Preface

The first twenty- six volumes in FAO's Better Farming Series were based on the Cours d'apprentissage agricole prepared in the Ivory Coast by the Institut africain de developpement economique et social for use by extension workers. Later volumes, beginning with No. 27, have been prepared by FAO for use in agricultural development at the farm and family level. The approach has deliberately been a general one, the intention being to constitute basic prototype outlines to be modified or expanded in each area according to local conditions of agriculture.

Many of the booklets deal with specific crops and techniques, while others are intended to give the farmer more general information which can help him to understand why he does what he does, so that he will be able to do it better. 

Adaptations of the series, or of individual volumes in it, have been published in Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Creole, Hindi, Igala, Indonesian, Kiswahili, Malagasy, SiSwati and Turkish, an indication of the success and usefulness of this series. 

Requests for permission to issue this manual in other languages and to adapt it according to local climatic and ecological conditions are welcomed. They should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. 

1. Small livestock farming is common in villages all over the world. Everywhere you see around the houses numbers of sheep, ducks, pigs, and above all chickens. 

2. The villagers raise all these animals in order to have meat on feast days - for the arrival and departure of visitors, for sacrifices, marriages, births and funerals. And certain families have even got Into the habit of eating meat fairly often and, for instance, giving eggs to their children. 

3. Very often, too, villagers sell animals when they need money: to pay taxes, to pay the expenses of children going to school, to buy medicines, salt, cement, sheet iron, tobacco, paraffin. 

Small livestock farming is a way to build up reserves of food and money.