Abstract

This paper presents an estimate of the cattle off-take rates in Ndiyona constituency of the Kavango region, north eastern communal area of Namibia and identifies marketing channels and strategies used by small-scale livestock farmers. The study used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) to identify factors influencing cattle off-take rates. The results showed that cattle off-take rate of 6.14 percent for Ndiyona constituency that is below the official off-take rates for the rest of the country (20%), above the estimated cattle off-take rate for the northern communal areas (2%). The study concludes that type of farming and the quarantine marketing channel contribute negatively to cattle marketing in Ndiyona constituency, hence relatively lower off-take rates, while number of cattle owned by the farmers has positive impacts on cattle marketing.

Key words: marketing channel, livestock off-take, market information, smallholder farmers.