Assessment on Farmers Training and Adoption of Dairy Technologies in Smallholder Dairy Farming in Eastern zone of Tigray, Northern, Ethiopia

  Hailemichael Nigussie Bahita,  Aregawi Hailay

Farmers’ training equips farmers with improved practices, which help them to adopt and practice effectively the taught improved practices. The skills acquired through training helps the recipient to carry out an improved practice effectively and efficiently for better profit. If farmers are well trained in new practices, they may need minimal technical advice and outside backup support. This study was carried out in eastern zone of Tigray region to assess on farmers training and adoption of dairy technologies in small and micro enterprise dairy farmers. From purposively selected three districts 114 small and micro enterprise dairy farmers were interviewed and focus group discussions were conducted to gather valuable information. Descriptive statistics using SAS, version 9.2 was employed to analyze data. Figure and tables were used to present results. Almost all the sampled small and micro enterprise dairy farmers of the study areas were trained and reported that they got enough knowledge and skills regarding the dairy husbandry. The survey also revealed that 100% of SME dairy farmers in both Agulae and Hawzen and 85.71% in Wukro were taken Center of Competence and being certified. It was reported that 100%, 95.83% and 96.1% of the SME dairy farmers in Hawzen, Agulae and Wukro work being organized in quality circle, respectively for better profit. Majority of SME dairy farmers from Agulae and considerable numbers from Wukro were used dairy technology whereas in Hawzen the majority of SME dairy farmers were not used dairy technology. Dairy technologies and inputs like churner, milk processing plant, urea molasses block, urea treatment, molasses, wheat bran & nuge cake were among the most needed to be adopted by the respondents. The current survey result showed that almost all the sampled small and micro enterprise dairy producers of the study areas were trained and reported that they got enough knowledge and skills regarding the dairy husbandry. However, it was observed that there was a miss-understanding in all SME dairy farmers about kaizen because all considers it as only made hygiene. Therefore there is a need for further strong extension service to create the right awareness regarding kaizen and Center of Competence.

Keywords- quality circle, network, small and micro enterprise, training, center of competence

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR1802069
Page Number(s) - 402-407
Pubished in - Volume 6 | Issue 2 | April 2018
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  Hailemichael Nigussie Bahita,  Aregawi Hailay,   "Assessment on Farmers Training and Adoption of Dairy Technologies in Smallholder Dairy Farming in Eastern zone of Tigray, Northern, Ethiopia", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.6, Issue 2, pp.402-407, April 2018, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR1802069.pdf