Small-Scale Dairying Can Be A Way Out Of Poverty

Poverty reduction, increased nutrition levels and an improvement in livelihoods could be the result of an increase in the competitiveness of small-scale dairy farms according to a study by the FAO's Animal Production and Health Division and the International Farm Comparison Network. It could help meet the demands of local and global markets and the Millenium Develoment Goal of eradicating hunger and poverty.

The study entitled 'The Status and Prospects for Smallholder Milk Production' estimates that there are about 150 million small dairy farming households equalling around 750 million people in milk production and the majority are in developing countries. The average dairy herd is about 2 cows yielding about 11 litres per farm per day. There are 6bn consumers of milk and milk products the majority in developing countries. The low production costs of the smaller dairies means they have the potential to compete with much larger capital intensive dairy systems even in the developed world. Opportunities exist where populations and wages are increasing and where there are higher market prices.

The report also said that better management practices with herd expansion and increased yields could improve productivity and poverty reduction. The opportunities will only be realised if the threats facing the sector are properly addressed. Enterprise, marketing and management skills are lacking in some places and credit is limited.

Trade liberalisation leaves small-scale dairy farmers open to competition from large-scale corporates able to resond to market changes more easily. Farmers in South Asia and Africa also leave a bigger carbon footprint than farmers in Europe and America. It could be reduced by better animal feeding systems.

Value creation at every stage in the production and marketing chain must be part of the every strategy if consumers are to get more for their money.

Quarterly World Merchandise Trade

There was a change of 27.2% in exports in world merchandise trade in the first quarter of 2010 and a change of 24.2% in imports according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) quarterly world merchandise statistics recent release. It compares with 3.8% in imports and -0.9% in exports for Q4 2010 and -31% and -29.9% respectively for Q1 2009.

Last Survey Shows Film And TV Industry Growth

The last release in the ONS series of UK film and television survey statistics was released on the 9 December 2008. The UK film and television industry increased its exports of all services to £2,836m in 2008. It is an increase of 23% on 2007. Imports increased from £1,956m in 2007 to £2,215m in 2008 giving a balance of £621m in 2008 compared to £347m in 2007. The film industry's net surplus was £494m and the television industry's surplus was £198m.

The biggest importer of UK exports of services in the US with £736m or 55% followed by Europe with £432m or 32% and the rest of the world with 13%. The biggest percentage of imports was from Europe with 46% with a value of £384m. Imports from the US totalled £111m or 13%.

Television industry exports amounted to £1,101m in 2008 from £855m in 2007 and imports increased to £903m from £983m in 2007. The resulting balance is a surplus of £198m compared with £62m in 2007. The biggest importer of TV services from the UK was Europe with 57% totalling £624m. The US increased its spend to £211m or 19%. The rest of the world imported 24% of UK exports.

Imports to the UK from the US accounted for 62% of the UK total at a value of £555m. There was a slight increase in the imports from Europe to £273m in 2008 from £261m in 2007. There was an 87% response rate to the survey.