Dairy goat development in East Africa: A replicable model for smallholders

The major problems confronting farmers farming small plots of land in East Africa are described and used to explain the current interest in dairy goat production in the region. A brief review of past goat research and development efforts are described. The experience of FARM-Africa’s implementation of dairy goat projects in four countries in East Africa over 19 years is described. A Dairy Goat ‘Model of good practice’ is described which can be adopted by other organisations interested in supporting smallholder farmers to develop a more intensive and productive system of goat production. The benefits of adopting the model are outlined and the key performance characteristics described. It has been found that farmers adopting the FARM-Africa Goat Model can raise their annual incomes from less that $100 to $1000. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.