Women and the Sustainable Development of Market-oriented Dairying: Evidence from the highlands of East Africa

From the Introduction
Cattle play significant social and economic roles in the subsistence production systems of the East African highland - as a store of value, measure of wealth, and source of cash flow, fuel, food, draught power and manure. However, the productivity of indigenous breeds is relatively low, with milk offtake rarely exceeding 300kg for a lactation period of about seven months.

Currently indigenous cattle constitute some 77% of cattle in Kenya, but are more than 98% of the total Ethiopian cattle population. Low productivity is due to relatively late ages at maturity, low genetic potential, heavy parasite burden, seasonal variation in feed and little policy emphasis on livestock development. In recent years, however, policy environments for dairy production have improved, including liberalisation of dairy markets. Encouraging intensified dairying is one strategy of the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments to address the low productivity problem of indigenous cattle and to enable resource-poor smallholder mixed crop-livestock farmers to raise incomes.

In peri-urban Addis Ababa, market-oriented smallholder dairying (MOSD) is based on the use of crossbred cows (CBC) that are fed crop-residues such as barley straw, and natural grass and hay, and locally-produced wheat bran and oilseed cake. While some CBC's are kept on mixed crop/livestock farms, many animals are kept in the urban centre, and are confined to backyard stalls. Milk is mainly marketed directly to consumers by the producers themselves.

In the Central province of Kenya, MOSD is based on the intensification of smallholder mixed farming systems through the close integration of CBC's into the mainly maize-based farms. Cows are fed planted fodder (Napier grass), maize stover, weeds and grass, and grain millings or compounded dairy feed. In many cases where landholdings are small, cattle are not allowed to graze at all, but are stall-fed instead. An important element of this system is the heavy use of the manure to fertilise food and cash crops, allowing sustained multiple cropping on the small landholdings (usually less than two acres).

MOSD increases dairy production and sales of dairy products - especially liquid milk, i.e. the milk is treated as a 'cash crop' resulting in greater market orientation of smallholder farm households. Intensification of dairy production has been shown to potentially raise milk production and income, especially where demand and infrastructure are favourable. Further, since milk consumption globally is seen to grow with income levels, it has the potential to improve incomes of smallholder farm households in an economically sustainable manner. Because milk is sold daily throughout the year, more regular daily cash income enhances dairy households' ability to purchase needed food items during food shortage periods, enabling smooth consumption throughout the year.

Under some circumstances in relatively extensive farming systems, the use of CBC as draft animals eliminates the need for draft oxen (and their replacements) required for only a few weeks in a year. Fewer but more efficient animals on the farm could reduce stocking rates and overgrazing, thus contributing to the establishment of more productive and sustainable farming systems. In other circumstances in more intensive farming systems, where much of the feed resources are imported from off-farm and animals are not grazed, MOSD leads to higher stocking rates, yielding more manure and so more rapid cycling of nutrients, again contributing to more productive and sustainable systems.

Farmers in the highlands of East Africa have a comparative advantage in dairying intensification because of the relatively low animal disease incidence and climate conducive to cattle rearing. As a result, the region has the largest number of both indigenous and CBC cattle in the continent, good traditional animal husbandry skills, and high demand for animal products.