Benefits to the Household
Thorpe et al. (1993) reported that livestock contributed 15-65% of the total farm income and that, on average, dairying contributed 72% of the income derived from livestock. An attempt to estimate economic returns of a system combining maize-Leucaena and Napier-Leucaena systems is reported by Mureithi et al. (1995). Maize in the alley was intercropped with cowpea and fertilized with 50% of the harvested tree prunings. Napier grass was fertilized with cattle slurry from a zero-grazing unit. Figure 3 shows the products from the combined system and economic calculations. Milk sales contributed more than 74% of the total gross income, which emphasizes the importance of dairy cows in smallholder agriculture in the region.
Nicholson et al. (1999) conducted a study to assess the impact of dairy adoption on household income and nutritional status. The results showed that average income per month from dairying was remarkably higher for households that had adopted dairy farming than for non-adopting households (Table 6). Also, the nutritional status of household members was likely to improve from consuming milk and food bought with cash from milk sales.