Enhancing Milk Markets Vital to the Poor

By supporting 'informal' dairy producers and sellers with policies better suited to their circumstances, developing countries are taking advantage of the historic opportunity livestock now offer to lift millions out of poverty.

With demand for foods of animal origin doubling over the next 20 years in developing countries, the dairy cow is one of the smartest investments a farmer can make. Small-scale African farmers are already doing a roaring trade in dairy products. Particularly in East Africa's three million dairy households, dairying acts as a cash crop, generating more regular household incomes and jobs for the unskilled than other enterprises. The dairy cows themselves, being highly valuable animals, serve as 'four-legged savings accounts' for small-scale farmers and pastoralists.

Traditional dairy markets, which handle unpasteurised, or 'raw' milk, and traditionally processed dairy products such as fermented milk, are behind the dairy boom in many developing countries. In Kenya, for example, where per capita consumption of liquid milk totalled 85 kg in 1999, traditional milk markets supply over 80% of the milk marketed. Compared to their commercial competitors, small-scale dairy agents provide cheaper milk to consumers while paying better prices to producers. Despite this, public officials concerned about the possible health risks of consuming unpasteurised milk have actively discouraged the country's indigenous milk markets. Kenya's dairy development authorities urgently need more reliable information to make more judicious policies.

A Smallholder Dairy Project (SDP) undertook the series of risk analyses needed to safeguard both public health and dairy livelihoods. Starting in 1999 with funds from the UK Department for International Development, staff from the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute forged partnerships with the Kenya Dairy Board, Nairobi and Egerton universities, the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Kenya Ministry of Health. These institutions together provided the diverse scientific expertise the project needed (in bacteriology, immunology, economics, epidemiology, and human clinical medicine) to analyse risks to the poor posed by alternative dairy policies.

A wide spectrum of stakeholders adopted the project's policy recommendations in 2001, thereby enhancing milk marketing by and for the poor. These recommendations provide more 'carrots' (licensing, training) than 'sticks' (policing) to small-scale operators. A new Dairy Development Policy and a revised Dairy Bill now explicitly recognise the predominance of the raw milk trade in Kenya, its importance to the poor and the need for regulations and technologies to optimise the quality of raw milk.

Lessons of this research are being applied in other African countries through joint projects conducted by African institutions, ILRI and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. These projects are using research to build a framework suitable for all traders - small and large, formal and informal - that will provide the public with safe milk while protecting dairy livelihoods and foods vital to the poor.