Impact of COVID 19 on production and marketing of milk among dairy farmers in Kiboga district

Abstract

The study assessed impacts of COVID-19 on production and marketing of milk among dairy farmers in Ddwaniro, Kyekumbya and Kayera sub counties in Kiboga district. A sample of 150 dairy farmers were interviewed during the study. The study population was obtained by random sampling. This was used in order to reduce bias by providing an equal opportunity for each dairy farmer. Majority of the farmers were adults who constituted a percentage of 89.74% and 92.31% of the respondents were males. 91.67% were married and 37.82% of the respondents had attained a primary level of education. Of the 150 interviewed farmers, 64.5% were commercial farmers while 35.5% their objective was subsistence farming. The mean number of acres of land was 154.1 acres and the mean number of cows kept by the dairy farmers was 67.2 cows where 43.41% rare improved breeds slightly above those who keep local breeds with a percentage of 41.86%. The mean number of lactating mothers was 12.7. The study indicated that COVID-19 affected the price of milk where 83.61% of the farmers faced a decrease in the prices of milk sold per litre during the lockdown. The prices dropped by almost 35% during the lockdown. The decrease in the prices was due to closure of hotels, schools, restaurants and other non-essential business which were the major milk consumers which thus decreased the demand for milk hence forcing farmers to reduce prices as a mean of increasing milk consumption. COVID-19 also affected the volume of milk sold during the lockdown where the volume sold daily per farmer reduced from 34.8 litres to 34.1 litres. The slight decrease was due to low prices which made some farmers to reduce on the volumes sold. The study also reveals that COVID-19 increased the costs of production especially spraying, drenching, treating cattle and increase in the prices of cattle feeds. The increase in the cost of production was due to imposing of a lockdown which made accessibility of livestock inputs hard. Key words include; COVID-19, milk prices, volumes of milk sold