Urban and peri urban dairy farming in East Africa: A review on production levels, constraints and opportunities

K A Gillah, G C Kifaro* and J Madsen**

Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries P.O. Box 9152, Dar es Salaam Tanzania
kagillah@yahoo.com
* Department of Animal Science and Production, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3004, Morogoro Tanzania
** Department of Large Ruminants, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

Urban and peri urban dairy production system is among the many forms of dairy production in the tropics and sub tropics. Both the number of dairy cattle and dairy farmers vary across urban and peri urban areas of East Africa. Generally, dairy cows are fed on moderate (6 – 6.8 CP percent) quality natural pastures. Milk production is low and ranges from 5.7 – 17.1 litres/cow/day. The mean lactation lengths in urban and peri urban dairy units vary between 8.8 to 9.7and 11.2 months respectively. In all cases, the lactation lengths were either shorter or longer than the standard length of 10 months. Some reports show that more milk yields (7- 14.7 litres/cow/day) are produced in urban dairy units compared to 6.2- 11.2 litres/cow/day produced by their counterparts in peri urban dairy units. The mean ages at first calving, calving to conception interval and calving interval were 29.7 to 46.0 months, 123 to 276 days, 406 to 562 days respectively. A large number of services per conception (2.3) were required when artificial insemination (AI) was used for mating cows compared to natural service that required a relatively small number (1.7). Some disparities in milk production and reproductive performance of cows between urban and peri urban dairy units have been reported. However, it is difficult to judge whether urban or peri-urban dairy cows performed better than the other.

The major constraints hindering dairy production in urban and peri urban areas of East Africa differ between and within countries and production systems. The variations might be due to the methods employed during data collection, physical location, dairy breeds kept and season of the year. The constraints include seasonal availability and costs of feeds, poor milk marketing and low milk price, availability of land, problems of waste disposal and pollution, disease and shortage of capital. Despite having constrained by a number of factors, dairying in urban and peri urban areas creates employment opportunities and provides farmers chance to use land, labour and feed resources to generate regular income.  

Key words: age at first calving, artificial insemination, lactation length, milk production, number of services per conception, calving interval

Introduction

Urban and peri urban dairy production system is among the forms of dairy production in the tropics and sub tropics. The system involves the production, processing and marketing of milk and milk products in the urban centres. Existence of the urban and peri-urban dairy farming is mainly motivated by availability of good  market for animal products, need for creation of employment opportunities (Ayaga et al 2005, RLDC 2009, Prain et al 2010), financial constraints of urban dwellers (Ishagi et al 2002, Mlozi 2005). Dairying constitutes an important sub sector of agricultural production which contributes towards filling in the large demand-supply gap for milk and milk products in urban centres. Furthermore, urban dairying using improved dairy cattle is highly profitable. This is testified by Limbu (1999) in a study conducted in Dar es Salaam city Tanzania and reported that the gross margin per cow per year in urban dairy units was higher (US$1,000) than US$760 in intensive rural dairy systems. As a result of this, dairy cattle population keeps on increasing in most urban centres of East Africa. 

More than 90 percent of the urban dairy farmers live in the medium and low density areas and use their residential units as places where dairying is carried out (Shiferaw et al 2003, Mlozi 2005). The dairy farmers in urban areas have little or no access to grazing land and they rely mainly on purchased feeds and communal grazing lands. This results into dairy cattle receiving sub optimal level of nutrition especially during the dry periods. Urban areas have limited space for dairying and due to small land holdings, zero grazing is common (Msangi et al 2005, Cole et al 2008). The level of milk production and reproduction of dairy cattle varies considerably within and between countries and between production systems. The variations are mainly due to ecological conditions, management factors and the way researchers report their findings especially daily milk production. This paper therefore, attempts to review the production and reproduction levels, constraints and opportunities of dairy cattle production kept in urban and peri urban areas of East African cities.  

