Swaziland’s failure to take advantage of the opportunity to export unlimited quantities of beef to the lucrative European Union market is being attributed to poor animal husbandry, high livestock mortality rates, and cultural practices that deter farmers from selling their cattle. The EU’s new trade agreement with the impoverished country has opened the world’s richest market to Swaziland’s hormone-free beef but the lure of cash has failed to entice farmers to sell. Despite efforts to promote commercial farming, subsistence farming is practiced by most SNL residents, who comprise the bulk of the 600,000 Swazis living in chronic poverty, according to the UN Development Program. (IRIN)
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