By SARAH OOKO,
In Summary
- Better skills improving livelihoods of small-scale cattle breeders in Kenya.
In the lush valleys of Keiyo South in the Rift
Valley, 42-year-old Christopher Chepkarwa happily watches over his
dairy cattle that are browsing in vast green fields.
“My cows are healthy. They produce a lot of milk
which I sell and get enough money to take care of my family and pay
school fees,” he says. Today, the farmer can afford a smile despite the
rough times he has recently gone through.
“In 1998, I had six cows that despite taking so
much of my time, only produced 12 litres of milk daily that did not
fetch good prices. Also, the cows were always grazing yet they appeared
thin and often became sick,” he says.
Mr Chepkarwa’s tribulations were similar to those
of a majority of dairy farmers in Kenya’s Central and Rift valley
regions where milk production is highest in the country.
Constraints faced by these farmers included low
milk volumes, poor quality of dairy products and limited access to
markets due to poor roads. The collapse of the Kenya Co-operative
Creameries (KCC) in the early 2000s further compounded the problem. It
left many farmers with arrears and few alternative milk markets to rely
on.
Consequently, most people felt discouraged and
nearly gave up on dairy farming. Though some progress was made over the
years – such as government revival and establishment of New KCC as a
parastatal — problems of dairy farmers were still far from over.
To address some of those challenges, an initiative
entitled East Africa Diary Development Project (EADD) was rolled out in
Kenya in 2008 through a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
It aimed to boost yields and incomes of more than
100,000 small scale farming families through improved production and
marketing of milk for profit.
Improving livelihoods
The project, whose first phase ended in 2012,
significantly increased incomes of dairy farmers thus improving
livelihoods of numerous communities in Central and Rift valley provinces
where it was implemented.
“My problems ended once I attended the EADD
training and learned how to manage my cows well. Afterwards, I sold half
of my herd and remained with only three cows. Their total milk
production rose from six litres to 21 litres daily after only two
months of practising what I was taught,” says Mr Chepkarwa.
The EADD project was implemented by a consortium
of five partners — the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Heifer
International, Technoserve, International Livestock Research Institute
(ILRI) and the African Breeders Service (ABS) who all have a track
record of supporting diary production in Africa. The government was also
involved through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
Development.
The project immensely contributed to the revival of Kenya’s livestock industry, which according to a 2011 FAO report titled Diary Development in Kenya, accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The report further states that the country’s
annual milk production from all diary species is about three billion
litres. Moreover, for every 1000 litres handled, about 40,000 jobs are
created which further boosts the economy.
“At the start of the project, we began by
mobilising dairy farmers in selected areas to unite and form
co-operative societies,” notes Esther Kamau, an expert on dairy
enterprise development at ICRAF, who was involved in the EADD project.
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