Marandure, TawandaBennett, JamesDzama, KennedyMakombe, GodswillGwiriri, LovemoreMapiye, Cletos2020-02-112020Tawanda Marandure, James Bennett, Kennedy Dzama, Godswill Makombe, Lovemore Gwiriri & Cletos Mapiye (2020): Advancing a holistic systems approach for sustainable cattle development programmes in South Africa: insights from sustainability assessments, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 44(7):827-858. DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2020.1716130.2168-3565 (print)2168-3573 (online)10.1080/21683565.2020.1716130http://hdl.handle.net/2263/73201Efforts 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.en© 2020 Taylor & Francis. This is an electronic version of an article published in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 44, no. 7, pp. 827-858, 2020. doi : 10.1080/21683565.2020.1716130. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjsa21.Cattle development programmesLow-input farmersSustainabilityHolistic systems approachPostprint Article