Dairy Value Chain Analysis: Shashemane-Yergalem milk shed, southern Ethiopia

Data came from 180 dairy producing households, 97 butter traders, and 81 milk traders. The crossbreed and local breed dairy farm owner are respectively 67.4% and 32.6%. Farm gate delivery to buyer, own shop and sale to dairy producers cooperative were the major dairy product sale outlets. Price, closeness and secured demand for milk were major factors considered by small dairy holders during the choice of milk sale out let. The first step of the Heckman two stages procedure/the probit model output revealed that milk market participation decision was significantly affected by age of the household head, family size, education level, experience in dairy production, number of cross breed milking cows owned and distance from milk market center. Likewise, the second stage of the Heckman estimation result revealed that marketable milk volume was found to be strongly and significantly affected by the number of cross breed milking cows owned, education level, family size, age squared and annual non-dairy income source of sampled dairy household.