Smallholder farmers’ preferences for artificial insemination services through dairy hubs

ILRI policies, instititions and livelihoods program

Artificial insemination service in a smallholder dairy farm (photo credit: EADD).

Demand for animal products continues to outstrip production in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts by countries to boost livestock production by means of breeding technologies like artificial insemination (AI) have been constrained by limited uptake, due to many factors. Using a choice experiment (CE) methodology, researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute, Justus-Liebig University of Giessen, Germany, and Charles Darwin University undertook a study to investigate which characteristics of AI services, offered through dairy hubs, farmers prefer.

The study was conducted in the western Kenya milk shed where the East African Dairy Development (EADD) project is employing the ‘dairy hub’ approach. Dairy hubs consist of milk chilling and/or bulking plants from which smallholder dairy farmers access bulk markets for the milk they produce as well as auxiliary services, such as AI, previously out of reach for many farmers.

The findings of…

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About Dr. Bukar USMAN, mni

I started as a field Veterinary officer with Borno State Ministry of Agriculture and later joined College of Agric, Maiduguri as a lecture & a Researcher in the Department of Animal Health & Production. I was appointed the Provost of the College In 2003. In 2007 I was appointed Hon. Commissioner & Member Borno State Executive Council and later appointed Permanent Secretary with the Borno State Civil Service in 2009. I was the National Facilitator Animal Health, National Programme For Food Security of the Federal Ministry of Agric & Rural Development, Abuja. I was Director, Veterinary Medicine & Allied Products (VMAP) and now Director North East Zone NAFDAC. I’m a member of the National Institute’ (mni), Kuru SEC 40, 2018. I engaged myself in various aspects of the veterinary profession. I founded Sril Group Ltd, Nigeria.

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