Pastoral dairy development in Eastern Africa

CELEP members and partners contributed a poster, abstract and 4-page paper on “Pastoral dairy development for food security and food safety in Eastern Africa: challenges and potentials” to the Tropentag Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource 
Management and Rural Development held on 17–19 September 2018 in Ghent, Belgium.

In order to inform particularly European but also African policymakers about the challenges and potentials of pastoral dairy development, CELEP reviewed literature and project experiences related to dairy development in Eastern Africa. It looked into the differences between formal and informal milk markets, including evidence concerning food safety in these markets. It gave particular attention to the specificities of pastoral dairying, which call for a different approach to dairy development in the drylands than in agrarian areas such as the highlands. But similarities between the two were also found, in that many small-scale milk producers struggle to fulfil formal-sector requirements.

Greater emphasis on dairy development in the pastoral systems could improve the nutrition of pastoralist families and other local consumers of milk products in the drylands and could strengthen the role of pastoralist women as the traditional managers of milk and as innovators in dairy micro-enterprises. CELEP gave recommendations regarding European policies and development interventions in this sector in Eastern Africa.

Posted on 30 October 2018 in CELEP Documents, Pastoralism & Marketing, Pastoralism, Gender & Youth, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition