Small-scale livestock options in rebuilding livelihood

In the West coast of Aceh, the Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency has made significant progress in rebuilding the infrastructure of the area devastated by the tsunami almost 2 years ago. New houses have been rebuilt for most of the survivors to return to as their homes. In the agricultural sector, many programs have been focused toward either re-establishing the production system of food crops for food safety of the community or re-development of tree cropping either for production or environmental purposes. While these programs are being set up and running, livestock components can be established to complement with the on-going programs. Since livestock production is basically non-land-based activities, a production system can be set up quickly without having to wait for the soil condition to recover from the tsunami effects. Livestock components can serve as nutritional nourishment for the population in the affected areas, and there is also indeed a need to repopulate their livestock which were destroyed during the catastrophe. Poultry can easily be used to provide job opportunities and also to generate income in the resettlement area as well as in the area where the community have returned to their own land, because chicken or ducks are quick yielding and usually farmers are already familiar with. Goats were also very commonly found in villages before the tsunami, and their production can easily be re-established in the area in line with reforestation programs using tree legumes as sources of animal feed.

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