Pest Analysis Of Dairy Farming

Statement of the problem
Global consumption, production and trade of livestock products in developing countries have increased rapidly in the last two decades and are expected to continue to rise (Delgado et al. 1999; Delgado 2003; Hall et al. 2004). This trend has been termed as the ‘livestock revolution’ (Delgado et al. 1999).
The importance of facilitating market access to dairy farmers as well as developing chain competitiveness and efficiency are valuable preconditions to improve their livelihoods (Lundy et al., 2004; Padulosi et al., 2004). Dairy policies have been relaxed to allow market forces to determine farm level prices. This has exposed farmers to lower milk prices while downstream retail prices are higher

Despite the huge potential, dairy production has not been fully exploited and promoted in the country. A number of factors such as use of traditional technologies, limited supply of inputs (feed, breeding stock, artificial insemination and water), inadequate extension service, poor marketing infrastructure, lack of marketing support services and market information, limited credit services, absence of producers‟ organizations, and natural resources degradation (Berhanu et al., 2007) have contributed to un-exploitation of dairy

Moreover, modern retail revolution is reshaping the way food is produced, procured and retailed. These rapid changes in these markets affect the entire value chain with enormous implications for the competitiveness and future viability of dairy farmers. As modern markets replace traditional markets, outlets for dairy farmers are reduced.
A number of factors such as use of traditional technologies, limited supply of inputs (feed, breeding stock, artificial insemination and water), inadequate extension service, poor marketing infrastructure, lack of marketing support services and market information, limited credit services, absence of producers‟ organizations have contributed to un-exploitation of dairy potential.
There is no enough information to dairy farmers on the best milk distribution channel in jimma town. In most cases farmers have opted to sell their milk to distribution channels that offer the highest price per litre of milk produced. But a distribution channel that offers the highest price is not necessarily the one that offers other economic benefits. This means there is need for dairy farmers to weighindividual economic benefits of a channel in order to strike a balance that will maximize their