U.S. government and Land O'Lakes Corporation support dairy development

Man on left stands in front of two abodes. (Photo by Michael Tewelde)

By Phillip Kurata | America.gov

Asallah, Ethiopia — Until two years ago, Ato Abebe scratched out a meager subsistence raising wheat and other cereals on a hectare of land in central Ethiopia, where he and his family went to bed with hunger pangs several months a year.

Today, Abebe, who lives near Asallah, 180 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, consistently makes nearly $100 per month, lives in a new house and plans to expand his dairy business while teaching his neighbors about it.

Abebe's turn of fortune came about in 2006, when he signed on as an apprentice dairy farmer under the tutelage of Land O'Lakes International Development, a division of the U.S. dairy company Land O’Lakes Inc. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funds the program with a $5 million grant that expires in 2010.

“Before, from June to August, we did not have food to eat or seeds to plant for the next season,” Abebe told America.gov.

The farmer stands outside his new one-room house with a rainproof metal roof, where he lives with his wife and three children. His former thatch-roof house now is inhabited by the source of his new wealth, a cow and a heifer. “Having a milk-producing cow is like having a steady salary,” he said.

Abebe plans to acquire four more cows, through direct purchase or artificial insemination with foreign bull semen brought to Ethiopia by Land O’Lakes and another development group, World Wide Science.

The dairy business holds glowing prospects for this family. In the two years that the Asallah dairy project has been under way, milk prices have risen from roughly 20 cents to 50 cents per liter. The best cows in the area produce as much as 13 liters a day, and overall output is rising as crossbreeding with highly productive foreign dairy cattle takes effect.

Two people unloading large containers from vehicle (Photo by Michael Tewelde)

In exchange for Land O’Lakes’ tutoring, Abebe teaches other farmers in the area who want to emulate his success.

“We want him to transfer our knowledge,” said Asfaw Tolessa, Land O’Lakes dairy extension manager for Ethiopia. Abebe is one of 130 farmers in Ethiopia who have been selected by Land O’Lakes for the program. He, in turn, teaches another 50 farmers, 10 of whom are implementing new methods, according to Tolessa, who expects the number of dairy farmers to surge as local living standards rise.

The program is more complex than encouraging farmers to buy a dairy cow, then extract and sell the milk. To enable the industry to thrive in drought-stricken, exhausted land, Land O’Lakes has taught Abebe and others to plant napier grass, also known as elephant grass. Napier contains high protein and resists drought with its deep roots.

“Getting dairy farmers to use napier grass is one of Land O’Lakes’ biggest successes,” said Tolessa. “It can be harvested every three weeks, stored in airtight plastic bags and kept for years as animal fodder.”

The Land O’Lakes manager is interested in extending the dairy production program to include farmers’ wives. “[Ethiopian] women tend to be more attentive to caring for animals than men,” Tolessa said. “They also tend to have better social skills than men and are more effective as members of dairy co-ops. They are less likely to engage in private deals that benefit some co-op members more than others.” He said that Land O’Lakes needs to proceed cautiously on this front because of rural traditions that define women’s roles narrowly.

Encouraging dairy farming would have no lasting effect without consistent markets for milk. In fact, a Swedish development group tried supporting Ethiopian dairy farmers in the 1970s, but milk prices crashed after several years. Farmers got rid of their cows and went back to cereal production, which in turn was devastated by drought.

The USAID–Land O'Lakes program has created a network of commercial sales outlets. In addition to milk, the co-op produces cream, butter and cottage cheese, which are processed to have longer shelf lives than milk. The co-op aspires to build a modern dairy-processing plant. USAID is working with Ethiopian banks to encourage them to finance it.

The Asallah Dairy Co-op, up the road from Abebe's farm, has seen its membership rise from 37 at its founding in 2006 to 90 today. At the outset, the daily milk collection of the co-op averaged almost 70 liters per day. Now the figure is tenfold greater — 700 liters a day. The price of milk has more than doubled, while the cost of animal feed has fallen by half. Tolessa said given the government's work to build a market economy and improve nutrition, the Ethiopian dairy industry has a bright future.

“We are making a lot of milk and a lot of money. We are very happy and grateful for what Land O'Lakes and USAID are doing for us," said co-op member Almaz GebreSelassie.