aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

Factors affecting the development
and expansion of smallholder
dairy programmes
Dairy cattle
There is a general shortage of improved dairy
cattle for dairy scheme participants. Facilities
for artificial insemination (AI) for dairy schemes
were also inadequate and, as a result, most
participant farmers were dependent on natural
service. Those who did not own bulls depended
on their neighbours.
This situation has contributed to the inability
to develop and expand the smallholder dairy
sector. lb help alleviate the shortage of dairy
stock in the schemes, in 1979 the Government
established a cros3-breeding ranch at Batoka
with the assistance of the European Economic
Commission (EEC). The function of the ranch is
to 3upply in-calf crossbred heifers to small-scale
farmers in dairy settlement and smallholder
dairy projects. However, production so far has
not met the rising demand resulting from the
increasing number of new farmers joining the
smallholder dairy industry,
Infrastructure
Although there was a road service to scheme
centres most roads required upgrading,
Dipping facilities are available on most of the
schemes but remain inadequate. Those already
in place and handed over to the scheme members
are in a poor state due to the inability of farmers
to collaborate in maintaining them. It is evident
that there is lack ofinterest in renovating infrastructure
that was handed over communally.
There seems to be a reluctance to assume
responsibility for communally owned property,
particularly dip tanks and communal water
points.
Availability of inputs
Although most inputs are available to scheme
farmers, prices remain unaffordable. With a
liberalised economy, drugs and acaricides have
become too expensive for most small farmers,
Labour
Family labour, especially wives, plays a crucial
role in supplementing hired labour in the
smallholder dairy sector. Wives also assume the
role of managers in the absence of their
husbands. The issue of outside labour has been
cited as a major hurdle on most smallholder
farms, as most able-bodied men and women opt
for employment in towns, where they engage
themselves in business and trading to make
.quick" money.
Market outlets
Market outlets are in place for smallholder dairy
development project farmers to deliver milk to
the Dairy Produce Board (DPB) plants using
their own transport. Where plants are far from
139
farms, as in the case of settlement schemes,
there are SDDP road-side collection points. The
fundamental of cooling facilities. constraint
Of the
here
four
is
dairy
the inadequacy
settlement
schemes, only ane (Palabana) has a cooling tank.
No operational cooling tank exists in SDDP. The
lack of this facility leads to the wastage of large
quantities of milk. To reduce losses, SDDP sells
most of the milk sour at reduced prices. Sour
milk is a very popular commodity in the
Southern Province.
Formal marketing of milk is undertaken by
DPB for most parts of the country; by Zambezi
Cooperative for the Livingstone area; and by
SDDP for the Choma, Monze, Mazabuka and
Kabwe districts. With the current liberalised
marketing systems, farmers are free to sell to
whom they wish and charge according to market
forces. In the traditional sector milk is consumed
by producers and sold to neighbours.
Funds for investment
Funds for investment presented a problem to
most smallholder farmers, especially those who
did not have title deeds to their land. Farmers
who do not have title to their land have little
collateral and this presented a problem in
acquiring bank loans. Hence most farmers
financed their own programmes. Donor support
to dairy development programmes is not
available at the moment, particularly to SDDP.
However, farmers themselves are raising funds
through milk sales. In one case, a farmer received
donor support for the dairy programme.
Profitability
Data on farm size, herd size, milk yield and
reproduction rates were taken from 135 and 180
smallholder farms in 1989 and 1992, respec­
tively (Table 3). Herd size was small in relation
to farm size (Table 3). Average farm size was
ao 215 ha le eregnrallyzlowat
abut 215 ha. Milk Yields were generally low at
below 900 kg per lactation, but the trend is
encouraging as there was a tremendous increase
in lactation yield from 450 kg in 1989 to 840 kg
in 1992. The increase in milk yield was probably
due to improved management and forage feed
production as the level of concentrate feeding
remained the same at 2 kg/cow for lactating
cows.
The positive trend is also significant on age at
first calving, which has been reduced by one year
(Table 3). Areduction incalving intrval wasalso
evident (Table 3). The data on costs and income
(Table 3) show that the revenue from milk sales
has increased substantially due to increased
volume of production and higher milk prices. In
spite of the spiralling costs of concentrates over
the period, the profit margins jumped from
Zambia Kwacha 1020.00 to 32,360.00 in two
years (Table 3).