Abstract
The dairy sector in Ethiopia has a large potential due to the country’s large livestock population and ample market opportunities for its value chain development. On the other hand, the large population, with low productivity attributed to proportionally higher greenhouse gas emissions. However, the number of greenhouse gases emissions from dairy cattle of the study area associated with practices and technologies used to reduce greenhouse gas emission were not assessed. The study intended to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and identify interventions for enhancing dairy value chains. The study used multistage random sampling to select 183 sampled household heads. GLEAM-i procedures for data analysis and SPSS version 20 were applied for statistical analysis.
The result of the study revealed that the total greenhouse gases, total CH4 emission, methane emission from enteric fermentation and N2O emissions from fertilizer applied to feed crops and from the decomposition of crop residues were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in rural than the peri-urban and urban dairy production system. Genetic limitation and a low number of improved genotypes, reproductive inefficiency, and poor quality feeds were the main drivers of greenhouse gas emission. This finding estimated greenhouse gas Emissions per Kilogram of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk approximately 18.7, 7.9, and 5.4 in kg CO2- equivalent/kilogram protein in rural peri-urban and urban dairy cattle production systems respectively. Interventions consist of the use of high-quality improved forage, improve the local low quality of feeds, and supplement dry and wet industrial by-products, use of animal health improvement, and use breeding improvement. The combined effect of carried out interventions also reduced total GHG emission by 8.2%. Comparable reduction across each dairy production, the combined effect of the carried out interventions resulted in 14%, 5.3%, and 2.2% reduction in total GHG emission in urban, peri-urban, and rural respectively. Similarly, the combined effect of carried out interventions resulted in 7% reduction in emission intensity of milk. The combined effect of the interventions results in 11.4%, 5.3%, and 2.1% reduction in emission intensity of milk in urban, peri-urban, and rural respectively. Moreover, sample households' milk supply to the market, satisfaction by the animal health services, use of breeding improvement, and credit access were significantly (p<0.05) higher in urban than peri-urban and rural dairy production systems. Interventions used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the dairy value chain were more effective in urban dairy cattle holders than the other dairy production systems. Support on-farm production of high-quality improved forage, improve the local low quality of feeds, promote dry and wet industrial by-products, and promote breeding improvement practices. This study concludes that interventions were appropriated for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while increasing milk production and make adopts overall dairy production in Wukro-Kilteawlaelo districts northern Ethiopia.
Keywords: Emission Reduction, Ethiopia, GLEAM, GHG, Milk Value Chain