Making milk quality assurance work on an unlevel playing field : Lessons from the Happy Cow pilot

This report describes and assesses a milk quality assurance innovation, the milk quality tracking andtracing system (MQT&T) and Quality-Based Milk Payment System (QBMPS) project. The project was piloted by Happy Cow Ltd (HC), a medium-scale processor in Nakuru, Kenya, and its milk suppliers.The objective of the pilot project was to offer a proof of concept to track and trace milk quality within a smallholder-dominated supply chain and to develop and implement a payment system based on the quality of raw milk delivered. The assessment adapted the PPPLab Scaling Scan as the mainframework to enumerate the various project investments, interventions and achievements and toreflect on the success factors, shortcomings and preconditions required for QBMPS scalability.