Socioeconomic characteristics of urban and peri-urban dairy production systems in the North western Ethiopian highlands.

In order to evaluate the socio-economic characteristics of urban and peri-urban dairy production systems in the North western Ethiopian highlands, a field survey was conducted which included 256 farms. It is concluded that urban farmers tend to specialize on dairy production and support the family income from non-agricultural activities, while agricultural activities other than milk production forms an additional source of income in peri-urban farms. The specialization of urban dairy producers includes the more frequent use of crossbred cows with higher milk yield. Urban and peri-urban dairy production contributes to food security of the population and family income of the farmers' families, but also provides a job opportunity for otherwise unemployed people. Access to farm land, level of education and access to certain input services such as training, veterinary and credit services were identified as the major constraints for the future development of the dairy sector.

Performance and limitation of two dairy production systems in the North western Ethiopian highlands.

In order to characterise the dairy production systems as well as the productive and reproductive performance of dairy cows in the study area, a total of 256 and 54 dairy farms were used for survey and monitoring data collection, respectively. Based on breed, land size, feed and market accessibility, two major dairy production systems were identified: a rather specialized, urban, and a peri-urban dairy production system. Urban farmers owned larger herds but farmed less land, and sold a greater proportion of liquid milk than peri-urban farmers, who processed more milk. Purchased feed played a more important role for the feed supply of urban than peri-urban farms. Significant breed effects were found for productive and reproductive performance traits. It is concluded that improved breeding and health management, genetic improvement of local breeds and supplementation of poor quality feed resources are the key factors for enhancing productivity of dairy cows and thereby increasing family income from milk production.