Opportunities and challenges for integrating dairy cattle into farms with certified organic pineapple production as perceived by smallholder farmers in Central Uganda

Abstract

A study was conducted in 2013 to assess opportunities and challenges of integrating dairy cattle into organic pineapple production in Uganda. Thirty organic pineapple farmers were interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire. The main dairy cattle management systems were tethering (73%) and zero grazing (27%). Average landholding was 1.74 ± 1.06 and 3.75 ± 2.70 ha for zero grazing and tethering systems, respectively. All farms were diversified with various livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens and crops including pineapples, maize, coffee, bananas, beans, sweet potatoes, and cassava. The level of integration of dairy cattle into pineapple production depended on the distance of crop fields from the livestock enterprises. More farms (83%) with pineapple fields closer (< 0.5 km) to the homesteads were able to use cattle manure as fertilizer compared to homesteads (50%) with more distant fields (> 0.5 km). The distance to the homestead did not influence 30% of the farmers who used crop residues for feeding dairy cattle. Farmers perceived cattle diseases and feed scarcity to be the major challenges in dairy farming. The sources of risk on the farms were perceived to be erratic rainfall, limited knowledge, and market for organic products. Majority of farmers (77%) expressed willingness to convert to organic dairy production. Availability of markets for organic dairy products (36%) and reduction of external input use (26%) were the main reasons for farmers' willingness to convert. Integrating dairy cattle with pineapple production is an opportunity for closed nutrient cycles and income diversification. However, knowledge, access to inputs, and organized markets are needed as incentive for conversion to organic dairy production.

Oxytetracycline residues in bovine muscles, liver and kidney tissues from selected slaughter facilities in South Western Uganda

“…Economically, cattle are regarded as the most important with significant contributions to the agricultural sector and socio-economic wellbeing of the farming communities in Uganda (Okello et al 2021). Over 90% of the cattle herds in Uganda are owned by smallholder mixed farmers and pastoralists who rear them for milk, meat and other products (Nalubwama et al 2019). Livestock pests and diseases caused by protozoans (39.3%), bacteria (21.4%), viruses (17.1%) and helminths (11.1%) (Byaruhanga et al 2017;Okello et al 2021) are the major constraints to cattle production systems in Uganda.…”

Factors that Impact Farmers’ Organic Conversion Decisions

“…More specific findings are those of Sutherland and Darnhofer [27], Tzouramani et al [20], and Nalubwama et al [24]. They suggest that the fast expansion of organic farming in some areas is partially attributed to the development of agricultural information provision and advisory systems and to the creation of rural networks that facilitate knowledge creation and transfer.…”

“…The importance of the distance depends on the circumstances such as the product, place of production, food market, and farm's characteristics. For instance, it can be higher when the product is more perishable and bulkier, the farm businesses are physically isolated and smaller, or the marketing system is more effective [24,34,35,37].…”

“…For example, pro-organic social norms and attitudes, such as the attitudes of household members and other farmers towards organic farming, substantially impact on farmers' conversion decisions [45,63,64]. Of particular note are the special importance of organized organic markets [24], the EU institutional framework for organic conversion, and the role of farmers' perceptions in regard to institutional support [33,61].…”

“…Following the structure of the framework (Figure 1), the public authorities schedule changes in relation to selected factors of the farm business environment that impact on conversion decisions. Thus, they build a policy mix that can include regulations, standards (such as eco-brands, e.g., biolabels), direct subsidies to producers, input taxes, research funding, training and information provision, financial support for investments, and sponsorship of communication instruments (such as promotional campaigns and consulting) [24,28,[34][35][36][50][51][52]55,68,69]. Given that shifts in agricultural policy cause habit changes (directly or indirectly) and that certain policy regulations motivate higher organic adoption rates [27], the present set focused on factors found to directly affect conversion decisions.…”