Benefits of urban and peri urban dairying

Dairying in East African cities is increasing substantially due to its associated benefits. The most important benefits are increased income, employment generation, food and nutrition, organic waste recycling and uplifting social status. Men and women view the benefits of dairying differently. According to Prain et al (2010) men and women ranked income and employment respectively as the first most important benefit. The informal raw milk marketing provides the urban dairy farmers with a regular daily source of income through sales of milk, milk products and manure. In view of this, Mlozi (2005) in Dar es Salaam and Ayaga et al (2005) in Nairobi cities reported milk produced to generate a total sum of US$ 291,600 and Ksh 800 million annually respectively. Dairy farming improves the environment as it makes use of organic wastes from households, streets and agro industries as feed for the dairy cattle. Through marketing of milk valuable employment opportunities are created. For instance, it provides employment to more than 100,000 (RLDC 2009) and 28,000 (Ayaga et al 2005) milk hawkers in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi respectively.  

Dairy cattle breeds, herd size and other livestock species

East African urban and peri urban dairy farmers keep different breeds of dairy cattle.  These breeds include Friesian, Jersey, Ayrshire, Guernsey and their crosses with local zebu. However, some non-descriptive crossbreds of dairy cattle are also found as a result of indiscriminate mating of cattle. The most common types of livestock kept differ from one town to the other. For example, studies carried out in Dar es Salaam (Mlozi 2005) and Kampala (Prain et al 2010) cities indicated dairy cattle as the first and second respectively most commonly kept livestock species. Likewise, in Nakuru and Nairobi towns in Kenya, dairy cattle were the second and third respectively most common types of livestock species (Guendel 2002). East African cities have experienced an increase in the relative growth rate of dairy cattle population. Dairy cattle increase was an attempt to lessen economic hardships that urban dwellers suffered (Mlozi 2005). Available data indicate that there are more dairy cattle in Kampala followed by Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam had the least number of dairy cattle (Table 1). Variations in the number of cattle between urban and peri urban areas were noted and the highest proportion of dairy cattle was found in urban than in the peri-urban dairy units (Richards and Godfrey 2003, Ayenew et al 2009). Access to the market for fresh milk has encouraged urban dairy farmers to keep more cross breed dairy cattle. Surprisingly, only 2 percent of the households in Kisumu municipality kept crossbred cattle claiming that they were capital and labour intensive and therefore undesirable to keep (Kagira and Kanyari 2010).  

Apart from dairying, farmers keep different livestock species such as chickens, pigs, ducks, rabbits, sheep and goats. A Study carried out in Kampala (Prain et al 2010) indicated chickens (19 percent) to be number one livestock species commonly kept in the city. However, in the previous study carried out in Kampala city focusing on poor livestock keepers Ishagi et al (2002) found pigs as the most numerous livestock followed by cattle.

Dairy cattle herd size varies considerably between East African cities. Generally, a good number of households keep on average more than four head of cattle (Table 2). An exceptionally larger average herd size (21) was recorded in two cities of Bahir Dar and Gondar in Ethiopia (Ayenew et al 2009). According to Urban Authorities by laws, Act of 1982 No. 8 section 80, it is forbidden to keep more than four head of cattle in Tanzania. This means that the respondents in Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Morogoro towns in Tanzania had contravened the town council by laws which require them to keep not more than four head of cattle under zero grazing system. Despite the existing large herds of dairy cattle, some urban dairy farmers in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia have shown interest of increasing their cattle herds in order to capture the high market demand for milk in urban areas (Shiferaw et al 2003).  

Variations in the number of households keeping dairy cattle are noted across urban and peri urban areas of East Africa. With this regard, there are more households keeping dairy cattle in Mbeya Tanzania and Kisumu Kenya and few in Nakuru town of Kenya (Table 3). This can be speculated that possibly some town council by-laws that regulate and control urban dairying favour keeping of dairy cattle in some cities compared to others, or it could be that by-laws are not seriously enforced or there are no by-laws related to dairy farming.  

Feeds, feeding systems and farm labour for dairy cattle

Urban dairying is more complex as a large proportion of the cattle diet has to be roughage. Usually, roughage for feeding dairy cattle is expensive to purchase and difficult to find in urban areas. This statement is confirmed by 53.7 (Shiferaw et al 2003) and 80 percent (Dayanandan 2011) of the respondents in Addis Ababa and Mekelle towns in Ethiopia respectively who indicated feed cost to be very expensive. High feed cost negatively affects the profitability of milk in the market and is felt more by the urban dairy farmers compared to the peri urban dairy farmers who benefit from grazing their cows in open areas.  

