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This study was designed to evaluate the performance of the Federation of Rural Dairy Cooperative Associations in Kaduna State-Nigeria which was registered under the trade name MILCOPAL (nig) Limited in 1989. The objectives were to evaluate the operations and extension service delivery, resource mobilization and utilization, the milk handling procedures and processing techniques in order to assess the general efficiency of the project and level of compliance to safety standards. The project achievement of sample size of 2000 pastoral farm family holdings in over 36 associations scattered over a milkshed range of 150-200 kilometers was commendable, though too large for an efficient routine milk collection, ambulatory and surveillance activities. The identified ineffectiveness was in the areas of poor project resource allocation. Policies which consolidate group level investment holdings, provision of farm credits and intensify farm level education will tend to improve efficiency in the rural dairy reforms. Further research into Distributed Database Technology will also have a significant impact on dairy data management and will improve effectiveness.

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Annatte is an extension specialist with the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a theme leader with the Livestock and Fisheries Programme of the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services. His works are on dairy food security and especially federating rural dairy Cooperative Systems and Institutional Performance Measurements.

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