Inadequate livestock farmers’ knowledge and skills is one of the limiting factors to the development of the industry. Knowledge and skills are important for quick adoption of appropriate technology, which has been developed and disseminated to livestock farmers. 

1. Dairy capacity building: Visions
on policies and implementation.
African dairy conference and exhibition, 23-25 September 2015
adriaan.vernooij@wur.nl

2. Dairy capacity building East Africa
“When I started agricultural training in
1949, we skipped the chapter on machine
milking, that was only for America, not for
us. So was the thinking by then”.
Pieter Willem Blokland (84), retired dairy
farmer in “Veeteelt”, December 2014.

3. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Inadequate livestock farmers’ knowledge and skills
is one of the limiting factors to the development
of the industry. Knowledge and skills are
important for quick adoption of appropriate
technology, which has been developed and
disseminated to livestock farmers.
Tanzania Dairy Development Board, 2014.

4. Dairy capacity building East Africa
EADEC/IADG on dairy development in East
Africa (April 2014):
-improved donor coordination
-thematic lead agencies
-”competency of dairy farmers, staff and
entrepreneurs along the value chain.

5. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Follow up to April conference:
-consultations with various stakeholders
-literature, project documents
-workshops in Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya
(November 2014)
-included in project implementation in
Ethiopia

6. – Analysis of current dairy support activities in the
region
– Analysis of good practices in other sectors
– Inventory of present dairy and training (formal,
informal) and education activities and its
applicability for the future
– Formulate follow up activities to Dutch government.

7. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Current state of affairs countries East Africa:
●Rwanda: no formal dairy education, in
preparation.
●Tanzania: changes ongoing, scattered,
inadequate coordination
●Kenya: devolution, more demand-driven,
PDCTs
●Ethiopia: fully government oriented.

8. Ethiopia:

9. Dairy capacity building East Africa
In general:
-education too much theory based, not enough
practical exposure.
-curricula not consistent with:
- changes in dairy production systems,
- changes in demand profiles
- changing rural-urban labour markets
-changes from subsistence farming to
commercial dairy enterprises
-graduates no longer automatically government
employees.

10. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Sector development needs training and
education at all levels:
-practical, hands-on courses
-Vocational level (Certificate, Diploma)
-Higher agricultural training (BSc)
-University level

11. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Challenges to educational system:
-learning methods and materials outdated
-no coordination within the system
-inadequate number of trained teachers
and extension officers
-weak research-training/education
linkages
-dairy processing technology inadequately
covered.

12. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Concluding:
(1) Dairy education outdated and insufficient
(2) Resulting in insufficient trained people at all levels
(3) For building up a sector, a sound knowledge base is
necessary, based in a comprehensive agricultural
education system: no quick fixes
(4) Without a good theoretical and practical knowledge
base, limited success rates for innovations.
Knowledge and skills are important for quick
adoption of appropriate technology

13. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Consequences for regional training and
education:
-specific approach of agricultural educational
system per country
-make choices for donor coordinated
interventions per country
Without education, no innovation

14. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Without education, no innovation.
Ways forward to strengthen dairy capacity building:
1. Developing TVET and Competence Based
Education and Training at the cross-roads between
formal education and workplace learning
2. Strengthening peer-to-peer learning in
(experimental) workplaces and exemplary practices

15. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Ways forward to strengthen dairy capacity building
(3) Utilizing emerging ICT-based education and
learning that bypasses the creation of formal education
and training facilities and structures but taking
advantage of farmer’s increased access to cell-phones
and other ICTs.
Identify existing education institutes willing to
redesign their curriculum using iterative multi-
stakeholder process

16. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Ways forward to strengthen dairy capacity building
(4) Focus less on numbers (of “farmers reached”)
more on quality of training and long term production
change perspectives.
(5) Build stronger linkages between private sector and
education in the donor countries ánd East African
countries.
(6) Stimulate education institutes to approach
internationalisation from a sector development
perspective which necessitates a joint approach from
practical hands-on training up to university level

17. Dairy capacity building East Africa
Ways forward to strengthen dairy capacity building
(7) Strengthen didactical skills and
integration in education system of PDTCs
(8) Challenge Dutch agriculture education to
participate more intensively also as part their own
internationalisation objectives and programmes, e.g.
BTEC.
(9) Distinguish between subsistence and market
oriented dairy farming. Focus on potential dairy areas.
(10) Experiment further with private extension and
training.

18. Follow-up.
● IADG follow up meeting 18-20 November in Berlin
● Netherlands: conference on international
collaboration education-private sector, 19th
November.

19. Questions?