International Livestock Research Institute
Better lives through livestock
Intensification of milk production
and quality of dairy marketing
Nils Teufel, Alan Duncan, Vivek K. Singh, Kindu Mekonnen
(ILRI) and Addisu Bitew (Amhara Reg Agr Res Inst)
Introduction
• Opportunity: Smallholders benefit from increasing
milk demand through intensification.
• Assumpution: Milk market improvements drive
small-holder intensification.
• Question: How are small-holders intensifying?
Methods
• Regional sites in India (3) & Ethiopia (2) • Selection of 6 districts /site (2 / marketing category)
• Expert classification of districts by marketing quality • Selection of 3 villages /district
(low - medium - high) • 2 producer groups / village −> 174 group interviews
Results: Comparison of intensification characteristics by milk marketing quality and site
Stall feeding [% feed] Concentrates [% stall feed] Milk yield, cows [kg/d]
100 100 12
India India India,
80 80 10
Ethiopia crossbred
Ethiopia 8
60 60 Ethiopia,
6 crossbred
40 40 India,
4
20 20 local
2 Ethiopia,
0 0 0 local
low medium high low medium high low medium high
Milk processed in home [%] Increasing herd size, 10y [%hh] Crossbred [% cows ]
100 100 100
India
80 India India
80 80
Ethiopia Ethiopia Ethiopia
60 60 60
40 40 40
20 20 20
0 0 0
low medium high low medium high low medium high
Discussion
• Smallholders are intensifying milk production where marketing quality improves.
• However, feeding intensity and milk yields hardly show any development.
• On the other hand, households reduce milk processing and increase herd sizes.
• The replacement of local cows with cross-breds appears to be the greatest change.
Conclusions
• Initally small-holders increase liquid milk production where milk markets improve.
• Milk yield increases through intensified feeding have not yet been widely implemented ,
but will be required to maintain sustainable and profitable growth.
References Support by OPEC Fund for International
Baltenweck,I., Staal,S. et al. (2003). Crop-Livestock Intensification Development (OFID) & CIM - Centre for
and Interactions Across Three Continents. ILRI et al., Nairobi. International Migration and Development
Raghunathan,N., Joseph,A.K. et al. (2006). Towards accelerated & Oromiya Agricultural Research Institute
growth in dairying - an action research to improve the is kindly acknowledged.
traditional milk sector. CALPI - Intercoop., Hyderabad, India.
Staal,S.J., Pratt,A.N. et al. (2008). Dairy Development for the n.teufel@cgiar.org, .duncan@cgiar.org,
Resource Poor, Parts 2 & 3, FAO, Rome. v.singh@cgiar.org, k.mekonnen@cgiar.org