Baseline studies, establishment of local dairy innovation platforms

For each dairy included in the project, Task 1 aims to characterize how milk is produced and collected, and how to organize the partnership in the project in order to identify: specific opportunities and constraints regarding milk production and collection that need to be addressed; potential innovations to be assessed and prioritized for implementation; key stakeholders to be involved in the DIPs; and criteria for M&E to be established.

To achieve these objectives, Task 1 will start with two baseline studies to understand in
each case:

  • (i) How the milk collection system is organized and, what the specific constraints are in terms of quantity and quality, and specificities regarding contracting between producers, collectors and processors (Sub-Task 1.1. “Baseline studies at the milkshed level”);
  • (ii) How dairy farms supplying the dairies are managed, focusing on cow management (feeding practices, reproductive management, genetic selection, health management) (Sub-Task 1.2. “Baseline studies at farm level”).

Based on these baseline studies a local Dairy Innovation Platform (DIP) will be established in each of the nine dairy chains (Sub-Task 1.3. “Establishment of local DIPs, and DIPs meetings”). Each DIP will be in charge of steering the co-innovation design process: choice of innovations to be designed, tested, implemented, and evaluated. Each Local DIP will bring together stakeholders including producers, collectors, dairies, extension services, and researchers. In some cases, Africa-Milk will use existing DIPs such as “La plateforme d’innovation lait de Banfora” in Burkina Faso, or rely on local existing stakeholder networks.