Files
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that improved agricultural technologies benefit smallholder farmers in
sub-Saharan Africa. This evidence is however relatively clearer for innovations in smallholder crop
production systems as compared to innovations in livestock production systems. Moreover, it is
unclear whether the benefits of technology adoption in livestock systems are uniform across small and
relatively large farmers. This study uses a national representative sample of 906 households to
rigorously assess the impact of adoption of improved dairy cow breeds on enterprise-, household-,
and individual child-level nutrition outcomes in Uganda. We find that adopting improved dairy cows
significantly increases milk yield, household’s orientation to milk markets, and food expenditure.
Consequently, adoption substantially reduces household poverty and stunting for children younger
than age five. Considering heterogeneity, we find that adopting households with small farms increase
milk yield, food expenditure and reduce poverty substantially while large farms increase not only ownmilk
consumption and commercialization but also nutrition outcomes of children younger than age
five.