Limited attention is given to rural small livestock species (goats, sheep and indigenous chicken). These species are reported to be largely owned by women in most rural areas of Zimbabwe. Evidence suggests that these species are mainly kept for household food and nutritional security (meat, milk, eggs, income) and other indirect livelihood activities (manure, cultural reasons). However, inbreeding, poor natural forage and climate change have negatively affected their performance further compromising their contribution to household food and nutritional security. The Small Livestock Development Program (SLDP) promotes cross breeding of small livestock towards developing improved cross-breeds that are adaptable to local conditions with superior traits of socio-economic importance. The program leverage supplementary feeding targeting indigenous forage cereals and legumes with high protein content to complement this program.