Talking pictures: new tools to boost smallholders' milk production. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Principally based on Projects R6282, R7431 and R7855. New tools have been developed and tested in Bolivia, Tanzania, Kenya and India to help smallholder dairy farmers manage their animals better and greatly boost the amount of milk they produce. The improved breeds of cattle now available can produce up to 25 litres of milk per day, but many are producing similar amounts to local breeds simply because of poor management. To overcome this, researchers have produced software like the dairy rationing system for the tropics (DRASTIC), which trained users can use to predict what effect a particular mix of feeds will have on milk production. Another tool is Talking Pictures-Dairy (TP-D) which can be used to generate pictorial guides that local producers can easily understand and relate to.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (16 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
LPP02, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 136.