To sell, not to sell, or to quit: Exploring milk producers’ approaches after a supply chain disruption in Northwest Cameroon

Abstract

• Overlapping circumstances in Bamenda, Cameroon, caused a supply chain disruption in the dairy sector. • Producers continued selling milk (Sellers), stopped selling milk but kept the cattle (Non-Sellers), or sold all their dairy animals (Quitters). • Sedentary and pastoral milk producers’ approaches are analyzed separately to avoid one-size-fits-all policies. • Pastoral Sellers are associated with greater access to production factors and sedentary Sellers with livestock diversity and land titles. • Dairy-focused trainings offered within functional cooperatives could help both groups maintain their livelihood post-disruption. The Northwest is the second largest milk producing region of Cameroon. In Bamenda, the region’s capital, the shutdown of the only milk processing plant in mid-2016 and political unrest later that year disrupted its dairy supply chain. Producers had to decide whether to continue selling milk, to momentarily stop selling milk, or to quit the dairy business entirely. We investigate the approaches considered by producers in response to the supply chain disruption using household survey data from 2017 with 320 active and inactive dairy market participants. By means of binary and multinomial logit models, we examine household characteristics, farm resources, and institutional factors that may have driven producers’ responses one year after the disruption. Our analysis reveals that pastoral and sedentary milk producers should be examined separately. Results show that livestock diversity, land titles, and dairy-focused trainings are helpful to sedentary producers to continue milk sales, whereas pastoral sellers are encouraged by greater access to production factors, and by being members of cooperatives. Generally, younger producers in non-urban areas are most likely to remain milk sellers, regardless of production system. This study sheds light on producers’ different approaches after supply chain disruptions and highlights farm-level factors that help them stabilize and maintain their livelihoods. This knowledge can contribute to the design of more appropriate mitigation strategies against the repercussions of such events in the future, particularly for cattle and dairy development programs.