Abstract:
This study was conducted in Arba Minch zuria Woreda of Gamo Zone, SNNPR Regional State,
Ethiopia. The research objective is analyzing the situation of dairy farming and its effect on the
livelihood of households. Multi-stage sampling technique was applied to select representative 336
dairy farm households. First Arba Minch zuria woreda was selected by purposively as study area.
The data was collected via questionnaire was first be coded, arranged, edited and analyzed
using STATA 14. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, graphs, tables, mean and
standard deviation was used to summarize and present the result on demographic and
socioeconomic characteristics of dairy farmers. The factors that affect decisions to use dairy
farming and dairy farm households’ livelihood are analyzed using Endogenous switching model.
This considers for possible self-selection in the estimation procedure to analyze demographic
and socio-economic variables with a 0.05 level of significance. 55.65% were involved off-farm
activities as their second income source whereas, 44.35% of the respondents were not involved.
61.90% of the respondents had an access of extension service, whereas 38.10% had no access to
extension service. Therefore, Extension services should be strengthened in the study area since
participation is the basic method used to ensure that new innovations are introduced to the dairy
farmers.
