Participatory Rural Appraisal of Dairy Farms in the North West Province of Cameroon

P H Bayemi, M J Bryant^*, D Pingpoh, H Imele, J Mbanya, V Tanya, D Cavestany^**, J Awoh^***, A Ngoucheme, D Sali, F Ekoue^****, H Njakoi^***** and E C Webb*****

Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, Bambui B.P. 51 Bamenda , Cameroon.
hbayemi@yahoo.fr
*University of Reading, Department of Agriculture P.O. Box 236, Reading England
M.J.Bryant@reading.ac.uk
**Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria, INIA La Estanzuela, and Department of Reproduction, Veterinary College,
Lasplaces 1620, 11600 Montevideo, Uruguay
dancaves@internet.com.uy
***Dschang University, faculty of Agriculture
****Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
*****Heifer Project International, Bamenda Cameroon.
Department of Animal and Wildlife Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 0002,
E-mail: edward.webb@up.ac.za

Abstract

Introduction

Cameroon human population is growing at a rate of 5% per year (MINEPIA 2002). There is unceasing worry to feed this population. Annual per capita of milk production in Cameroon was estimated at 5.1 kg (MINPAT 1986) while consumption was estimated at 10kg / person / year by Von Masow (1984). Total domestic production of milk was 50,000 tonnes (Tambi 1991). In 1999, per capita production stood at 12.8 kg while per capita consumption was 15.3 kg in 1998 (calculated from FAO 2000). Milk production in the country has substantially increased in the last 15 years from 48,000 tonnes to 184,000 tonnes. However, the production is far from satisfying local demand for milk and milk products. This gap in domestic demand is being over the years covered by large imports. Teuscher et al (1992) estimated that the level of imports of milk and milk products was 11480 tonnes, which represented about 50% of the adult per capita consumption. However, due to the devaluation of the CFA Franc currency used in the country by 100% in 1994, per capita consumption in subsequent years dropped to less than half of Africa's which is 34 kg/person/year (294kg/person/year in Europe) reflecting the limits in imports of dairy products in the country, standing only at 23% of total per capita consumption. Imported products are expensive for common Cameroonians. Consequently, products from local milk can more efficiently compete with imported ones. This paves the way for a huge development in local milk production. This development will be effective if there is a detailed knowledge of the dairy production environment in the country. Interventions will be easily measured, felt and seen if they were applied in selected farms and economic effect of interventions monitored.

More than ten years ago (Douffissa 1988), three cattle systems were defined in Cameroon: traditional, semi intensive and intensive. However, the economical, political and environmental conditions have drastically changed in the country. There is limited knowledge of current milk production systems in Cameroon. What are their constraints and limitations? What stakeholders and factors influence dairy production? What is the marketing channel? What perceptions have dairy farmers in this activity and what suggestions can be given to improve dairy production in the country? What is the economic reference point of selected farms that could be used for measuring results of subsequent interventions? The following research was conceived to attempt answers to the above questions.

Material and methods

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)

The Participatory Rural Appraisal was used as a tool to identify constraints and suggest interventions geared towards promoting the sustainable development of dairy production in the North West Province (NWP) of the Western Highlands Cameroon.

Choice of area

This site was chosen because it is the most appropriate environment for dairy improvement in the country. Not only it is free of Tse Tse fly, but the region is linked to the two major towns, Douala and Yaoundé by a good road network. Temperatures are the lowest in the country therefore suitable for high yielding breeds. Milk production in this area is government priority. A dairy technology laboratory has been set in the area to improve milk processing. Furthermore, the Heifer Project International has established its head quarters in the region to closely help farmers in dairy management. On the other hand, milk produced in the northern part of the country is mostly through pastoralists who are not very open to change in cattle management. The North West province is therefore very suitable for improvement in dairy production and was chosen consequently.