The main sources of forage for dairy cattle are purchased fodder, crop residues, natural pasture and weeds. These are obtained from roadsides, public land and their own planted Napier grass or from farmers who do not have livestock. A good number (41 percent) of dairy farmers in Nakuru town obtained their fodder for cattle from their own urban farms and 30 percent were purchased from forage vendors (Prain et al 2010). Different observations were reported for urban dairy farmers in Addis Ababa (Guendel 2002) and Tanga (Schooman et al 2010) who used mostly (87 and 71 percent) respectively  purchased hay and pasture from roadside. Seasonal variations in quantity and quality of the forages are a major concern especially during the dry season. A study by Kavana and Msangi (2005) showed variations in feed availability in peri urban dairy units of Tanzania and dairy cows received less than 30 kg/cow/day of forages during the dry periods. As a result, lactating dairy cows were able to produce between 71 and 83 percent of their potential milk production. During the dry season, dairy cows are fed on moderate (6 – 6.8 CP percent) quality pastures (Epaphras et al 2004, Kavana and Msangi 2005, Ayenew et al 2009). The crude protein (CP) content of pastures is lower than the forage crude protein content of 7 percent which would cover the maintenance requirements of ruminants (McDonald et al 1995). Therefore, dairy cows depending on natural pastures during the dry season will not express their full genetic potential. However, in cross sectional studies in Bahir Dar and Gondar (Ayenew et al 2009) and Dare-Dawa (Mureda and Zeleke 2008) cities in Ethiopia, season of the year had no effect on milk yield at all stages of lactation. The reason behind this was that farmers in these cities conserve feeds that help to minimize variation in feed availability and therefore, the influence of climatic conditions was negligible. Deficiencies in nutritive value of natural pasture, stresses the importance of supplementation with energy and nitrogen especially during the dry season.  

Urban and peri urban dairy farmers rarely feed concentrates at recommended levels and required quality. More often, dairy farmers feed concentrates to relax the cows when milking and not for increased milk production. Dairy farmers supplemented their lactating cows at the rate of 2-3 kg/cow/day at milking time without considering the actual physiological requirements of the animals (Richards and Godfrey 2003, Kivaria et al 2006). With exception of a few farmers (9 percent) in Kisumu Kenya (Kagira and Kanyari 2010) and (42 percent) in Nakuru (Richards and Godfrey 2003) who fed compounded concentrates to lactating cows, 45 and 83 percent of dairy farmers in Morogoro and Dar es Salaam cities respectively use maize bran as a major supplementary feed to lactating cows (Mlay et al 2001). Adequate concentrate supplementation improves performance to reach animal’s genetic potential. Studies in peri urban dairy units of Nakuru in Kenya (Lanyasunya et al 2001) and Morogoro in Tanzania (Nkya et al 2008) indicated that in dairy units were concentrate feeding regime was introduced, milk production improved from  7 to over 24 litres/cow/day and from 6.7 to 8.0 litres/cow/day respectively. Inadequate dairy cattle husbandry skills and high cost of inputs prevent farmers from supplementing their dairy cattle.  

Collection of forage from the sources requires transport. Different modes of transport are used to collect forage from the sources to the dairy units. These include the use of vehicles, animals, potters and bicycles and differ between urban and peri urban areas. According to Prain et al (2010), urban dairy farmers in Nakuru transported fodder using mostly (40 percent) bicycles, followed by humans/animals walking (38 percent). Meanwhile, almost a half (50.8 percent) of the dairy farmers in urban centre of Addis Ababa used donkeys while 46.7 percent of them used vehicles to bring in feed to the dairy units (Shiferaw et al 2003). The modes used to transport feed have an implication on the milk production costs and maintenance of high level of milk production throughout the year. Very unfortunately, milk price does not change for long time in accordance to seasonal availability of forages. The coping strategies and setting of milk price by dairy farmers especially during the dry seasons are not well known and documented. 

Zero and free grazing are the two main types of feeding systems that have been identified across the cities in East Africa (Shiferaw et al 2003, Guendel 2006, Kagira and Kanyari 2010, Dayanandan 2011). Contrary to this, full-time zero grazing, partial grazing and full-time grazing systems of dairy cows were reported in Tanga and Dar es Salaam peri urban dairy units of Tanzania (Nkya et al 2007). Free grazing system is not allowed and regarded as an offence in all East African cities. However, the system is most common in Kisumu Kenya (96 percent), followed by Nakuru in Kenya (46 percent),  Dar es Salaam Tanzania (20 percent) and less common in Morogoro  Tanzania (9 percent) (Table 4). 

