Christian Gazzarin

Dairy farming faces feed problem in terms of quality and quantity among smallholder dairy farmers in Malawi. IFS-SMADAP project worked with farmers to identify and prepare relatively nutritive feeds from locally available feed resources, which include crop residues.

Baseline survey found out that smallholder dairy farmers do not provide adequate water to their dairy animals, which has a negative impact on milk yield. Reasons varied from fear of poisoning, lack of drinking water facilities to lack of knowledge.

Artificial Insemination (AI) assures animal grade or improves grade of cows. However, cases of failure to hold when cows are inseminated among smallholder farmers are high.

Housing hygiene is one of main challenges smallholder dairy farming face in Malawi. This is noted through milk rejection rate at milk collection centres. IFS-SMADAP project in Malawi worked with selected smallholder dairy farmers in Milk Bulking Groups (MBG) in Blantyre Milk Shed Area.