Research team and PRA method

A multidisciplinary research team was constituted with scientists of different fields as follows: a cattle and forage scientist, an agro economist, a dairy technologist, a veterinarian, an extension agent and various technicians. One researcher, a lady helped to establish links with women in communities were foreign men were not allowed to individually question women. The team first decided on the site and farmers' group to be visited. Contact was established with the group through phone numbers or government 'zonal extension workers'. A date and time were arranged at the convenience of the farmers' group. Some food or local drinks were prepared to make the discussion free and informal. A PRA topical guideline was prepared as a semi-structured interview consisting of the following points: introduction on purpose of the meeting and visit; presentation of the team; presentation of individual farmers present; questions on cropping, cattle management, milk processing and marketing, labour, constraints and prioritization, other activities, expectations, other comments. Finally a dictation machine (tape recorder) was discretely used during group discussions to avoid writing down every piece of information. The questionnaire was translated in the very common pidgin language by a researcher, native of the area. It was pre-tested at one locality (Sabga) and readjusted for shortening the time taken for group discussions, order of questioning and few more questions were added. Sometimes there was a need to translate part of the discussion into/from local dialects. This was either done by a research team member or a member of the dairy group.

At arrival at the site the research team was welcomed by the extension agent who introduced it to the group. The team explained the purpose of the visit and initiated the discussion. The team sat in an indiscriminate manner, and mingled with farmers to create more confidence among both parties. Although a leader guided the discussion, any other scientist could intervene at any moment to ask for appropriate information that could have been overlooked. The zonal extension agent, key informant, also took part in the discussion. He gave additional information that the farmers were unable to provide. Care was taken to avoid people monopolizing the discussion because of their wealth status or leadership role.

The group discussion proper took place in one of the farmers' houses or in a common group house. It lasted a maximum of two hours. After the discussion a field visit to various farms was organized. In some cases the research team divided itself into sub groups of 2-3 people; in other instances the whole team visited farms. Much information was also gathered from questions asked to farmers during the village walk. Transects and direct observations were done during the field walk. Body maps were drawn by 36 farmers to diagnose health problems in 2 groups .Visits usually ended with a meal taken with farmers. However, there were further questions asked to the key informant to collect additional information or crosscheck farmers' answers. The visit lasted a day in each group. In some villages (Sabga, Jakiri, and Tadu) because of gender-separated way of life, women were interviewed from men in separate visits. A total of 137 farmers were individually interviewed representing about 25 % of dairy farmers registered in 32 dairy groups and 3 dairy cooperatives. Interviews were also carried out with other stakeholders of the dairy sector such as Non Governmental Organizations, industries and government officers. The research team met the day following the visit to gather information and write a report.

Secondary data used in this work involved annual reports of IRZ (1984, 1985, 1986); results of previous surveys involving dairy production in the region (HPI 1999; Kameni et al 1999); current statistics from dairy cooperatives and non governmental organisations.

Data analysis of PRA information

As suggested by Pretty (1994), the validity of the data was ensured by: forming a research team with members having differences in scientific disciplines, ethnicity, age, religion and gender. Main points noted in a group were read to the participants at the end of gathering and corrected. During the research report writing, there was crosschecking of information collected by each member of the multidisciplinary team. The results were submitted to review in a scientific presentation to colleagues and to peer review. Results were subsequently compared to secondary data.

Three methods were used for constraints ranking: first, farmers agreed among themselves and a spokesman expressed the major constraint by order of importance. Where this agreement failed, farmers were asked to close their eyes and put their hands up when a constraint was listed. Eyes were closed to reduce influence from other farmers. The numbers of farmers voting for a particular constraint was subsequently counted. Lastly, Ashby's method (1986) was used to rank constraints in the whole region. Simple statistics were used to calculate percentages.

Results

Seasonal calendar of activities of dairy farmers

Farming activities of dairy farmers of the Western Highlands can be divided as indicated in Figure 1.

Activities such as milking, forage cut and carry for purebreds Holstein or Jersey, milk processing and marketing are permanent throughout the year, while farming and transhumance depend on the 2 seasons, wet and dry. These activities are similar for the whole region.

Cattle feeding

Much milk produced in the Western Highlands of Cameroon is from native cattle. These cattle are usually grazing native pastures of Sporobolus africanus, Pennisetum purporeum and Melinis multiflora. However, pastures have also been improved with planted grasses, legumes and multipurpose trees (MPT). These are for grasses: Brachiaria spp, Trypsacum laxum, Kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum). Trees are being planted as live fences and are: Caliandra spp, Leucaena leucocephala, Jacaranda spp and Acacia spp. Cattle are also fed on by-products, waste food and fruits such as sugar cane leaves, potato leaves, guavas, ripe bananas, pumpkins and waste cooked corn (fufu). Crop residues include: corn stovers, banana pseudo stems and leaves, ground nuts and beans haulms.

