Impact of technical interventions on biological and economic performance of cattle and buffaloes in crop-dairy animal production system in nile delta

Abstract EN

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of livestock technical interventions, through Food Sector Development Program (FSDP), on crop-dairy production system in the Nile delta of Egypt.

Forty-five extension packages in seven categories were developed, tested and disseminated in various target areas.

Data on 492 crop-dairy farms were collected through a survey as a part of FSDP activities to assess the impact of these interventions.

Each farmer was interviewed twice, once during 1993 to 1997 (before implementation) and another during 1998 to 2001 (after implementation).

Data included only farmers who kept cropping land plus buffalo and / or dairy cattle in five different governorates, Damietta (DAM), Kafr El-Sheikh (KEl), Menoufeia (MEN), Daqahleia (DAQ) and Gharbeia (GHA).

Two districts were sampled within each governorate, one had farmers collaborating with FSDP who got at least one package (C1) and the other non-collaborating farmers (did not receive any package (control group)).

Cattle were of three genotypes, native, exotic and cross between them.

Response indicators considered were daily milk yield (DMY), weaning mortality rate (WMR), farm size (FS) and herd size (HS) while the economic indicators were internal rate of return (IRR), return per feddan (RPF) and return per animal (RPA).

Three statistical models were applied for evaluating the impact of interventions on the response indicators.

The program had favorable impact on all indicators considered.

Results showed that MEN showed the highest FSDP impact on DMY and highest average DMY for buffalo and native and crossbred cattle while DAM was the highest in exotic cattle.

Also, the interventions had significant (p<0.05) favorable effect on WMR in all genotypes.

MEN registered the lowest mean and impact on FS and HS while DAQ had the highest estimates for both.

DAQ, DAM and MEN scored the highest IRR, RPF and RPA, respectively.

Governorates responded differently to the program and so did types of animals.

Proportional to their initial DMY, buffalo and native cows increased more than crossbreds and exotic cows, percentage of increase, being 22, 32, 12 and 13, respectively, indicating the relatively unutilized potential of local buffalo and cattle.