Participatory Dairy Breed Improvement

in Ethiopia:
Lessons from the MORE-MILK Project
Fasil Kelemework
SHA Agriculture Learning Event
Blantyre, Malawi , 6-13 July 2019
 Presentation Outline

• Overview of livestock sector in Ethiopia

• Some concepts on animal breeding
• MORE-Milk Project
• Conclusion
 Overview
• Agriculture continues to be the backbone of the
Ethiopian economy
 80% of the population’s livelihoods
 provides 34% of the country’s GDP; and
 80 percent of export revenue

• Among the agricultural activities, livestock

accounts for
 Nearly to 20% of the national GDP
 35-40% of the total agricultural GDP
 15-20% of export earnings and
 30% of agricultural employment
 Overview…..
• The dairy sub-sector contributing 63% to the total value of
ruminant output.
• Ethiopia holds large potential for dairy development, with
almost 60 million cattle (CSA, 2017)
• the productivity of the dairy sector is disproportionally low
 Overview…..
• The total annual milk production
from about 12 million milking cows
about 3 billion litres of milk per year
with 6 month (180 days’) average lactation period, &
1.4 litres milk yield per cow per day
 20

an ear tag number

“4307” gives 100 liters
of Milk per day
Sources of GHG emissions in Ethiopia (2010)

12 million cows = 600,000 cows

 Major constraints hindering the growth of milk
production and productivity
• Poor genetic makeup of the indigenous
livestock breeds,
• Under nutrition and malnutrition
• Shortage of feed both in quantity and
quality,
• Poor pasture development, and
• Increased feed prices
• Poor market infrastructure
• Weak linkages between chain actors
• Majority of dairy farmers are SHs (1-3
cows).
• Poor husbandry practices,
• Shortage of livestock technological input
supply
 Milk consumption
 Ethiopia’s milk per capita consumption is well below world
averages

 World – 75 liters
 SSA - 37 liters
 Ethiopia - 19 liters per annum
 Why Ethiopian per capita consumption is
below the average?
• Primarily due to low milk productivity

• Inadequate supply of milk and milk

products to growing urban population
• The dairy value chain is not highly
commercialized
• less than 15% of the milk is
commercially marketed

• Milk consumption habit and culture

In parallel, there are indications of rising demand for
milk and milk products
due to a growing human population,
rising living standards (income) and urbanization
In Addis Ababa average consumption of milk per year
brought to about 52 liters
substantial unmet demand
The FAO recommends that the per capita consumption
of milk be about 200 litres, meaning 22
billion litres of milk is required.
Milk import increased from 3.1 million USD to 9.3
million USD from 2001-2008 years (Getnet, 2010)
 Opportunity
Put pressure on Ethiopia’s livestock sector
There is an urgent need to increase productivity

How can we unlock the genetic

potential of the existing local
livestock breed types?
 Breeding
Improving the genetic potential of
the local breeds is one of the keys

Genetic gains can be obtained by

selection, and
crossbreeding local animals
with exotic breeds
 Dairy Breeding
• Various types of indigenous cattle are found in
Ethiopia
• About 27 indigenous cattle breed (such as Boran, Horo,
Fogera, and Zebu)
• 2 exotic cattle breed dairy cattle (Holstein- Friesian and
Jersey)

Holstein Friesian Breed Jersey Breed

 Breeding Circle
Definition of Definition of
production system breeding goal

Collection of information
Evaluation -Animal identification
-Genetic improvement
-Phenotypes
-Genetic diversity
-Genotypes

Breeding Program

Determining selection
Dissemination criteria
-Structure of breeding -Method and model
program -Breeding value estimation
-Crossbreeding Selection and mating
-Predicting selection response
-Proportion of selected
-Natural or AI
-Consequences of mating
decisions
 Breeding…..

• Dairy catlle breeding has come to focus on single

purpose breeds,
• Having high milk yield with the Holstein-Friesian
being the dominant breed

• Do you think farmers breeding objective

matters?
 Genetic improvement in Ethiopia - Approach

Started in 1940-50’s

Smallholder breeders
• Breed import, test and
multiplication
Disseminate
• Cross breed
improved
• Selection of local
breed/sire
breeds
• After over six decades of government programs,
more than 98% of the cattle herd remains

 indigenous,
 low-yield breed!