Dairy cows require farm labour to perform various activities in the farm. In order to achieve this, both hired and family labours are employed in dairy activities and their intensities and types of the farm labour differ between cities. For instance, in urban dairy units of Dar es Salaam Tanzania (Kivaria et al 2006), Jimma town Ethiopia (Duguma et al 2011), Kisumu Kenya (Kagira and Kanyari 2010), Makelle town Ethiopia (Dayanandan 2011) and Tanga Tanzania (Schooman et al 2011) hired labour is used intensively in 97, 33, 76, 73 and 47 percent of households respectively. This implies that the owners of dairy cattle in those cities can afford to pay labour wages. Meanwhile, family members in Bishoftu town Ethiopia (54 percent) (Megersa et al 2011) and Kampala city (52 percent) (Ishagi et al 2000) family members carried out most of the management activities. This is an indication that dairy cattle management requires the attention of family members since they have high value.  

Breeding systems of dairy cattle

Both natural and artificial insemination (AI) services are used to breed dairy cows. The intensity of using the two breeding systems varies and most dairy farmers use natural service than AI. This finding is supported by Megersa et al (2011) who reported more (46.4 percent) smallholder dairy farmers using natural service compared to 20.3 percent of them who use AI. This may imply that smallholder dairy farmers are not satisfied on the AI service. Various studies have shown more dairy farmers in urban areas who used AI than those in peri urban areas (Lobago et al 2007, Mureda et al 2008 and Sintayehu et al 2008). This is mainly due to easy availability of AI service and difficulties of feeding bulls in towns. On the other hand, the use of AI service has resulted into low conception rate when compared to natural service. Good examples are reported from urban dairy units in Tanga Tanzania (Msangi et al 2005) and Addis Ababa Ethiopia (Lemma and Kebede 2011) where 2.3 and 2.1 matings respectively were required for AI service compared to natural service that required a relatively small number of matings (1.7) per conception. This finding is supported by Kivaria et al (2006) who reported heifers that were served by bull mating were six times more likely to become pregnant than heifers served by AI. Looking at the results, it can be said that the use of AI is a big challenge to dairy herd improvement.  

Cattle shed design, hygiene and stocking density

A good shed for dairy cattle provides comfort to the animal, decreases wastage of feedstuff and ensures better environmental control. If these basic needs cannot be met in the animal shed, then health, welfare and production of the cattle will be compromised. Generally, the hygienic condition of urban and peri urban dairy units are not good.  For instance, 28 (Omore 2003), 38.3 (Ayenew et al 2009), 42 (Megersa et al 2011) and 49 (Swai et al 2005a) percent of cattle sheds in peri urban dairy units of Kiambu Kenya, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Tanga Tanzania and Bishoftu towns respectively had earthen floors. Earthen floors if not properly cleaned might be a predisposing factor to cattle diseases. Cattle designs such as kraals and traditional free stalls were very common in some peri urban areas of Dodoma (90 percent) (Mdegela et al 2005) and Dare-Dawa towns of Ethiopia (87.9 percent) (Mureda and Zeleke 2008). Overstocking of dairy cattle as a result of lack of sufficient space is one of the major concerns in urban and peri urban dairy units (Ishagi et al 2002). As a result of overstocking, cattle shed hygiene in Kampala (Prain et al 2010) and Dar es Salaam (Kivaria et al 2006) was poor at 38.4 and 60 percent respectively.  

