Contribution of dairy farming to household welfare in Edu local government area of Kwara state, Nigeria

The study was conducted in Edu local Government Area of Kwara State to analyze the contribution of dairy farming to household welfare. It highlighted the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, managements practices, dairy products, household welfare and constraints that hindered effective production in dairy farming. Data were collected by using structured interview schedule administered on 80 dairy farmers randomly selected. Analysis of data were carried out using frequency counts and percentages. About 39.0% of the respondents were between the age ranges of 41–50 years, while 93% were male. 83.0% were educated, and 90.0% had more than five dairy cattle in their herd. All the respondents carried out management practices in dairy enterprise and mentioned the products, Milk, Cheese, Cream, Butter, Nunu, and MaisanuandOriamo are the products obtained from dairy farming. Majority (93.8%) of the respondents indicated high cost of supplementary feed and finance as the constraints that hindered production in dairy farming. The study therefore identified the need for dairy farmers to establish cooperative societies in order to facilitate the establishment of dairy products collecting centers and also provide the inputs such as supplementary feeds, drugs, provisions of loans, support to their members. Also there is need for extension services at affordable costs with adequate training in dairy husbandry to the small scale dairy farmers so as to raise the income accrue to the farmers.