Helping communities prosper from dairy goats

Training and Advisory Unit

FARM-Africa’s long - term focus is on enabling governments and other NGOs to take our knowledge and expertise to much larger populations using our models of good-practice. By applying our models to a much wider area, our experience and findings can benefit many more communities.

Through previous work in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia FARM-Africa has developed a model of good-practice for cross-breeding local goats with Toggenburg dairy goats. Using this model, the Training and Advisory Unit (TAU) trains communities to breed high-milk-yielding goats and cross-breed them with local goats. 

The TAU is securing the long term sustainability of previous FARM-Africa projects around Mbale by helping locally established organisations such as Mount Elgon Dairy Goat Breeders Association to grow and develop. For example, we’re helping members of this association to strengthen connections with individuals, the market, Community Animal Health Workers and the Meru Dairy Goat Breeders Association. Through these links farmers get access to new markets, skills and experiences.

Staff from the TAU also advise other projects such as the Katine Project and the Community Livelihoods Empowerment Project.

Helping communities prosper from dairy goats

Training and Advisory Unit

The Training and Advisory Unit in Uganda shares FARM-Africa’s knowledge of breeding and cross-breeding high-milk-yielding Toggenburg goats with communities across eastern Africa. As part of this, the unit is training community members in Vihiga, western Kenya to establish goat rearing as a key income - generating activity.

Trainees are gaining the skills they need to breed a good supply of Toggenburg bucks, and provide a cross-breeding service for their community. By cross-breeding their local goats with a Toggenburg buck, families can significantly increase the amount of goats’ milk that they produce.

Zipporah's story

Zipporah lives in Hamisi district with her husband and four children. This is one of Kenya’s most densely populated rural areas. As a result, Zipporah was struggling to produce enough on her small plot of land to sustain her family.

A shortage of quality breeding stock has traditionally meant that dairy goats yielded little milk, and thus income and nutrition for families. This problem was compounded by a lack of local veterinary care which meant that livestock were often in poor health. However, the land in Hamisi is ideal for breeding dairy goats, which is why FARM-Africa is introducing Toggenburg goats together with a simple community animal health service to the area.

As a member of her local women’s group Zipporah was chosen to receive a Toggenburg buck, together with training in how to house it, care for it and cross-breed it with local goats.

After the training Zipporah set up a buck station. She charges people a small fee to cross-breed their local goats with high milk-yielding bucks. With just one goat to keep, she has room on her land to grow crops too. She uses the manure from the buck as a fertiliser, which has helped her to effectively grow food on previously uncultivated land. She spent profits from the buck station on seeds and now grows tea, cabbages and goat fodder (calliandra and leaucaena).

Zipporah's daily income is now around 2500KS (around £21) - a huge amount for the local area. She has been able to pay for one of her children to attend a secondary school, which also benefits from a good supply of vegetables for sale from her land.

Zipporah now wants to help her community further by becoming a breeder of pure Toggenburgs. This will ensure a sustainable supply of Toggenburg bucks for cross-breeding.

Best Practices

Farmers' Dairy Goat Production Handbook
Adobe PDF - 1.38mb

Working Papers

02. Goats: Unlocking their potential for Africa’s farmers
Adobe PDF - 559kb

12. Goat’s Milk: A viable contribution in the challenge to prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV in the Mbale Region, Uganda?
Adobe PDF - 1.4mb

Scaling-up Success - FARM-Africa's new strategy for development
Adobe PDF - 444kb