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In this area there is a strong taboo against goats milk. At JOY Youth Training Centre we had a potential customer for a dairy goat who was originally from this region, but had moved to Kampala. She decided not to go ahead with the idea when told by her family that they would never visit her home if she drank goats milk. Cattle are plentiful, and cows milk is available at low prices, so there is no point in banging our heads against a wall by working here.
The SE is densely populated and although cows are kept, the numbers are low and the price of milk is high. There is no taboo against goats milk, but it is a new idea and a little of the above attitude has rubbed off. However, the limited availability of milk means that only about 1 in 4 people drink it in any form even once in a week. So there is an incentive for attitudes to change, albeit slowly. In the area immediately around JOY Youth Training Centre we found that it took 5 years for a majority or people to see goats milk as normal, even if few drank it themselves; and 10 years before most people saw it as ‘their thing’. In the wider area, attitudes have now shifted a few years along that learning process,and there are a few notable hotspots of enthusiasm.
Although culturally very distinct, it is likely that many parts of West Nile show parallels in their attitude towards goats milk. Masaka project Iganga project Lingira Island possible project
A very high population density in this hilly area has meant that availability of milk is even less than in Central Region. As a result, despite strong cultural links with the Southern Cattle Corridor, there is a considerable openness to the idea of goats milk. Kabale project
These two areas are small, but because of a very high population density they still
represent a significant number of people. The problems of milk shortages are very
acute here, and have been there for longer. So in these areas some groups already
milk their local goats -
This is another area where goats milk is traditionally drunk, but for very different reasons. The area is sparsely populated, but with relatively large numbers of cattle. However it is very dry and the cows have to be taken long distances for water and pasture. Consequently, for large parts of the year goats are the only source of milk at the homesteads. There is enthusiasm for improving the growth rates and milk yields by bringing in dairy breeds, but there are many challenges to introducing them. Moroto project
Historically this is an agro-