Efforts to exploit the central roles of cattle to drive agriculture and rural development in low-income countries recorded limited success owing to their narrow focus on modernizing and commercializing low-input cattle farming. Most programs failed to take cognizance of the heterogeneous range of complex relationships between the environmental, economic, social and institutional challenges that limit low-input cattle farming. The current qualitative literature review evaluates the environmental, economic and social sustainability delivery impacts of the leading cattle development programs in the low-input farming sector in South Africa using a holistic systems approach. A mixed method procedure involving stratified sampling was used to allocate local and international-based programs while, purposive sampling was used to select programs with a wider scale of operation. The review then draws on the crosscutting key constraints emerging from the case studies to provide a better grounding for subsequent sustainability sensitive recommendations. Local-based cattle development programs advanced more market-led interventions while, their international-based counterparts had more interventions including, soil and rangeland improvement. The narrow focus by both local and international developmental programs is inadequate to address a wide array of environmental, economic, social, technical and institutional challenges faced by low-input cattle producers in South Africa.

在低收入国家，利用牛的重要作用来推动农业和农村发展的努力取得了有限的成功，因为它们只关注低投入的牛养殖业的现代化和商业化。大多数计划未能意识到限制低投入牛养殖的环境，经济，社会和体制挑战之间复杂关系的异质范围。当前的定性文献综述使用整体系统方法评估了南非低投入农业领域领先的养牛发展计划对环境，经济和社会可持续发展的影响。使用了涉及分层抽样的混合方法程序来分配本地和国际程序，而 目的抽样被用来选择具有更广泛操作规模的程序。然后，审查借鉴了案例研究中出现的贯穿各领域的关键约束条件，以便为后续的对可持续性敏感的建议提供更好的基础。以当地为基础的养牛发展计划推进了更多以市场为导向的干预措施，而以国际为基础的养牛发展计划则采取了更多的干预措施，包括土壤和牧场改良。地方和国际发展计划的重点都不足以应对南非低投入牛生产者面临的各种环境，经济，社会，技术和体制挑战。然后，审查借鉴了案例研究中出现的贯穿各领域的关键约束条件，以便为后续的对可持续性敏感的建议提供更好的基础。以当地为基础的养牛发展计划推进了更多以市场为导向的干预措施，而以国际为基础的养牛发展计划则采取了更多的干预措施，包括土壤和牧场改良。地方和国际发展计划的重点都不足以应对南非低投入牛生产者面临的各种环境，经济，社会，技术和体制挑战。然后，审查借鉴了案例研究中出现的贯穿各领域的关键约束条件，以便为后续的对可持续性敏感的建议提供更好的基础。以当地为基础的养牛发展计划推进了更多以市场为导向的干预，而以国际为基础的对口牛发展计划则采取了更多的干预措施，包括土壤和牧场改良。地方和国际发展计划的重点都不足以应对南非低投入牛生产者面临的各种环境，经济，社会，技术和体制挑战。