Low success rate of genetic improvement

• Breeding schemes entirely managed
and controlled by governments—with
minimal, if any, participation by
farmers

• Absence of appropriate/operational
breeding strategy/ programs to
create genetic change

• Parallel breeding strategies needed

to adequately consider perspectives
of farmers breeding objectives and
criteria for selection of breeds
 The MORE Milk Project

• Appropriate (planned) breeding strategy

can help dairy farmers to maintain the
desired level of crossbred

• This is why we need a participatory

dairy breeding

• In support of this, SHA works on genetic

improvement of the local breeds dairy
cattle in Abichu Gna’a district of Ethiopia

MORE milk project

(Market Oriented Rural Enterprise for Milk)
 Project outputs

Improved genetic traits and dairy management

practices to improve the local dairy breeds

Increased availability and quality feed supply

Increased processing and marketing of dairy

products

Increased smallholder’s knowledge on nutrition

benefits of milk and milk products
Increased engagement by women within the dairy
value chain
No Name of the kebele M F Total Remark
. milk producer
coops
1 Nano Mendida N/mendida 25 25 50 existing
coop
2 Adere gordome Adere 40 40 80 existing
milk coop gordoma
3 Nesri Trign Milk Nesri 35 35 70 New
coop Trign
Total 100 100 200

Target Beneficiaries = 600 (50% F)

Which dairy animals and animal characteristics is
appropriate?

 Breeding goal!
(what characteristic is aimed for selection)
 Breeding Goal

• Local circumstances and external factors:

• Market (consumers, society)
• Climate
• Feed availability
• Cost price
• Which traits are really important?
• Many options:
• Milk yield
• Fertility
• Stress tolerance
Key Steps followed/ Methods and approaches


 Identify project target site and target group
 Analysis of production system (including
livelihood zoning)
 Importance and use of the livestock
products
 Economic evaluation of production (costs
and returns from sales)
 Current breeding practices (management,
herd structure, types of breed)
 Conduct markets and institutional analysis
 Marketing channels and opportunities
 Fit to national strategies
Key Steps followed/ Methods and approaches

 Used PRA approach

 Identification of breeds and

their characteristics
 Breeding objectives defined
 Ranking exercise
 Choice
• Participatory Rural Appraisal tools were used in the
process.
• main purposes of dairy farming by beneficiaries,
• type of dairy breeds or crossbreds commonly kept by dairy
producers in the area,
• resources and services they rely on for dairying and
associated problems they face,
• blood level of commonly used crossbreds as well as
production and productivity of dairy cows in the area.
 Purpose of dairy farming

• Farmers keep dairy animals for milk production –

• mainly for sale and
• for household consumption to some extent

• Weak dairy cooperatives

• Lack of market (caused by low production and
productivity of dairy cows)
• Lack of processing enterprises in the area and distance
from larger towns.
• Local breeds and traditional way of production dominate
dairy practices of the area.
 Purpose……
• Average milk production
• about 2 litters per day per cow in good times
• half a litter in bad times

• Number of dairy cows kept

• 2 to 5 per HHs
Gender Analysis
CPAT
 Types of dairy breeds:

• Local breeds–
• Zebu - Boran
• Commonly used crossbreds
• crosses of local breeds with Holestien Fressian and Jersy
• Crossbreds
• give 5-8 litters of milk per day per cow in the area, and
• have relatively longer lactation period (8 to 10 months)
compared to local ones.
• Farmers use many different characteristics to identify and
select their dairy cow breeds
 Participatory dairy breeding
To identify breeding objectives of SH livestock
keeper
employs the active participation of farmers
(enhance farmer role) in breeding programs,
To determine individual preferences based to
importance (strengths) give to the different traits
and their cross breeds
 Important traits / selection criteria

• Production • Local Adaptability

• Milk yield • Stress tolerance
• Fat content • Feeding habit
• Body size or weight • Adaptability to local feed
• Reproduction condition
• fertility • Management
• Calving interval • Ease of management
• Health • Milk let-down
• Disease resistance • Markets (Resale value)
• Physical appearance
• Body colour
 Determination of traits

