ObjectivesTo describe the dairy production and marketing systems in Jimma and to identify constraints for dairy marketing and development in the area

Milk Production and Marketing system in Jimma Town, South-western Ethiopia

Tadele Tolosa1, Mulugeta Tefera1, Yosef Deneke1, Abebaw Gashaw1, Karlien Supré2 and Sarne De Vliegher2

1Jimma University, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Veterinary Public Health, P. O. Box 307, Jimma, Ethiopia

2Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ghent, Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health, Merelbeke, Belgium

Materials and Methods

Jimma is found in Oromia Regional State, located at 352 km south west of the capital, Addis Ababa. A total of 47 smallholder dairy farmers and 51 dairy milk retailers were interviewed using pre- structured questionnaires. The questionnaire captured household demography; cattle herd sizes and composition, milk outlets and milk production aspects for smallholder dairy farmers. The data collected in the study was stored in Microsoft Excel and descriptive statistics was employed to summarize the data.

Conclusions

• Dairy production is the domain of men rather than women.

• Most of the producers run dairy production as supplementary income.

• Farmers use natural mating for breeding purpose and use of artificial insemination is farmers’ quest.

• Milk reaches to the consumers by indirect routes resulting in a quality reduction and increase in price.

• Fasting, shortage of animal feed, irregular payment, low milk price, lack of artificial insemination service, adulteration and poor quality of milk supply are the main constraints.

Fig 1. Map of the study area

Introduction Dairy production is an important part of the livestock production systems in Ethiopia. Market-oriented smallholder dairy farming is an emerging business and is becoming an important supplier of milk and milk products to urban centres (Mokennen et al., 2006). In Jimma, market-oriented smallholder dairy farming is at its immature stage to supply the milk demand to the ever growing town. However, there is no study done which indicates milk production system, marketing channel and constraints related to those factors

23

31

66 28

64

53

4

37

37

51

ResultsSeventy-seven % of the dairy farms were owned by males whereas 23.4% by females. Overall, 36.2 % farm owners were performing only dairying, 53.2 % were involved in other activities (trading and civil work) and 10.6% were retired individuals (Table 1).Dairy production and marketing in the studied area was constrained by various problems. The major problems and constraints identified were: low demand during fasting (23%), shortage of feed (17%), low milk price and shortage of feed (15%), low milk price and irregular payment (10%), lack of artificial insemination and extension services (6%) and problems related to waste disposal.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of selected dairy farmers

N

B a le

B o r e borenaa

A fd e r

W a rd e

G e

A r s i

Z o n e 1

Z o n e 2

S h in ile

N . G o n d e r

F ik

K o r a h e

D e g e h a b u r

M t e e l

N . O m

J im m a

o n 3

W . T i g a y

E .

Variable N Category Frequency (%)

Gender 47 Female 12 (23.4%)

Male 35 (76.6%)

Occupationa

l status

47 Only dairy

farming

17 (36.2%)

Dairy farm +

other activity

8 (17.0%)

Dairy farm +

Government

employee

17 (36.2%)

Retired 5 (10.6%)

Age 46 < 37 years 7 (15.2%)

>38 – 47

years

17 (37.0%)

>48- 57 years 14 (30.4%)

>58 years 8 (17.4%)

Educational

status

46 Illiterate 7 (15.2%)

Elementary

/junior school

7 (15.2%)

High school 10 (21.8%)

Above high

school

22 (47.8%)

This is PhD work done in the context of the IUC-JU projectContact: PhD student: Tadele.Tolosa@ju.edu.et & PhD supervisor: Sarne.Devliegher@UGent.be