The following ingredients are commonly used in supplementation: Maize, rice bran, wheat bran, palm kernel cake, cotton seed cake, whole soya beans, bone ash, limestone and table salt. The proportion of farmers using different feedstuffs in the peri-urban areas of Bamenda and Fundong is shown in Table 1.

Principal energy providing ingredients are maize and wheat bran while protein mostly comes from cotton seed cake or whole soya bean flour. Traditional farmers use table salt as sole supplement to cattle in the areas of Sabga, Jakiri and Bamdzeng. Concentrate is fed to dairy cows during milking.

Breeding

Traditional producers have been using for a long time natural mating from visually-selected bulls bought, exchanged or loaned from other farmers. With the aim of upgrading the traditional stock, artificial insemination (AI) is being used in Jakiri, Tadu and Bamdzeng. AI is also used in Holstein cows in Fundong (Meli and Mukweh), Nkwen and Santa. In the Bamenda surroundings where there is a high failure of AI, purebred Holstein bulls are used for natural mating. In Sabga and Jakiri, farmers use crossbred bulls for breeding therefore obtaining ¼ Holstein crosses in the progeny.

Dairy cows are bred as from two months post partum. The calving interval lies between 12 and 18 months. Improved breeds reach active sexual maturity at 24 months while local breeds are sexually active as from 36 months of age.

Calf management

Calves from purebred dams are weaned at 4 months of age while in traditional herds weaning is between 7 and 12 months. Weaning is done by separating calves from cows for 3 weeks or by rubbing a mixture of rotten colostrum and dung in mother's udder, thus repulsing the calf. Calves from local breed suckle dams for one month before milking starts. Purebred calves are first given colostrum; then are bucket fed in elevated pens as from three days post partum as follows: less then one month 5-6 litres of milk/calf/day; 1 to 2 months, 3-4 litres/calf/day; 2-3months, 2-3 litres/calf/day and 3-4 months, 1litre of milk/calf/day. Forage is introduced between 2 and 4 weeks of calving.

Milking

In traditional herds, cows to be milked are chosen with the following criteria: calmness and high milk production, older cows are preferred to young ones. In general milking is done in the morning between 6 and 8 am and in the evening between 4 and 6 pm. Purebred Holsteins are milked twice a day. In Tadu milking sometimes goes up to 3 times a day. Milking of local breeds is still done with poor hygiene consisting of few seconds suckling by calf to favour milk let down (in fact, the contrary is the case as restricted sucking results in lower somatic cell counts and less mastitis: the Editor). Milking in then done with calf presence. Dairy farmers owning purebred Holstein clean the udder with warm water and rub it with Vaseline before and after milking. Milking is done manually and milk is collected in buckets after tying the cow's hind legs.

Production

Breed production is summarized in Table 2.

The impact of pure Holstein Friesian is increasing in the region, particularly in peri-urban areas of Bamenda in Mezam and Fundong in Boyo (Figure 2). Many women are also involved in rearing this breed.

Figure 3 indicates the quantity of milk collected by Sotramilk (see below). Much milk is produced in the rainy season when forage is abundant.

Figure 4 shows that the sources of milk products in the country are either imported or locally produced.

Milk not taken by calves is either home consumed, spoilt or marketed. No cooperative collects milk. Milk and milk products are marketed either directly by producers or are collected by processing companies. In the peri-urban area of Bamenda, milk marketing is more formal through Sotramilk. In other areas, milk marketing is informal. Milk is either bought at the farm by individuals or farmers carry it to the market place. In this case the price is higher than what is offered by the processing plants. This pattern also happens in the northern part of the country with much activity where former processing plants closed up because of lack of sufficient milk supply. Costs of products are indicated in Table 3.

Home processed products and milk sold in the open market are still much a part of the marketing channel. If better quality products are to be supplied to consumers, there is a need for methods on processing and hygiene to be extended to farmers.

On average, 20 to 50% of milk is home consumed in places where marketing is a problem. In Meli (Fundong), sour milk (spoilt) is sold to dog owners. After milking, women and children can take up to 2 hours to get to the market place, and wait for up to 4 hours for the milk to be sold before going back to the homestead.

Housing and manure

In traditional management, cattle graze on a free-range system with nights spent in open pastures. In the peri-urban management, there are sleeping paddocks and sleeping sheds constructed with wood and the roof made of either zinc material or local grass. In the last system cows are milked in sheds cemented with concrete. In the zero grazing system, some farmers had very poor sheds letting mature cows eat grass from the roof, thus destroying it.

