UoN’s department engaged in Africa-milk: the Department of Agricultural Economics of the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, has vast experience on dairy research. In the recent past, it has collaborated with ILRI and KARLO to successfully manage large dairy research projects. Its research outputs have contributed to the achievement of the national agenda, while developing a pool of well-qualified researchers in animal science, livestock production, dairy technologies and value chain analysis. The Department also trains undergraduate students in various disciplines and offers M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics, M.Sc. in Agricultural and Applied Economics, M.Sc. in Agricultural Information Communication and Management, and various PhD programs (http://agrieconomics.uonbi.ac.ke/

Some ongoing or recent projects on milk in Africa involving UoN:

• Fodder research of 3R (robust, reliable resilient) dairy project implemented by Wageningen University & Research, in the Netherlands
• Designing a framework and methodology for validating accuracy of market data in livestock markets in Isiolo, Garissa, Marsabit, Wajir and Turkana.
• Assessment of impact of destocking on livestock markets in Marsabit County
• Impact of ICT based extension service on Dairy Production in Kenya: A case of iCow service

UoN brings to Africa-Milk the following expertise:

• mapping national feed resources for livestock (Task 1)
• constraint analysis method of using modern breeding services (Task 2)
• co-designing of innovations to improve milk yields in dairy farms (ration formulation, conservation of silage, crop residues treated with urea, high energy diets) (Task 3)

assessment of the economic viability of dairy value chains and livestock technologies (i.e. in-vitro embryo transfers in dairy cattle, adaptability of dairy breeds to agro-ecological conditions) (Task 4)