Training was delivered to 40 Livestock Experts from different Woredas of East Hararghe Zone of Oromia Regional State from December 25-28, 2017 at Ras Hotel, Harar.

Moreover, practical training was also delivered at Haramaya University dairy technology laboratory and dairy farm. The training mainly focused on dairy animal feed and nutrition, dairy animal husbandry and management, milk production and marketing, dairy technology and product development.

The training was organized by Haramaya Camel Dairy Project in collaboration with Community Development Works Directorate of the University and the training was practical oriented, and delivered by the staff of the University from different disciples related to dairy sciences and technology.

Southern Coordinator of Haramaya Camel Dairy Project, Dr. Mitiku Eshetu, stated that the training was organized to capacitate the East Hararghe livestock experts on milk production, safety, processing and marketing. He also explained that in East Hararghe Zone, there is a huge market demand for milk but there is scarcity of market milk satisfy the existing market demands. Even the available milk on the market is of poor quality coupled with different adulteration problems and hence milk quality is found to be below the required standard. In order to deter this and other challenges of the sector, we have been working closely with the dairy farmers and experts through giving trainings and other technical supports. So this training is also part of this initiative and this effort will continue in the future.

One of the trainees from Haramaya woreda, Mr. Wendeye Lemecha, said, “I personally gained key lessons from this training, like lesson related with milk quality management at the farm, at milk collection center and milk transportation. Especially in our woreda, lack of proper milk transportation is a big problem. The community has a trend of transporting milks via plastic materials which makes it vulnerable to contamination. So I am very much eager to work on this problem and to share my experiences that I got from this training. ”

The other trainee, Mr. Derse Teklu from Girawa woreda said, “First, I would like to say thank you to Haramaya University for preparing this training, which is quite significant to advance our knowledge and skills as livestock experts. In the four-day training, many topics were presented and elaborated by instructors/researchers and we discussed our experiences on each topic. For instance, in our Woreda when we tested the quality of milk from the market, several times we found that the milk was mixed with different harmful liquid. Related with this problem, I learned from the training how we can make control on the milk market and various types of milk quality testing techniques. Surely, we will implement these in to practice and work to improve the quality of milk product in our locality.”

The trainees also visited the dairy technology laboratory of the University, that during their visit different laboratory equipment such as Milkoscan, ICINAC, Cheese vat, texture analyzers and other equipment were briefed by Dr. Yonas Hailu and Mr. Tesfamariam Berhe. The trainee has got a basic understanding about the activities undergoing in this particular laboratory’s and the capacity of the laboratory in developing different dairy product using modern dairy technologies.

The training commenced with active involvement of participants with an experience sharing and practical filed visits at HU dairy farms. When they return to their locality, trainees are expected to work with full capacity on milk production, quality control, processing and marketing of milk and to further train farmers to cascade the knowledge and skill acquired in this training.