Labour Demand of the Systems
Despite being high yielding, the forage systems require additional labour for the establishment and management of the hedgerows. The dairy unit requires labour for feeding, cleaning and collection of slurry. Good cooperation is required between family members for the dairy enterprise to succeed. Mullins et al. (1996) studied the role of gender in labour contribution to the dairy enterprise. The study sampled smallholder farmers in Kilifi district. Considering all the activities in a dairy enterprise, they found that women performed on average 50% of the work (Table 4). However, according to Nicholson et al. (1998), labour supply in dairy farms averaged 429 days per year with twice as much female as male labour.