It is well recognized that livestock is an integral part of agriculture contributing to the household livelihood and economies of developing countries like ours. Livestock production and marketing of its products are essential to the livelihoods of more than one millions of people in Ethiopia.
Of the subsets of livestock production, dairy production in the country is predominantly subsistence, characterized by low production and productivity, dependent on local breeds, and managed under extensive grazing and uncontrolled breeding.
Keeping this in mind, The Ethiopian Herald conducted an interview with Taddese Hundie, who graduated from Haramaya University in agricultural economics, to have ample information about the economic significance of dairy farming.
He said, “Milk is produced dominantly from local breeds in Ethiopia, and milk and milk products is increasing in developing countries and the drivers of change to the dairy sector are demography, growing economies, underserved markets, conducive policy and enabling environment, globalization, and market opportunities.”
As to Taddese, meeting the increasing demand for milk and dairy products cannot be realized without rapidly increasing the number of high producing tropically adapted cows, the number of commercial dairy herds, and the number of cows per herd and productivity per cow. To support the dairy sector, different interventions are expected to be made by the government, development partners, national and international research institutions, and non-governmental organizations.
True, the sector in Ethiopia is yet to fully realize its potential to produce enough milk and dairy products to meet the domestic demand. As a result, the country is forced to import powdered milk and other milk products. The major constraints on intensification of livestock in general and dairy in particular are unavailability of adaptable high-yielding improved genetics, lack of feed, animal diseases and poor animal health, extension and market services.
He said, “In Ethiopia, genetic improvement of indigenous breeds through crossbreeding and upgrading, and the accelerated production of crossbred cows from farmers’ indigenous breeds, of course. However, the number of improved breeds in the country is still too small to transform the current subsistence-based smallholder dairy system to market oriented commercial dairy production and boost milk production to meet current and predicted future domestic demands.”
Dairy production in Ethiopia is subsistence smallholder-based and characterized by low production and productivity. The annual production of livestock and livestock products in the country is too low to meet the current and projected demands of the growing human population. To attain government goals of poverty reduction, food security, nutrition, foreign currency earning, and contribute to the national economy; the current livestock production system must be transformed to a commercial market-oriented one.
The dairy industry, its constraints, and interventions for its development in Ethiopia need to be well scrutinized. Actors in the dairy value chain and their engagement modalities are also suggested to bring a sustainable integrated dairy development. The main challenges in the dairy sector in the country that need to be prettily addressed are lack of market orientation; insufficient and inefficient input and service delivery; lack or limited private sector investment; weak regulatory institutions; limited technical, technological, and financial capacity; lack of market infrastructure and weak market linkages among actors in the value chain. Reorganizing and strengthening institutions supporting the dairy sector, creating an enabling environment for private sector participation, improving inputs supply (feed, improved breeds, artificial insemination and veterinary inputs), service provision (veterinary, extension, market, regulatory), value addition and market linkages, and strengthening research to develop high yielding tropically adapted dairy breeds.
He further said that, public sector interventions in selected and targeted investments have to be employed to revise existing and designing new policies, strategies, regulations, and standards supportive to the dairy sector transformation could lay a foundation for private sector investment. At the same time, development partners engaged in dairy development must be aligned with government initiatives for a better and wider impact.
He stated that, dairy production is generally a subsistence smallholder-based industry with relatively few small and medium commercial dairy farms. Despite the large number of indigenous breed milking cows in the country, their milk production and productivity remain low. Besides, limited availability of feed, high disease prevalence and poor animal health services, low level of husbandry, and limited extension and research support are also among the cardinal problems compromising the smooth flow of activities to boost the production and productivity of dairy sector.
The number of breeding male cattle is small compared to that of heifers and cows, and the large population of breeding female cattle provides an opportunity to make genetic improvement through their use as dams for production of crossbred heifers to support intensified dairying in the country. However, considering the small number of breeding male animals, their poor distribution across the different production systems and the inefficient breeding strategy in place, continued use of such few males for breeding could lead to inbreeding or inadequacy of breeding bulls.
Most dairy farms do not keep breeding bulls because of the associated high feeding and management costs; male calves are culled at an early age. Dairy production in the country can be categorized into mixed crop-livestock, pastoral, specialized urban and peri-urban production systems. The pastoral system depends on indigenous breeds, which are managed under extensive rangeland grazing, and cattle are the main source of pastoral households’ milk, cash, asset accumulation and savings.
With the expansion of commercial smallholder dairy production, and the extension support, farmers started keeping one or two crossbred cows and planting improved forages to supplement their milking animals. In the smallholder specialized urban and peri-urban dairy production system, which is mainly practiced in and around cities and towns, farmers keep both crossbred and exotic breeds of cows for producing milk for sale.
The transformation of smallholder subsistence dairying into market-oriented commercial dairy production requires engagement of smallholder farmers in commercial dairy farming and private investment in input supply, service delivery and milk value addition to overcome fluctuations in raw milk demand and supply due to seasonal consumption of animal products in the country.
Developing a country-specific dairy strategy that transforms the sector requires critical assessment of the opportunities and challenges and possible interventions.
The dairy sector in the country is based on subsistence production with low market orientation. Milk produced is consumed at the household level mainly due to low production and lack of market access, poorly organized marketing systems and an underdeveloped milk market infrastructure. A large proportion of the national cattle population is kept by smallholder farmers. In the mixed crop-livestock production system, cattle are kept for the purpose of producing draft oxen to support crop production. The resources used on such oxen could be released to support more commercial beef and dairy production if they were to be replaced by small, mechanized alternatives.
The dairy sector has great potential for growth in Ethiopia. Concerted sustainable efforts from government and private sector are required to address the challenges hindering the growth of the sector and develop short-term and long-term plans of action to mitigate the bottlenecks in the dairy sector. Current efforts from different actors in the dairy value chain are worth acknowledging but are not enough, are fragmented, project driven, and lack continuity in area and type of intervention. In sum, both government-led platforms of actors and private sector investment are necessary to address current dairy development challenges. Private sector investment must be encouraged to lead the transformation of the sector. The process of decision-making in the dairy sector must be supported by evidence generated from national and international institutions and development partners. Since the sustainability of dairy development will only happen if the private sector fully participates and takes a lead in the overall development of the dairy sector, all concerned have to be active drivers of the progress wheel.
Although Ethiopia’s milk production is facing some challenges, the continuous improvement of consumers’ income, the formation of milk drinking habits, and governmental support have developed a large market potential for domestically produced dairy products and milk production.
Improving market competitiveness while ensuring economic and environmental sustainability is key to the prospects for the milk industry.
Sustainable development must be the future direction of the country’s milk production. The combination of feed cropping and dairy farming is an effective part of a system to create job opportunities, assist economic development thereby achieving sustainable development. Compared with the traditional system that separates feed cropping and dairy farming, the combination that closely links these endeavors can contribute to a sustainable ecological agricultural system. The cropping provides forage for dairy farming, and the manure produced by the dairy herd serves as a source of fertilizer for cropping, which facilitates nutrient recycling and green development. The combination of crop production and the dairy farming system needs to be promoted by intensifying coordinated actions.
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 2 JULY 2024
