Introduction of ILCA internal agitator around Bako for increasing the efficiency of traditional butter-making

The internal agitator, developed by International Livestock Center for Africa was introduced and evaluated in smallholder from households around Bako and its butter-making efficiency compared with the traditional gourd churn. Twenty women farmers who own lactating cows were selected to participate in the study and offered on-station training as to how to use the agitator and then provided with the material. Among the participating households only eleven farmers churned using the internal agitator at their home. Due to the limited milk produced per household per day, the participating farmers could not collect a sufficient amount of milk required for simultaneous churning and comparison of the efficiency of both gourd churn and the ILCA internal agitator. Thus, on-station work was used to take accurate data on the efficiency of both materials in terms of churning time and butter yield. The reactions of the participating farmers to the innovation were also assessed using the prepared questionnaire. The analysis of the data using General Linear Model procedure of SAS shows no significant differences between the two butter-making methods in churning time and butter yield. Churning time was reduced from an average of 28 minutes in the traditional butter-making to 23 minutes using internal agitator. the average butter yield obtained from 6 liters of sour milk was 359.7 grams and 376.9 grams using gourd churn and the internal agitator, respectively, the increase in butter yield being 4.8 percent over the gourd churn. Using the ILCA internal agitator solved the problem of gender specificity in the traditional butter-making. In 81 percent of the households, both women and men did churning by the ILCA internal agitator while men in 19 percent of the households were still reserved due to socio-cultural taboo. The participating households (63 percent) also commented that cleaning and fumigation of the pot churn was easier compared to the local gourd churn thus resulting in good milk hygiene and quality. However, the ILCA internal agitator is relatively costly than traditional gourd churn (12.00 vs 7.50 Birr). all the participating farmers suggested that relatively lower durability of the internal agitator would incur additional cost for maintenance of its parts. In addition, churning using the internal agitator required high labor input compared to the gourd churn and its manipulation before the start of churning consumed time as suggested by 69 percent of the participating households.