firstly, institutions governing access to natural pastures appear to limit the development of commercial cattle farming. Secondly, cattle production and marketing appears to benefit a lot from contract farming, in the form of cattle confined to farmers by private entrepreneurs.