Enhancing knowledge exchange and performance recording through use of short messaging service in smallholder dairy farming systems in Malawi

Daniel Chiumia,Mizeck G.G Chagunda,S N Sivaselvam,Susanne E Ulbrich,Timothy N Gondwe,Liveness J Banda,Pedro González-Redondo

doi:10.1080/23311932.2020.1801214

Abstract

Monitoring animal performance is a challenge due to lack of systematic recording in the smallholder dairy sector in Malawi. A mobile recording system using short messaging service (SMS) was therefo...

Highlights

Despite efforts to enhance access to technical, extension and other services by different stake holders in the dairy industry in Malawi to improve dairy cattle milk production, the performance of animals kept by smallholder farmers, who dominate the dairy sector, is far from satisfactory
Our study has shown that a mobile telephone short messaging service recording system captures accurate data from farmers and reduces time and cost of transport
The smallholder dairy sector in Malawi is well structured from farm gate to consumers and for the past decades, it has received diverse initiatives by different dairy value chain players that has resulted in the intense increase in number of smallholder dairy farmers and number of dairy cows (Chindime et al, 2016) estimated to be more than 21,000 and 98,000 as of year 2020, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Despite efforts to enhance access to technical, extension and other services by different stake holders in the dairy industry in Malawi to improve dairy cattle milk production, the performance of animals kept by smallholder farmers, who dominate the dairy sector, is far from satisfactory. The smallholder dairy sector in Malawi is well structured from farm gate to consumers and for the past decades, it has received diverse initiatives by different dairy value chain players that has resulted in the intense increase in number of smallholder dairy farmers and number of dairy cows (Chindime et al, 2016) estimated to be more than 21,000 and 98,000 as of year 2020, respectively. This smallholder dairy sector is as well expanding to farming commu nities outside the traditional milk-producing areas called milk sheds areas. Comparing to other agricultural sub-sectors, the latter factor has resulted in a substantial negative impact in the smallholder livestock sector in Malawi

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Conclusion