Assessment of Traditional Butter Production and Preservation Techniques in West Shewa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was carried out in Dire Inchini and Ambo Districts, West Shewa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia, to assess traditional butter production, processing and handling techniques, consumption and marketing, to identify traditional butter preservatives and preservation techniques. To generate data, semi-structured questionnaire was prepared for the total of 120 respondents, 60 from each district residing in Highland (40), Midland (40) and Lowland (40) representing agro-climate of the districts and owning at least one milking cow and interviewed individually. The findings showed that, the mean volume of milk required to produce a kg of butter was 20.74lit and the average butter produced /week/HH was 0.44kg. The only marketed products were butter (65.91%), “ayib” (17.14%) and fresh milk (1.88%). Butter is usually stored in small clay pot (75%), plastic materials (15%) and cans (10%). Traditional butter preservation methods identified were traditional ghee making (100%), spicing (98.33%), melting (29.17%) and salting (11.67%).To make traditional ghee; Trachyspermum ammi, Nigella sativa, Aframomum angusti-folium, Trigonella foenum, Zingiber officinale and Allium sativum are the commonly used spices. The major constraints of milk and butter production, processing and marketing were scarcity of feed, animal diseases, low milk production, low fat recovery, low price and price fluctuation over time and lack of collection centers. Therefore, extension services need to be promoted in improving livestock management systems and producers need to process milk into more stable products and traditionally preserve butter by making traditional ghee and salting.

Keywords: Butter, preservation, traditional