Future prospects and challenges of intensifying dairy production systems in Ethiopia

A number of market-oriented smallholder dairy farms have appeared mainly in the urban and peri-urban areas of Ethiopia. Dairy intensification provides both opportunities and challenges that need to be managed accordingly in order to improve milk production in a sustainable way. In this regard, there is a critical knowledge gap on the extent of the challenges and prospects of intensive smallholder dairying in developing countries. A study was conducted to analyze farm characteristics/practices and challenges in the intensifying smallholder dairying sector. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 200 dairy farmers. The results revealed that the overall mean of the crossbred dairy herd size was 8.61, which differed significantly with dairying experience, major income source and household-head education. The daily milk yield varied significantly across production systems and labour supply. Most family labour input for the dairy practices, namely: caring/raising calves, barn cleaning, feeding and watering, purchase/sale and manure management/dung cake making, was contributed by women. These differed significantly among households across dairy production systems and household-head age. The major challenges faced by dairy farmers, in descending order were shortage of concentrate feed and water, lack of sustainable breeding and milk marketing, dairy stock health and manure disposal. The dairy potentials observed include availability of some crossbred dairy stock, optimum milk yield, dairy experience, education and use of dairying as a major income source. These could help as a springboard to enhance smallholder dairy farming provided that the above-mentioned challenges are tackled and dealt with. To this end, a coordinated action involving all dairy stakeholders is needed in building the capacity of smallholder dairy producers to overcome the challenges involved in sustainable dairy production.