Simulating the impact of innovations in smallholder dairying in Zimbabwe

Viability differences in smallholder dairy farming are a result of differences in access to markets and services. It is hypothesised that innovations that improve productivity and market linkages also improve returns and viability. A study was carried out in Zimbabwe to assess livelihoods implications of proposed innovations on the smallholder farmers of the rural household of Wedza. The viability of smallholder dairying was characterised by interviewing fifty-two households using semi-structured questionnaire. Information on demographics, production, marketing, livestock numbers, assets and constraints was obtained. Farmers were resource-constrained with differences in access to resources. The highly-resourced farmers had higher milk output and numbers of livestock. Almost 40% of the households were female-headed and these dominated the poor category. Household sizes ranged from 4 to 13 persons. Milk off-take was low (3.7 ± 0.53 l/cow/day), due to various constraints. Only wealthy farmers had viable enterprises in purely financial terms. Per l cost of milk was more than selling price (US$0.96) for most farmers except the relatively wealthy. Operating ratios were 1.7, 0.6, 1.4, and 1.1 for the resource constrained, resource endowed, Sub-centre and Milk collection centre (MCC) farmers, respectively. This means incomes from the dairy activities did not cover costs. Sensitivity analysis indicated that increases in total variable costs (TVC) and labour reduced returns. Milk production and viability were influenced by access to resources and markets.