Abstract

Smallholder dairy cattle producers in Uganda face major production constraints including inadequate and poor quality feeds. Forage technologies have been widely recommended to alleviate this problem. This study aimed at comparing profitability of dairy cattle enterprises using improved forage technologies (IFTs) with those using local technologies, and determining factors affecting the use of IFTs among smallholder dairy farmers. Data were collected from 121 farmers in Soroti district. Descriptive statistics, partial budget analysis, probit model, and Ordinary Least Squares were used to analyze data. Results indicated that farmers using IFT had significantly (p<0.01) higher gross margins than those using local feeding methods. Probit model results indicated that profitability of technology influenced the decision to use IFT when interacted with improved cattle breed.  The decision to use IFTs had a positive significant (p<0.1) relationship with profitability of dairy cattle enterprises. Policies targeting efficient dissemination of IFTs are recommended to improve profitability.

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