Scientific Papers Animal Science and Biotechnologies (Sep 2023)
Appraisal of Milk Production, Processing and Marketing In Selected Urban and Peri- Urban Dairy Production Systems of Northwestern Ethiopia
Abstract
An assessment on cow milk production, processing and marketing systems was conducted in urban and peri-urban production in Bahir Dar and Mecha districts, Northwestern Ethiopia. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select representative study sites called kebeles (lower level administrative units) in both urban and peri-urban production areas. A total of 264 households heads were selected by using systematic random sampling techniques. Questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and key informants’ interview were employed to collect primary data. To complement the survey based information, 24 households (12 in each production system) who had lactating cows were voluntarily selected and a follow up study was conducted for a month. The result indicated that the average cattle herd size of households was 8 heads per household, with no significant variations between urban and peri-urban production areas. The number of female calves were found > male calves 1.54 (0.95%) and 1.27 (0.83%) in urban and peri-urban production systems, respectively. The cattle breeding systems used by both production systems were AI (artificial insemination) (58%), natural meting (15.5%) and both (26.5%). The dairy cattle breeds used for milk production in both production systems were cross bred cows (56.1%), local breed cows (18.9%) and both local and cross bred cows (25%). Major feed resources used by the households were crop residues, hay, and industrial by products, natural grazing and concentrate feeds. Water sources for animals in both production systems were river; hand dug well and pipe sources. Average milk production per cow per day for local breed and crossbred cows were 2.76 and 9.02 liter with the mean lactation length of 9.49 and 8.36 months, respectively. In the urban production system 1.5% milk was processed for marketing and 89.4% in peri-urban production system were processed for marketing. With regard to marketing of milk and milk products, both formal and informal marketing systems were existed in the production systems. The dairy production in the study areas was constrained mainly by shortage of land, price fluctuation, disease, high feed price. To mitigate the above problems the government and non-governmental organizations should give a higher priority for the development.