Manure is a very important activity in the cut and carry (zero grazing) farms and in peri-urban areas where gardening and agriculture are much rewarded. This manure is collected with spades and kept in pits before being dried, used or sold. There is little hazard from manure as the quantity is small.

Labour and gender

Generally, the whole family is involved in cattle caring. In the more pastoralist communities, adult men take cattle for grazing while women and children do the milking, processing and milk marketing. School children milk cows before going to school in the morning. The peak period for labour demand is the dry season (January to March) when the farming season starts. At this time, labour is hired to take cattle for transhumance at a cost of 15 000 FCFA per month. Labour is paid for farm preparation at 10000 to 20000 FCFA for a one eighth hectare farm or 600FCFA per man day. When men are married to many wives, at least one of them is in charge of farming and gardening. In the Fulani pastoralist communities, men own cattle but the milk belongs to the women. In Mukweh, some labour is paid with liquid milk. In Sabga peak labour demand in the rainy season is for training of first-calf cows for milking.

Individual interviews revealed that men constituted only 16.8% of dairy operators compared to 83.2% of women. 71% of respondents fell within the age range of 24 to 50 years while 29% was above 50 years. Furthermore 49% of farmers had not received training in dairy production.

The gender representation of dairy farmers in the North West Province is illustrated in Figure 5.

The high percentage of the Fulani women clearly shows that they are more involved in dairy activities than the None Fulani women. Thus, the role of the women in dairy production is of prime importance. They need motivation and more education in this sector. If the milk production sector fails, then the livelihood of the Fulani women will be the most affected.

Health

Major dairy cattle diseases in the Western highland are in order of importance ticks and tick born diseases: babesiosis, anaplasmosis, dermatophilosis, cowdriosis; mastitis in milking cows; diarrhea; foot and mouth disease (FMD); black quarter; ephemeral fever and ear infection. Veterinary services are provided by non governmental organizations or private veterinarians. Vaccination is done yearly against black quarter, haemorrhagic septicaemia, and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia. Only few farmers spray their dairy animals. Hand de-ticking is more common. It is the fear of ticks that prevents some farmers from sending crossbred cattle in low and hot lands on transhumance during the dry season. Many traditional farmers make use of ethno- veterinary medicine (Sabaga, Jakiri, and Bamdzeng).

Marketing

Stakeholders

Main stakeholders for dairy production in the Western Highland of Cameroon are: The non government organization Heifer Project International (HPI), the processing company Sotramilk, the Tadu dairy cooperative, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, feed retailers and the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development.

HPI

This non governmental organization (NGO) is based in the United States of America. In Cameroon it is a representation of the intensive form of management. In 1974, in collaboration with the institute of animal research (IRZ), HPI provided the initial shipment of purebred Holstein and Jersey dairy cattle to Bambui research station. Recently, more purebred in-calf heifers are being provided directly to farmers.

Sotramilk

It is a plant aided by a Dutch non governmental organization which started operating in 1995 with the aim of boosting local milk production. It operates by buying milk from neighbouring farmers in a radius of 10 km. The factory has a capacity for processing 12000 litres of milk a day. But it collects only a maximum of 300 litres per day in the dry season and 600 litres per day in the rainy season. Therefore this fresh milk is usually combined with imported powder milk to make various products such as: Gudali and Edam cheese, and natural and fruit yoghurt (cherry, pineapple). Milk collection is limited because of bad roads. However farmers who do arrange for their milk to be delivered to the factory are compensated for transport.

Tadu Dairy Cooperative Society (TDCS )

TDCS is a cooperative organization established in 1992 following an intensive training provided by Land 'O' Lakes, Inc. and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The main service provided to the members is artificial insemination with Holstein and Brahman semen. TDCS was initially made up of over 200 pastoralists. Up to 1000 to 3000 liters of milk could be collected daily during the dry and rainy season respectively. However the road network is very bad and the market is limited to the neigbouring Kumbo town. Consequently TDCS is planning to build a processing plant.

Feed retailers

There are many feed retailing shops in provincial towns. The following are ingredients are commonly found in these shops: cotton seed cake, wheat bran, rice bran, soya bean cake, fish meal, palm kernel cake, bone ash, limestone meal, blood meal (Table 4). Maize is usually sold for human consumption although it is also bought by animal producers.