Women entrepreneurs in agribusiness: Focus on pastoral women in grazing reserves in Nigeria.

Abstract

Women entrepreneurs in agribusiness (pastoral women) contribute immensely in improving milk production in grazing reserves in Nigeria. Inadequate milking practices have put the pastoral women entrepreneurs to a significant disadvantage in grazing reserves. With a daily production of less than one liter per milking cow, the commercial dairies do not purchase pastoral milk for
further processing due to bad flavor from direct heating and impurities making milk products like yogurt to have a low shelf life. The paper examines the women pastoralist awareness in good milking, handling, and processing as well as the adoption of these technologies. A sample of 375 women pastoralist were selected from 12 grazing reserves using purposive criteria due to the large concentration of sedentary pastoralists and milk production and processing activities. Mix method of data collection was employed. Results had shown that 87.5% of the pastoralists do not conduct indirect heating of milk which would have ensured good equality milk; suitable milking technologies such as milking protocol cleaning, fore stripping, cooling of milk before
pasteurization to lower bacterial growth is not practiced by the respondents. The study recommends that improved capacity building, extension activities, and formation of milk cooperative are required in the grazing reserves by all stakeholders in order to change and improve this vital sector, the dairy value chain.