Performance in milk production

Milk production levels in urban and peri urban dairy units range from 5.7– 17 litres/cow/day (Table 5). Various factors contribute to variations in milk yield across the cities. These include feeding systems, breed, calving season, parity number, and effects of location (urban/rural). Others are body condition score at calving, herd size, source of labour, disease prevalence, lack of milk market, poor breeding and high cost of inputs (Epaphras 2004, Msangi et al 2005, Bee et al 2006). The types of feeding systems have an influence on daily milk yield. For example, a study conducted in urban and peri urban dairy units of Tanzania indicated that pasture grazed dairy cows had lower average daily milk yield (2299 kg/cow) compared to zero grazed dairy cows ((3150 kg/cow) (Nkya et al 1999). The low milk productions in pasture grazed cows is due to cows walking long distances in search of pasture and hence spend more energy which could otherwise be used for milk production. However, Lanyasunya et al (2001) and Bee et al (2006) did not find any difference in daily milk yield between pasture and zero grazed dairy cows in dairy units of Nakuru in Kenya, Kibaha and Korogwe in Tanzania.  

Variation in milk production has been noted in which crossbred dairy cows produce more (17 litres/day) milk than pure bred dairy cows (16.2 litre/day) (Idris et al 1999). This suggests that there may be no disadvantage in producing milk using crossbred dairy cows especially when pasture and climate are limiting factors. In principle, crossbred dairy cows are well adapted to the harsh environmental conditions and poor quality feeds available in most urban and peri urban areas. The proportion of exotic inheritance contributes to differences in lactation milk yield. A study conducted by Msanga et al (2000) reported crossbred dairy cows with 62 percent of Holstein inheritance produced higher lactation milk yield (2657 litres) than those with 50 percent (2370 litres) or 75 percent (2338litres) Holstein inheritance. Different results were reported by Bee et al (2006) in peri urban dairy units of Korogwe and Kibaha in Tanzania who found crossbred dairy cattle with 75 and 62 percent of exotic inheritance to produce similar milk yields of 7.0 and 6.8 litres/cow/day respectively. 

Some authors in East Africa have reported disparities in the level of daily milk yield between urban and peri urban dairy units. Evidences show that more milk yield per day is produced in urban dairy units of Maseru in Lesotho (14.7 litres/cow/day) (Gilles and Tawfik 2001) and Holetta in Ethiopia (7 litres/cow/day) (Shiferaw et al 2003) than 11.2 and 6.2 litres/cow/day produced by their counterparts in peri urban dairy units. The relatively better management in urban dairy cows may be considered as a key factor for the better performance as compared to those in peri-urban areas. Contradictory findings were reported by Msanga et al (2000) who found higher lactation milk yield (2871 litres) in peri urban than in urban (2534 litres) located dairy units of Tanga in Tanzania. 

Lactation length

In most dairy units, a lactation length of 305 days (10 months) is commonly accepted as a standard. However, such a standard lactation length might not work for dairy cows in the urban and peri urban areas of East Africa. Both Msanga et al (2000) in Tanga and Shiferaw et al (2003) in Addis Ababa reported shorter (8.8 to 9.7 months) and longer (11.1 months) lactation lengths in urban and peri urban dairy units respectively. However, Ayenew et al (2009) had different observations in which dairy cows in urban dairy units had longer (11.2 months) lactation lengths compared to cows kept in peri urban dairy units (7.5 months). An extended lactation period has practical implications to the dairy farmer as it provides compensation for the extended calving interval (Lobago et al 2007). Nevertheless, the profitability of short or extended lactation length depends on lactation persistency.  

Dry period

Dry period is the time between arresting of milk removal and the subsequent calving. This allows the mammary epithelial components to regress, proliferate, and differentiate with the ultimate goal of maximizing milk production during the subsequent lactation (Capuco et al 1997). Generally, 45 to 50 days is recommended and if less than 40 days, then milk yield in the next lactation will be decreased and longer dry periods produce dairy cows that succumb to metabolic conditions (Hurley 2009). Urban and peri urban dairy farmers rarely dry off cows at the recommended period. A study by Mellau et al (2009) in Dar es Salaam peri urban dairy units reported few (22.9 percent) farmers that dry off their cows for the recommended 60 days. Meanwhile, 52 percent of farmers dried off cows between 60 to 90 days and 21.4 percent dried off the cows for more than 90 days. Surprisingly, about 1.4 percent of them did not dry off cows at all.  

Reproductive performance of crossbred dairy cows

Reproductive performance of dairy cows can be measured by considering parameters such as age at puberty, age at first calving (AFC), days open (DO), calving interval (CI) and number of services per conception (NSC). Management, environmental and physiological factors influence the reproductive performance of lactating dairy cows. Among the most important environmental factors that affect reproductive performance of dairy cows include nutritional status, suckling, milk yield, and season of the year.  

