Board targets youth in plan to increase milk production

Farmers parade dairy cows for judgement at a past ASK Kabiruini show in Nyeri. A new campaign to encourage youth to take up dairy farming will be launched tomorrow in the North Rift region. PHOTO | FILE  NATION

In Summary

• The campaign is supported by the Kenya Dairy Processors Association (KDPA), USaid, and the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB).
• Moreover, it seeks to create awareness among the young population on the viability and profitability that comes from the industry.
• “One of the ways that smallholder farmers can achieve this is by coming together in groups/associations so that they can access cheaper loans from financial institutions to help them invest in advanced technologies across the production value chain,” Mr Sigey said.

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A new campaign to encourage youth to take up dairy farming will be launched tomorrow in the North Rift region.

The campaign dubbed maziwa ni donge nono, is hinged on highlighting various aspects of dairy production, which when done right, will make dairy farming – especially for farmers having a few milk producing animals – highly profitable. The five-year project which started in 2013, is being implemented in 22 counties. 

The plan’s main objective is to increase productivity and incomes of 500,000 smallholder farmers and other actors along the dairy, horticulture and staple food value chains, thereby enhancing food security and nutrition in the target counties.

SUPPORT INITIATIVE

The campaign is supported by the Kenya Dairy Processors Association (KDPA), USaid, and the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB).

“We are excited to be involved and to support this initiative that is intended to help smallholder farmers maximise yields by educating them on high breeds, effective animal feeds, good animal husbandry and access to markets so that cumulatively, they are able to realise optimum output,” board managing director Gichohi Machira said.

According to Mr Nixon Sigey, KDPA chairman and New KCC managing director, it is important that the farmer is assisted to make dairy farming a profitable venture.

“One of the ways that smallholder farmers can achieve this is by coming together in groups/associations so that they can access cheaper loans from financial institutions to help them invest in advanced technologies across the production value chain,” Mr Sigey said.

This initiative aims at encouraging stakeholders and the government to support dairy farming by creating a conducive environment through which maximum benefits can be realised.

CREATIVE AWARENESS

Moreover, it seeks to create awareness among the young population on the viability and profitability that comes from the industry.

This is set to encourage more people to take up milk production and change the current perception that the sector is for those who have retired, uneducated or unemployed.

In the long run, dairy farming will be viewed as an alternative to other forms of subsistence farming that may not yield much.

A roadshow in Bungoma will be held tomorrow in the town centre and its environs while the Eldoret version is scheduled for the Wednesday.