Innovations for Agricultural Value Chains in Africa: Applying Science and Technology to Enhance Cassava, Dairy, and Maize Value Chains

Dairy Value Chain

Meridian Institute has developed a Dairy Value Chain Overview Paper to provide a brief introduction to this critically important agricultural product in sub-Saharan Africa and to highlight key constraints to its further development with a particular focus on the cattle dairy sector. To provide context for those constraints, the paper begins with an overview of dairy in Africa and highlights key issues such as gender and market dynamics. The paper concludes with a description of market inefficiencies and potential technological innovations that will be the focus for the Science Team. Please go to the following link to access the Dairy overview.

As described in the paper, dairy is a critically important value chain in sub-Saharan Africa, because of its potential to be a major asset to smallholder farmers:

• Livestock ownership currently supports or sustains the livelihoods of an estimated 700 million rural poor, approximately 70% of the world’s rural poor population (PPLPI, 2001)
• The dairy cow is one of the most important investments a farmer can make to improve their standing (ILRI, 2003) because of their inherent value, the nutritional valuable milk produced, the work they can perform, and the way it can help diversify farming activities

The key factors impacting dairy productvity gains in traditional markets include:

• The level of market infrastructure, especially transportation linkages that influence time to market
• The level of availability of cross-bred stock
• Access to extension services including for animal health
• The availability of water
• Access to quality feed
• Variable quality of milk output across seasons

A PowerPoint presentation that describes the dairy value chain and key constraints is available at the following link.