Age at first calving (AFC)

Several studies carried out in East African cities revealed AFC to have ranged from 29.7 to 46.0 months (Table 6). Age at first calving is affected by factors such as breed, nutritional status and management differences of dairy cows. Pure exotic and cross bred cows attain AFC differently. For instance, pure exotic cows in peri urban dairy units of Khartoum (Gader et al 2007) and crossbred cows in  Addis Ababa (Ayenew et al 2009) had lower (29.7 months) and higher (46.months) AFC respectively. This indicates that pure exotic heifers reach puberty earlier than cross bred cows. Since the results were reported from different cities then management and feeding differences could be the reasons. Farm size has been indicated to affect AFC in dairy animals. According to Lemma and Kebede (2011) small and large dairy farms in Addis Ababa had longer (34.2 months) and shorter (32.6 months) AFC respectively.

Calving to conception interval 

After calving, dairy cows remain open for long time before they conceive (Table 6). When comparing calving to conception interval (CCI) in Table 6 with the optimum CCI recommended (80-85 days) to achieve the target of 365 days of calving interval (Peters and Ball 1995) it can be pointed out that East African urban and peri urban dairy herds receive low level of management and feeding. The interval from calving to conception is influenced by factors such as source of labour (family, hired), types of mating systems (natural, AI), calving season and location (urban/peri urban). According to Msangi et al (2005) it took fewer days (223) for cows to conceive when family labour was employed compared to 239 days when hired labour was used. Likewise, dairy farms using natural service had CCI shorter (159 days) compared with farms using AI (179.7 days) (Lemma and Kebede 2011). Dairy cows calving during the dry season, when availability of forages was low, showed a negative correlation between body condition score at calving and CCI. This suggests that pre calving nutrition in the dry season has a great effect on fertility (Idris et al 1999). 

Calving interval

Calving interval is an important factor in measuring the breeding efficiency and directly correlates with the economics of milk production. Reproduction in dairy cows with regular and shorter calving interval (365-420 days) is a key feature for the rapid multiplication of the breeding stocks. However, studies in urban and peri urban areas of East Africa have reported long calving intervals (406 to 562) for dairy cattle (Table 6). Long calving interval is a common problem in urban and peri urban areas and it is linked to poor body condition score and mineral deficiency especially inorganic phosphorus (Swai et al 2005b). The long mean calving intervals result into low calf crop and low level of production.  

Number of services per conception

On average, crossbred dairy cows kept in urban and peri urban areas of East Africa conceive after 1.6 to 2.6 services/matings (Table 6). These values are higher than the minimum value of 1.3 numbers of services per conception (NSC) recommended in the tropics (Rahman, et al 1998). This is an indication of postpartum reproductive problems, poor heat detection skills, inefficiency of AI and/or poor body condition of the cows at mating. Number of services per conception was different between the mating systems with farms using natural service having lower values (1.7) compared with those that use AI (2.1). Higher value of NSC found in cows served by AI was a result of many technical and logistic hurdles contributing to the failure of the timely service of oestrous cows. On the hand, dairy farms using natural service have a better chance of detecting oestrus by using bulls and getting heifers or cows pregnant at the right time. Zero and pasture grazed cows have different reproduction performance in terms of NSC and zero grazed cows had better reproductive performance (NSC 1.8) than pasture grazed cows (NSC 2.3) (Mbugua et al 1999). On the contrary, Nkya et al (1999) showed that pasture grazed animals had better (NSC 1.8) reproductive performance. This statement is supported by Msangi et al (2005). The reason given was that the cows were exposed to exercise and interacted with bulls in the grazing areas and therefore had greater chance of being served. Parity number affects number of services per conception and lower values were observed in cattle with three or more calvings (Yifat et al 2009). Nevertheless, Goshu et al (2007) reported the opposite and found number of services per conception to increase with parity number, even though the possible cause of the low number of services per conception for younger cows was not clear.  

There have been different observations on reproductive performance of crossbred dairy cows in relation to location. Some authors (Ayenew et al 2009, Yifat et al 2009) have suggested better reproductive performance in urban than in peri urban dairy production system, while others (Msangi et al 2005) have reported the opposite (Table 6). Location of the dairy units may influence availability of feed supplements and breeding services. Therefore, having poor or better reproductive performance in the two locations implies that they may have different access to suppliers of services.  

