Dairy farming in Uganda. Production Efficiency and Soil Nutrients under Different Farming Systems

Prior to the 1980s, milk production in Uganda occurred largely in two contrasting production systems. In the wetter parts of the country, especially in the southwest, there were a few large, mostly government-owned commercial dairy farms on which exotic and cross-bred dairy cattle were kept in paddocks and grazed on improved or natural pastures. In the drier eastern and northeastern parts of the country, pastoralists kept large numbers of local cattle breeds, notably the Small East African Zebu (SEAZ), under traditional extensive management systems. Although the pastoralists marketed some milk, most was consumed by the household. Cattle were also valued as an expression of cultural prestige and a means of accumulating capital and meeting planned and emergency expenses. Smallholders, who tended to keep a few low yielding indigenous cattle as well as growing crops, made little contribution to the nation’s marketed milk and were primarily subsistence-oriented

Categorisation of dairy production systems: A strategy for targeting meaningful development of the systems in Uganda

Dairy production is a major contributor towards national economies and household food security and incomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Milk production in the region is estimated at 1.27 million metric tonnes year-1. However, this level of milk production is inadequate for the existing human population who would require 103 million metric tonnes year-1. In Uganda, milk production only meets approximately 20% of the population's nutritional requirements. As such, methods need to be sought to increase milk production in the region. Research efforts have made strides in identifying the causes of the production-demand gap in the SSA region and a spectrum of interventions to bolster the productivity. Unfortunately, these efforts have by far yielded insignificant results. First and foremost, for exploiting the full potential of the dairy cattle population in the region, among the critical elements often overlooked in research and development processes is the recognition of systematic parametric variations within the sector, which if considered could provide entry-points for targeting intervention efforts. One such high potential entry-point is the recognition of the existence of a dairy intensification "vector" across a country or region, along which exist sections with sequentially marked nuclei of fairly uniform socio-economic and biophysical dairy sub-systems features. To enhance the process of targeting research and development in the Ugandan dairy sector, dairy production systems in the country were categorised on basis of level of intensification of production. Data were collected from 300 households in Mbarara, Masaka and Jinja districts in Uganda. The major variables derived from the data for the categorisation process were those related with milk production, expenditure, income, land area and cattle herds. The data was subjected to a cluster analysis which although produced 16 groups only five had prominent membership (above 5% of the farms). The five major clusters were selected as representative of the dairy production systems. A ranking system was used to develop an intensification continuum for the 5 systems. Herding-on own and communal land (cluster 9) was the least intensive, this was followed by Herding-mainly on own land (cluster 12) and Fenced (cluster 8) respectively. Semi-Zero Grazing (cluster 15) and Zero Grazing (cluster 13) were the most intensive dairy production systems with the latter being at the highest end of the continuum

Improved Livelihoods from Grasslands; the Case of Napier Grass in Smallholder Dairy Farms in Kenya

In Kenya, smallholder farmers produce about 80% of the marketed milk. The farming systems vary from mixed farms with up to 10 ha of land and \u3c 10 dairy cows (Gitau et al., 1994; Anon., 1985), to intensive smallholder dairy producers in the high human population central Kenya region with 0.9 to 2 ha of land and 3-4 dairy cows (Staal et al., 2001a). Milk production depends heavily on the cultivation of forages, with Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass) by far the most important. An estimated 350,000 of the 600,000 smallholder farms in Kenya grow and utilize P. purpureum on their farms. There are various published data indicating the level of dependence on sown forages. In a survey of 21 smallholder dairy farmers in the highlands of Kenya, Romney et al. (2004) found that P. purpureum supplied approximately 40 and 60% of the feed offered to dairy cows in the dry and wet months respectively, with the remaining feed provided by concentrates, crop residues (mainly Zea mays (maize) stover) and other cut and carry fodder such as roadside grass. In the more intensive cut and carry systems of production practiced in central Kenya, McLeod et al. (2003) found that P. purpureum was grown by over 70% of the smallholder farmers in their study area. In farm level characterisation surveys of over 3300 households conducted between 1996 and 2000 in central Kenya, 62% kept livestock and more than 50% were growing P. purpureum. Farmers were also growing fodder legumes such as Sesbania grandiflora (Sesbania), Leucaena leucocephala (Leucaena), Calliandra calothyrsus (Callindra), Desmodium intortum/uncinatum, (Desmodium) and Medicago sativa (Lucerne), but the frequency did not exceed 7.5% (Staal et al., 2001b)