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Project

Social organization and potential for development of smallholder dairy farming in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia.

This project will focus on smallholder farm-level constraints and opportunities of dairy production in Tigray, by addressing issues such as milk productivity per cow, milk production costs, dairy farm profitability and chemical composition and micro-biological quality of dairy products. Furthermore, the impact will be explored of the ongoing introduction of cross-breeds on social organization of small-scale production and socio-cultural exchange processes in which products for (feed, veterinary products, genes, knowledge) and of (milk, butter, cheese, offspring) dairy farming come to circulate. It is hypothesized 1) that poor productivity is due to imbalance in forage, which itself is related to access of farmers to this resource, and 2) that dairy product marketing is constrained by inadequate on-farm hygiene and milk processing techniques. Hence, opportunities to jack up feed resources supply from mixed farming systems as well as possibilities for improved dairy nutrition and husbandry practices and milk processing techniques, while taking into account the social and cultural embeddedness of livestock keeping, will be important points of attention. The project intends to contribute to strengthening the capacity of Mekelle Universitys Department of Animal, Rangeland and Wildlife Sciences for conducting interdisciplinary development relevant research.
Date:1 Dec 2014 →  30 Nov 2016
Keywords:Ethiopia, Diry farming, Sallholders, Dary feed, Dairy products, Social organization
Disciplines:Economic development, innovation, technological change and growth