Modelling Options for Policy Impact Analysis on African Dairy Farms

• Main Author: Oghaiki Asaah NDAMBI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dunarea de Jos University of Galati 2008-01-01
• Series: Annals of Dunarea de Jos University. Fascicle I : Economics and Applied Informatics
• Subjects: Africa; Dairy farms; EXTRAPOLATE; Policy impacts; TIPI-CAL
• Online Access: http://www.ann.ugal.ro/eco/Doc%202008/Oghaiki%20Asaah%20NDAMBI.pdf

Studies on the priorities for agricultural research in Eastern and CentralAfrica concluded that milk is the most important commodity for research anddevelopment in the region, based on its potential contribution to the agriculturalGDP. It has been presumed that, the right policies, marketing systems and technicalsupport must be sought for dairy development in Africa. In order to determine theright development pattern, appropriate analytical tools must be applied. The TIPICAL(Technology Impact Policy Impact model) was used to analyse the impact ofdifferent policies on two typical dairy farming systems in Uganda, which accountfor more than 70% of milk produced in the country. Seven influential policy areaswere also identified: provision of veterinary services, consumption promotion,marketing promotion, input provision, credit access improvement, milk qualityimprovement and genetic improvement. In general, the policy impacts are very littleon farms with local cows but can be magnified up to threefold, if the farms havegraded cows. Policies which improve farmers’ accessibility to markets have thegreatest impacts. The results obtained from this model were compared to thoseusing the EXTRAPOLATE model. This comparison shows that both models couldcomplement each other in analysing policy impacts on African dairy farms.However, differences in results from the models indicate that more focus should bemade on farmers’ willingness to adopt new technology.