Dairy Production and Marketing Constraints in the Urban and Peri-urban Settings of Ethiopia: An Implication for Poor Performance of the Dairy Sector at Small-scale Farms

Ethiopia has a large potential for dairy development because of its large livestock population and favorable climate for improved high yielding breeds. But milk productivity is still low as lower productive indigenous dairy animals characterize the dairy sub-sector in the country.

Aim: Hence, the study intends to assess the major dairy production and marketing constraints in the urban and peri-urban settings of Southern zone of Tigray.

Study Design: Using a multi-stage sampling procedure, cross-sectional data were collected from 184 randomly selected dairy producers.

Place and Duration of the Study: The study was conducted in the Southern Zone of Tigray regional state, Ethiopia, and it was for one-year time duration.

Methodology: The study employed both primary and secondary data where primary data were collected through pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire instrument. Descriptive analysis particularly, Likert scale was used to analyze data.

Results: Results show that farmers ranked shortage of quality animal feed, frequent drought, lower productivity of local dairy breeds and shortage of land for dairying as first priority dairy production constraints (scale lies between 1.668 to 1.75) in the study areas. Similarly, farmers perceived that poor institutional support, high price uncertainty of dairy products, lack of adequate and timely market information, high price uncertainty, domination of informal markets, lack of milk cooling and processing machines, lack of adequate dairy cooperatives and high seasonality in production and the demand for milk as the first key dairy marketing constraints in the study areas.

Conclusion: Dairy policies and strategies in the study areas should primarily focus on improving the institutional arrangements, raise the awareness on adoption of milk enhancing improved dairy technologies and dairy intensification in small landholding to improve the dairy productivity in the areas. Moreover, strengthening the existing and establishing newly emerging institutionalized markets such as dairy cooperatives and milk processing plants encourage urban and peri-urban dairy commercialization, which could also contribute to the household food security and income diversification.