Constraints to dairy production in urban and peri urban units

The perceived relative importance of the major constraints hindering dairy production in urban and peri urban areas of East Africa differ between and within countries and production systems. The variations may be due to the methods employed during data collection, physical location which strongly influences the climate, livestock species and season of the year. Various researchers employed different methods to study constraints affecting dairy production in urban and peri urban areas. For example, Foeken and Owuor (2000) and Guendel (2006) used household surveys while Nkya et al (2007) used participatory tools to explore how livestock keepers prioritise the constraints associated with livestock keeping. A comprehensive list of major constraints limiting dairy production in urban and peri urban areas can be drawn using the two methods.  

Seasonal availability and costs of feeds in the urban areas of East Africa were listed as the first constraints in Addis Ababa Ethiopia (Sintayehu et al 2008) and Kampala in Uganda (Richards and Godfrey 2003). Very interestingly, feed unavailability was ranked first and was significantly more severe in peri-urban (35 percent) than in urban (23 percent) areas of Tanga town in Tanzania (Swai et al 2005a). High feed costs limit supplementation levels and increased dairy cattle productivity.  

Water is a very important nutrient for the dairy cow to maintain body functions and for milk production. However, this important resource is not adequate in most parts of East African cities. Moreover, water availability varies between location and dairy farms located in peri urban areas face acute shortage of water. As a result of water shortages during the dry season, free water intake of lactating dairy cows is reduced and limits milk production and reduce health status (Guendel 2006).  

Poor milk marketing and low price were given the highest rank among the constraints affecting milk production in Tanga (Swai et al 2005a) and Addis Ababa (Ayenew et al 2009) peri urban dairy units. Normally, peri urban areas of East African countries have poor infrastructure and dairy farmers have difficulties in marketing their milk and milk products. As a result of this, the proportion of milk sold is lower in the peri-urban dairy units while processed milk is significantly higher in urban dairy units. Generally, milk price has been low and for a long time has not changed in accordance to seasonal availability of forage.

Availability of land is one of the major obstacles limiting improved dairy cattle production in urban and peri urban dairy units. Even though, dairy farmers ranked the problems differently, According to Duguma et al (2011) in Jimma town Ethiopia shortage of land ranked first and the problem was reported by 50 percent of the dairy farmers. Likewise, in a study conducted in Addis Ababa Ethiopia lack of access to land ranked fifth and the problem was more severe in urban areas (92.4 percent) compared to peri urban areas (55.4 percent) of the city (Shiferaw et al 2003).Shortage of land forced most urban dairy farmers to keep their cattle within their own residential compounds in the medium and low density areas. Therefore, even if urban dairy producers are interested to expand their units, the land size cannot allow them to do so. Availability of land has direct implications on the quantity and quality of pasture dairy farmers can establish. Due to land scarcity most dairy farmers fail to establish pastures and this endangers the sustainability of urban and peri urban dairy production systems (Kavana and Msangi 2005, Ayenew et al 2009).  

Urban areas of East Africa have increasing problems of waste disposal and pollution. The problem of waste disposal is exacerbated by rapid population growth, socio-cultural change, the absence of appropriate places to dispose off animal dung and resource-poor local governments (Prain et al 2010). Work carried out in Nakuru (Foeken 2005) and Dar es Salaam (Mlozi 2005) cities found 45 and 72 percent of livestock keepers respectively dump the animal dung along roadsides due to lack of land/space to dispose off wastes.  

Environmental contamination with heavy metals from industries, improper handling of animal wastes and agrochemicals for controlling livestock ecto-parasites pose serious health hazards to urban consumers of animal products. Nevertheless, heavy metal contents in the soils of most cities in East Africa are not so high to cause acute toxic symptoms (van Veenhuizen and Danso 2007). The levels of Lead (3.5 mg/kg) and Copper (3.6 mg/kg) contamination in the blood of cattle in Morogoro town Tanzania have been reported even though it has not reached an alarming point (Mlay and Mgumia 2008). In another study aimed at examining the levels of heavy metals on the liver of cattle showed highest bioaccumulation of Lead (7.32 mg/kg) at the on-set of rainy season while Copper level was highest (2.2 mg/kg) during dry season (Nwude et al 2011). This implies that there is seasonal variation in environmental pollution by heavy metals. Application of acaricide for controlling ecto-parasite may cause health problems to consumers of animal products. However, available data from Jinja and Kampala cities in Uganda indicate that the level of acaricide in beef, milk and liver are still too low to pose a serious health risk to the consumers (Greenbelt Consult 2006). 

