The Bali government has introduced three beef cattle development schemes in recent decades to increase the income of smallholder farmers by improving their productivity and to support high quality beef production through improved technology. These schemes are the Beef NES scheme (conducted under a contract farming system between farmers and finance providers), the Food Safety Credit scheme (providing subsidised credit to farmers) and the Food Safety Project (a cooperative-type arrangement under government credit). This paper assesses the impact of these schemes on farm performance and identifies constraints and opportunities for improving the performance of smallholder beef production in Bali. A gross margin analysis of these schemes is conducted to compare profitability. The findings show that the Food Safety Project provides the highest gross margin to farmers and can potentially improve the quality of Bali beef. However, expansion of the scheme depends on the ability of government to continue providing the grant, while opportunities for improving meat quality rely on the ability of farmers to follow better feeding strategies. The authors suggest further analysis is carried out to measure welfare changes among producers.

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