• Participants made matrix

based ranking to compare
different dairy breeds
• Compared breeds were local
cows, Jersy, Holstein Frisian
and crosses of local with either
of the two exotic breeds.
• Farmers discussed among
themselves to compare the
breeds and made their choice
 Methods
• The project seeks to have informed decision of
beneficiaries in selecting type of breed they prefer
for crossbreeding

• Participatory dairy breed selection in the 3 project

target kebeles were conducted

• to identify farmers’ preference and selection criteria

• participatory tools
• preference ranking (matrix ranking) and
• proportional piling (can be a pair-wise rankings)
 Methods….

• Three target dairy cooperatives in 3 kebeles

• 25 members from each

• Farmers’ selection was done
• dairy cow rearing experience,
• member of the cooperatives.
• gender ratio and
• willingness to participate

• A total of 63 farmers of both sexes (male=46,

female= 17) participated
 Methods….

• Farmers were allowed to set their own selection criteria

• both male and female participants prioritized and
• jointly agreed on their selection criteria

• Four breeds (known) in the project area were evaluated/

compared
• Farmers’ set their selection criteria to evaluate and identify
their preferred breeds.

• A fixed number of pebbles(10) are given to the respondent

with a request to allocate more pebbles for the preferred
items and fewer for the less favored items,
 Preference ranking and scoring matrix.
Step one: List the breeds as columns and the criteria by which
they will be judged as the rows

Local Holstein Crossed Jersey

cows Frisian breed

Milk yield
Fat content
Fat Amount
# calving
Re-sale value of calves
Diseases resistance
Management simplicity
Tolerance to stress
 Preference ranking …..
• Step two: Rank the options for each criterion

• Facilitates discussion about how the breeds

compare in terms of each criterion

• provided with 10 pebbles and they distributed

the pebbles according to criteria set by them
• and then each breed is ranked in a step-by-step
fashion

• In the event of a tie, breeds could be assigned the

same ranking.
• Step three: After all rankings are made, totaling the ranks
gives each option a score, with the better the options having
higher scores
• Step four: Use the total scores to encourage further discussion
rather than basing the decision solely off the matrix
• Proportional piling techniques were used to obtain qualitative
values of comparable items
• Pairwise ranking can also be used

• Participants are asked to distribute 100 pebbles amongst the different

variables or indicators

• with the largest number of counters being assigned to the most

important indicator, and
• the smallest number of counters being assigned to the least
important indicator.
 The result of the comparison indicates that

Holstein Frisian is preferred for its milk yield, calf

size and resale value
The crossbred and Jersey bred were preferred for
milk fat content i.e potential butter yield
Local breed is preferred for the number of calving
in life, tolerance to stress and ease of
management
• Taking the project goal and
strategy as well as farmers
preference and informed
decision into consideration

both Holestine Fresian and

Jersy are selected for the
crossbreeding purpose in this
project

75-80% cross for Holestine

Fresian
20-25% for Jersy
 Taking advantage of new technologies in breeding
programmes

• Reproductive technologies
• AI versus Natural mating
• Uptake of AI is low (so far)

• Novel technologies?
• Synchronization, sexed
semen
• Increased availability and quality of feed supply
• backyard forage production and management
• multiplication of forage and fodder seedlings
• hay making, ration formulation and concentrate
supplementation
• Improving market linkages
• Organize school milk days
• Other different types of dairy production technologies will
also be disseminated
• Improved dairy management practices
• Dairy Processing (Post-Harvest) practices
• Improved Health Management Practices
 Conclusion
• Defined breeding objectives and selection criteria
may never be practiced unless the farmer's
perceptions and idea are accommodated.

• It is necessary to know which breeds the farmers

consider most suitable for their environment, their
perceptions of breed attributes and the factors that
affect their breeding decisions

• Breeding objectives always involve consideration of

multiple traits, even in situations where output of a
single trait is dominant.
 Conclusion

• Still farmers local breed has

many advantages as scored by
farmers
• Hence if we want to improve the
breeds we have to work on other
merits as well-
health and
feed
THANK YOU!