Assessment of Post-Harvest Loss of Milk and Milk Products and Traditional Mitigation Systems in Southern Ethiopia

The study was conducted to investigate post harvest loss problem of milk and milk products under small-scale milk producing households using structured questionnaire on 120 randomly selected households in selected districts of South Nations Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR). For the majority of the interviewed households, the responsibility of milking, milk handling, processing and marketing was majorly handled by women. About 0.81 liter of milk per day was used for feeding calves and 1.5 liters of whole milk per day for family consumption. Households also diversified consumption of milk products for better nutrition. They consumed 4.06 liters of fermented milk per week whereas it is 0.53 liter for butter milk, 0.35 kg for cottage cheese, 2.94 kg for butter and 0.21 kg for whey. The majority of the respondents practiced flavouring and smoking of their utensils for enhancing good taste and preservation of milk and milk products. Locally available Olea Africana (woira) and Ocimum hardiense (Koseret) were among the main plants used for flavouring and preserving of butter. This practice is often considered as one of the traditional post harvest loss mitigation mechanisms. The study has also figured out that the major market outlets for milk were farm gate sales (59.2%) , kiosk shops (14.2 %) and Local market (11.7%), all of which were informal outlets. The price of milk (ETB 5.5 – 6.9 per liter) and butter (ETB 67 – 117 per kg) in the study areas was perceived to be the lowest compared to central parts of the country where butter is sold with an average price of ETB 150 per kg and the milk with ETB 12 per liter. Different production, processing, marketing and consumption constraints were also identified in the studied districts. Feed shortage (71%), low milk yield (69%) and unavailability of improved technologies (68%) were the major milk production constraints whereas unavailability of small scale processing equipments (32.5%) and poor quality milk (23.3%) as processing constraints. Low milk price (52%) and low market infrastructure (50%) were also the major constraints in the milk marketing segment. The post harvest loss of milk and milk products was also reported to be another constraint of small-scale farmers largely due to informal marketing practices and the use of improper milking and storing devices that exacerbate spoilage of milk and deterioration of its quality. Therefore, awareness creation program is required for smallholder milk producers to improve the informal marketing system, milk handling and storing devices and reduce constraints for milk production, processing and marketing through reducing feed scarcity, improving milk processing equipments and selling through formal marketing channels. Keywords: Post harvest, milking utensils, price, consumption, producer