Perception of Pastoralists on Dairy Production Technologies in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper assessed the perception of pastoralists on the introduced Dairy Production Technologies (DPTs) in Oyo State, Nigeria. It specifically identified DPTs introduced to the pastoralists and examined their perceptions towards the DPTs. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 216 respondents from 27 pastoral communities across two Dairy Development Programme (DDP) operating locations in the study area. Interview schedule was used for quantitative data collection while in-depth interview and Focus Group Discussion Guides were used to elicit qualitative information. Data were analysed through Software Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 and summarized using means, percentages, frequency counts and standard deviations while Pearson correlation analysis was used to draw inferences on hypothesis. The results showed almost all the respondents indicated they were aware of all the DPTs introduced to them except animal health record. Pastoralists’ perception varied with respect to each of the technological components, however, majority of the respondents (77.3 %) showed indifferent perception to DPTs. Also, positive and significant relationship existed between pastoralists’ household size (r = 0.768), age (r = 0.264), dairy years of experience (r = 0.248) and their perception of the DPTs. It is recommended that the concerns of pastoralists on ‘uncertainties/risk’ and ‘cost’ should be addressed if dairy development efforts are to be meaningful among the pastoralists in Nigeria.