Dairy cattle milk production, handling, processing, utilization and marketing system in Bench Maji Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the general milk production system, handling practices, 
processing, utilization and marketing system of raw cow milk produced in Mizan Aman, Debub and 
Shey Bench Districts. A total of 270 respondents (thirty respondents from each study area) were 
selected using simple random sampling technique and interviewed by using a semi structured 
questionnaires. The results of current study showed that the respondents of Shey Bench and Debub 
Bench were entirely (100%) engaged in farming activities, predominately mixed production system. 
Similarly, majority (82.2%) of the respondents of Mizan Aman were also pre-dominantly involved in 
mixed crop livestock production while the remaining 17.8% were involved only in Peri-urban production 
system. Majority of the respondents in the three districts (91.1, 100 and 90% of Mizan Aman, Debub and 
Shey Bench) had dairy cows from 1 to 5, some had from 6 to 10 and 11 to 15. About 95.6, 94.4 and 
78.9% of the respondents in Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench use plastic buckets for milking. As 
reported by most of the respondents (95.6, 58.9 and 55.6% of Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench 
districts, respectively), clay pot is used for storage of milk until the wanted amount is accumulated for 
processing. About 60.0, 26.7 and 20.0% of the respondents utilize raw milk or fresh milk in Mizan Aman, 
Debub and Shey Bench districts, respectively. Majority of the respondents (97.8, 92.2 and 70.0% in the 
Mizan Aman, Debub and Shey Bench districts) reported that scarcity of milk is the main problem of milk 
and milk products marketing in the study areas. The common milk production constraints and 
prioritized by the sampled farmers were shortage of feed and scarcity of land, diseases, accessibility to 
marketing place, limitation of market information and inadequate infrastructure. Therefore, it was 
concluded that the majority of the milk produced in the study areas were not processed, marketed and 
mainly utilized by household family for home consumption. These suggest the need for enriched dairy 
cattle production scheme in the study areas.