From one cow to a dairy cooperative: an Ethiopian farmer's route to steady income

Ayelech Tarekegn Mekebo, a farmer from Kedida Gamela woreda in the Kembata Tembaro zone of Ethiopia's Central Ethiopia region, began dairying in 2006 with a single local cow. In a feature published on 19 March 2026, the World Bank reported that the mother of three is now a member of a dairy cooperative and earns a regular income from milk. Across rural Ethiopia, the Bank wrote, livestock is a source of food but also an important pathway to jobs. "I started with just one local cow," Ayelech told the Bank. "I never imagined it would take me this far."

In 2006 Ayelech's family depended on subsistence farming and resources were limited. Her one local cow produced milk mainly for the household, with a little sold nearby. The turning point came when the World Bank-supported Livestock and Fisheries Sector Development Project (LFSDP) introduced her to improved dairy practices. She adopted artificial insemination and crossbreeding, the productivity of her animals rose step by step, and a regular income followed.

According to the World Bank's project record, the LFSDP was a 170 million US dollar project approved by the Bank's board on 12 December 2017, implemented by Ethiopia's Ministry of Agriculture and closed on 7 July 2025. Its aim was to raise the productivity and commercialisation of producers and processors in selected value chains and to strengthen livestock and fisheries services; its first component worked across 58 woredas.

In 2021 Ayelech and 12 neighbours who shared the same vision formed a Common Interest Group. Through the project the group received construction materials, improved forage seed, water troughs, milk cans and concentrate feed. In 2022 ten such groups merged into the Enat Milk Collection and Marketing Cooperative. The cooperative built a milk collection centre, which was equipped with refrigerators, milk quality testing equipment, milk cans and a Bajaj vehicle.

Ayelech now supplies about 20 litres of milk a day to the cooperative at 80 Birr a litre, the Bank reported. She is paid every ten days, earning between 10,800 and 14,400 Birr per payment cycle. Once a year she also receives a dividend from the cooperative; she has received one three times so far, each worth at least 27,500 Birr.

The cooperative later became a member of the Tsedal Multipurpose PLC Union, which also received LFSDP support. Founded in 2015, the union started with 17,100 members. According to the Bank, it collects more than 2,000 litres of whole milk a day from its members, of which about 1,500 litres are processed into products such as cheese, butter, yogurt and whey. The union's gross daily income is over 195,000 Birr, about 1,260 US dollars.

Projects of this kind, the Bank wrote, create jobs across the dairy value chain, from animal care and milk collection to processing, transport and retail. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) puts the number of households engaged in milk production worldwide at about 150 million and notes that in most developing countries milk is produced by smallholders. Dairy productivity there, FAO says, is held back by poor-quality feed, disease, limited access to markets and services such as health, credit and training, and the low genetic potential of dairy animals. The support Ayelech's group and cooperative received addressed those same constraints.

Photo: Niels Van Iperen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: World Bank, World Bank projects database (LFSDP, P159382), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Wikipedia