Smallholder dairy farming plays a crucial role in Tanzania’s agricultural sector. However, their milk productivity remains low. Therefore, the study aimed at examining how training affects milk productivity, quality, and safety. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design, whereby data and milk samples were collected from 70 randomly selected smallholder dairy farmers (35 trained and 35 untrained) with lactating dairy cows. The study also involved direct measurement of daily milk yield and laboratory analysis of physical-chemical characteristics and hygienic quality. The data were analyzed using R software version 4.5.1, whereby both descriptive and inferential statistics were determined. Findings show that trained farmers reported higher milk yields (P0.001), averaging 12.07 ± 2.02 L/day, compared to 6.56 ± 1.4 L/day for untrained farmers. Additionally, milk from trained farmers demonstrated superior physicochemical properties, recording a higher mean pH (6.65 ± 0.1) and specific gravity (1.026 ± 0.85 g/cc) compared to untrained farmers (6.49 ± 0.13; 1.024 ± 1.09 g/cc). Hygienic parameters also showed better results for trained farmers, whose milk had lower mean somatic cell counts 5.04 vs. 5.51 log cells/ml), total plate counts 5.08 vs. 5.30 log CFU/ml), and Escherichia coli loads 2.49 vs. 2.81 log CFU/ml). Additionally, iStaphylococcus aureus/i mean counts were lower in milk from trained farmers 4.34 vs. 4.59 log CFU/ml). The mean contamination of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) was lower in trained farmers compared to their untrained counterparts. Findings also show that training had a highly significant (p 0.001) effect on aflatoxin M1 contamination. Overall, it can be concluded that training enhanced smallholder dairy farmers milk yield and quality through better management and hygiene. Therefore, there is a need for expanding extension services and training programs as these boost smallholder dairy farmers productivity and livelihoods and general food safety.
Kalinga et al. (Tue,) studied this question.