Smallholders Dairy Development

Despite the importance of dairy development to nutrition, health and income of rural communities, smallholder dairy performance is very low in the rural areas of northern Ethiopia. To enhance the performance of smallholders dairy development, an integrated and knowledge based interventions along the dairy value chain framework has been tested and promoted. Hence, a field study was conducted to assess the changes in response to the integrated interventions along the value chain of dairy production-marketing systems and to draw lessons for scaling out and up purposes. The changes associated with the interventions were systematically captured using household level surveys, key informant interviews and secondary sources. In the survey, key parameters and indicator variables that can indicate the changes in dairy performance along the value chain framework were collected and analyzed. The lessons and experiences gained give an insight into the approaches, procedures and processes of knowledge based interventions, and response monitoring in smallholder dairy enterprise. The lessons captured in smallholder dairy development are useful to development and research workers in the tropics.