Milk: the new white gold? Milk production options for smallholder farmers in Southern Mali

Abstract

Until the turn of the century, farmers in West Africa considered cotton to be the 'white gold' for their livelihoods. Large fluctuations in cotton prices have led farmers to innovate into other business including dairy. Yet the productivity of cows fed traditional diets is very poor, especially during the long dry season. This study combines earlier published results of farmer participatory experiments with simulation modelling to evaluate the lifetime productivity of cows under varying feeding strategies and the resulting economic performance at farm level. We compared the profitability of cotton production to the innovation of dairy. The results show that milk production of the West African Méré breed could be expanded if cows are supplemented and kept stall-fed during the dry season. This option seems to be profitable for better-off farmers, but whether dairy will replace (some of) the role of cotton as the white gold for these smallholder farmers will depend on the cross price elasticity of cotton and milk. Farmers may (partly) replace cotton production for fodder production to produce milk if the price of cotton remains poor (below US$0.35/kg) and the milk price relatively strong (higher than US$0.38/kg). Price ratios need to remain stable over several seasons given the investments required for a change in production strategy. Furthermore, farmers will only seize the opportunity to engage in dairy if marketing infrastructure and milk markets are further developed.

Fragilité des projets d’élevage familiaux dans les exploitations de polyculture-élevage au Burkina Faso

“…Pourtant, dans les exploitations familiales de polyculture-élevage de la zone des savanes subhumides, la contribution de l'élevage à l'approvisionnement du marché en viande et en lait, à la génération de revenu dans les exploitations ainsi qu'à la production de services (traction animale, fumure organique, épargne) n'est pas suffisante (De Ridder et al, 2015 ;Douxchamps et al, 2015). C'est notamment le cas au Burkina Faso, bien que l'élevage contribue à une part significative du produit intérieur brut (18 %), qu'il soit pratiqué par plus de 80 % de la population agricole, et qu'il représente une des principales activités de diversification et de sécurisation des revenus des exploitations agricoles familiales (MRA, 2012).…”

Trajectories of agricultural change in southern Mali

“…cotton seed cake) allows intensifying livestock production and mitigate negative environmental impacts (De Ridder et al, 2015;Tarawali et al, 2011). More broadly, the increasing urban population and rising demand for high value products create new markets.…”

“…The proportion of lactating cows in the cattle herd was assumed to be 22 and 34% for cattle herds below and above 23 animals respectively (Ba et al, 2011). Year-round milk production of cows with open-grazing (current farmer practice) and stall feeding (2.5 kg cowpea hay cow -1 day -1 and 2 kg cotton seed cake cow -1 day -1 during the dry hot period of 90 days) was obtained from (De Ridder et al, 2015).…”

“…This change was conceived based on findings indicating that diversification with legumes can be profitable and at low risk for farmers when maize is intercropped with cowpea (Falconnier et al, 2016). In combination with this, stall feeding of lactating cows with cowpea fodder can increase milk production (De Ridder et al, 2015). For this change, farmers were assumed to intercrop all their maize with cowpea and famers would feed as many cows in the stall as allowed by the available cowpea fodder.…”

“…Stall feeding of cows and use of on-farm produced legume forage and concentrates (cotton seed cake) can increase dairy cattle productivity (De Ridder et al, 2015).…”