Efficiency estimation and determinant in Small-scale Dairy Production in Eritrea

The Eritrea dairy sector provides livelihood for over 70% of the population. However, this sector is still at its subsistence level. Therefore, improving the sector requires that farm-level efficiency is determined for sustainability. Anseba, Debub and Maekel areas in Eritrea were selected for the study. Deterministic and stochastic frontier methods were used to determine technical (T), allocative (A) and profit/economic (E) efficiencies (E) of small-scale dairy farmers. Results show that feed, concentrates,
labour and herd size were important inputs required for technical Efficiency (TE). Adding medication/vaccination to these inputs increased EE of small-scale dairy farmers. TE and AE level of Eritrea, Anseba, Debub and Maekel were low, ranging from 31.57% - 40.65%, and 12.23 - 38.00% respectively. However, the EE was above 50%, (71.17%) Anseba and Maekel (93.39%) for except in Debub (32.24%). While years of dairy experience, cooperative membership, use of agricultural extension service and native of Maekel reduced technical inefficiencies, number of household female members and milking cow twice daily increased technical inefficiencies. Also, age and educational level of farmer, size of land mapped out for food production, extensive method of dairy farming and native of Debub increased economic inefficiencies. Based on findings, interventions/projects should target increasing herd size of farmers and expanding agricultural advisory service to provide innovative and market information to small-scale dairy farmers. Policies aimed at increasing land size allocated for animal feed and concentrates should be enacted and farmers should be encouraged to join/form
cooperatives for easy access to dairy inputs and strong bargaining power.
Key words: Diary Production, Eritrea, technical efficiency