Nakiganda et al., 2006

Dairying is one of the ways farmers earn a living. A study was carried out in Masaka district of Uganda. The major objective was to understand farmers' constraints, objectives and achievements in the dairy production. The study was conducted in two phases, the informal cross-sectional survey and a longitudinal study. A participatory method was used.

Farmers had several objectives, which included, paying school fees, daily home maintenance, buying cow requirements (enterprise self sufficiency), increasing soil fertility, home milk consumption and increasing herd value in order of importance. Generally, farmers achieved the following objectives: improving soil fertility by manure, followed by buying cow requirements and home milk consumption. However the farmers did not fully achieve their most important objective of paying school fees for the children. The major constraining factors to dairy production were prolonged drought, which lead to feed scarcity and the poor milk market.

Own summary

A study of 60 small-hold dairy farmers in Uganda revealed that farmers were satisfied with the amount of milk they got to feed their families, and the amount of manure they got to fertilise their subsistence farmland. However, small scale dairy farming did not generate enough income to allow them to pay their children's school fees, which they considered a top priority. This suggests that dairy farming only meets family's needs when the family has several cows.