Socio-economic Factors in Dairy Farming: Socioeconomic Factors in Dairy Farming, Lesotho

The research was done to find socioeconomic factors that affect small holder dairy farmers in Maseru district( Peri urban and urban)and causes of tremendous changes and stress in the production and processing of milk. Small dairy farmers in Maseru were so many and were affected by many factors such as economic and social factors. These kind of factors interact each other in that economy of the dairy enterprise declines due to unfavorable social factors and therefore, declined economy of enterprise can lead to social problems especially accessing good breeds or specimens that can be costly. More farmers were happy for the research in that they were hoping their problems were going to be solved after the research has been presented. There were some farmers who have made associations as small dairy farmers and things seemed to be easy for them as they collectively solved problems and were able to take alternatives. There were few farmers that were interdependently farming and not all of them managed sustainably, hence their farming end up collapsing. Through this research, i think it is better for farmers to form associations in order to sustain dairy farming.