Urban dairy units are often very close to high concentrations of people. These increase the chance of transfer of zoonotic diseases from animals to humans. About 61 percent of human infections are zoonotic (Prain et al 2010) and some of the important zoonotic diseases include bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and anthrax. In the dairy sector, zoonotic pathogens are present in dairy animals, raw milk, milk products, meat and the farm environment. The risk of acquiring zoonotic disease varies from one city to the other. For instance, a study conducted in Tanga town in Tanzania (Cole et al 2008), Kampala in Uganda (Prain et al 2010) and Nakuru in Kenya (Prain et al 2010) reported overall prevalence of brucellosis of 5.5, 3-33 and 3 percent respectively.  

The most important dairy cattle diseases affecting the performance of urban and peri urban dairy units include reproductive disorders, mastitis, calf scour and pneumonia. Others are East Coast Fever (ECF), anaplasmosis and trypanosomiasis. However, among the most important diseases affecting dairy cattle, ECF present the biggest health problem in Tanga (Nkya et al 2007) and Kampala cities (Prain et al 2010). In other studies, Shiferaw et al (2003) in Addis Ababa, Kivaria et al (2006) in Dar es Salaam and Kagira and Kanyari (2010) in Kisumu cities respectively ranked mastitis (71.2 percent), anaplasmosis (21.8 percent) and lumpy skin disease (71 percent) as the major causes of dairy cattle health problems.  

Studies on mastitis in urban and peri urban dairy herds have showed high prevalence of sub clinical than clinical mastitis and ranged from 25 (Mdegela et al 2005) to 95 percent (Almaw et al 2009). Location of the farm had an influence on the occurrences of clinical and sub clinical mastitis and according to Almaw et al (2009) there are more cases of mastitis in urban (75 percent) than peri urban (53.6 percent) dairy units. The higher prevalence of mastitis in urban compared to peri urban dairy units could be attributed to the increasing unfavourable production conditions. A different observation was made by Shem et al (2002) who reported lower sub clinical infection rate in the urban (40 percent) than peri urban dairy units which had infection rate of 60 percent. The reason given was that farmers in urban areas practiced better management techniques and had better cattle sheds than most dairy farmers in the peri urban areas.  

Dairy cattle enterprises require high capital base which is missing to the most economically disadvantaged families in urban areas. Capital is required to purchase grade cattle, feeds and veterinary services. The cost of purchasing a grade heifer is high and they are not readily available (Dayanandan 2011). Owing to this, dairy farmers are unable to procure suitable dairy breeds and end up using any that comes in their way.  

Opportunities to dairy production in peri urban environment

The principal opportunities for dairy development in East Africa cities include the growing market for dairy products, large cattle population and increasing recognition of the importance of urban dairying by donors, non-government organisations (NGOs) and municipal authorities (Guendel 2006, Sintayehu et al 2008). Dairying provides the opportunity for dairy farmers to use land, labour and feed resources to generate regular income. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to improve waste management practices through the use of technologies for animal waste disposal. In most cases, labour costs for dairying, are extremely cheap and Municipal authorities in East Africa are no longer harassing livestock keepers (Guendel 2006).

Conclusion

• Milk production and reproduction parameters of dairy cattle are low despite the existing potential in urban and peri urban areas of East Africa. Inadequate forages both in terms of qualities and quantities, dairy marketing and processing problems and diseases constitute the major constraints to capturing the available opportunities to dairying. In order to improve the reproductive and productive performance of dairy cattle, sensible year round feeding, and herd health plan should be undertaken. Furthermore, there is a need for East African governments to set clear policies supporting and regulating urban dairying.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the DANIDA peri urban livestock project for financial support for this research as part of the PhD study program of the first author.  

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Received 20 July 2012; Accepted 3 October 2012; Published 6 November 2012

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