Abstract

Aim: Main purpose of the study was to investigate the existing major challenges to dairy production from farmers' viewpoints.

Method and materials: Multistage sampling method was employed to drawn data needed for the study, so that the study district and kebeles were selected by purposive sampling and simple random sampling techniques was used to select the sample respondents and about 125 respondents were included from four purposively selected kebeles. Data was collected from both secondary and primary sources generated through exhaustive desk review around the issue in hand and structured questionnaire. To generate qualitative data, field observations; informal interview with key informants was conducted.

Results: The majority of the dairy producers (36.8%) were included at age group of 41-50 and 23.2%, 21.6% and 18.7% of household heads were categorized under age categories of 51-60 years, above 60 years and 31-40 years respectively. About 17.6% of the respondents responded that feed shortage was the main determinant of cattle productivity in the study area. Animal diseases were found to be the major challenges limiting dairy sector in the town taking the first rank among the major challenges which accounts about (22.4%).

Conclusion: It was concluded that coordinated efforts are required to address the constraints through technological innovations across to improve the productivity.

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