Review on Opportunities and Constraints of Dairy Production in Ethiopia

The objective of this paper was to review on opportunities and constraints of dairy production in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is believed to have the largest livestock population in Africa. The total livestock population for the country is estimated to be about70.29 a million cattle population. Despite the huge number of cattle and their dairy industry, the productivity is low due to the constraints of disease, scarcity of feed, inefficient and insufficient AI, veterinary services, infectious diseases, environmental, shortage of feed, and shortage of land. The findings of different authors conducted in different regions indicated that the existence of a large population of dairy cattle and diverse dairy animals’ genetic resources, the country’s diverse topography, and climatic condition as favorable for dairying. The high potential of smallholder income employment generation is also the key opportunity to dairy production. Therefore, necessary measures have to be taken to reduce identified constraints that hinder the dairy sector's development.