DAIRY SECTOR
BY MAINA WARURU

Frustrated by ever falling prices of tea and coffee in the international market, a rise in cost of fertilizers and other farm inputs peasant farmers in Kenya are increasingly turning to dairy farming to stay afloat.

The farmers are finding it easier to rear dairy animals including dairy goats besides cattle , arguing that milk prices had increased over the years thanks to a resurgent dairy sector.

The farmers also find it easier rearing cattle which mostly depends on fodder produced on the farm and relying less on commercial feeds which have since last seen a rise in prices .

As a result many are now uprooting coffee and tea bushes to create space of fodder crops mainly nappier grass, the main fodder for zero grazers.

The tend is expected to see a drop in tea and coffee production in coming years , with land put under the two crops dwindling by the day.

“ We cannot continue engaging in a farming enterprise that brings little or no earnings at all “ said Mwangi Kugwa a farmer in Murang’a district of central Kenya.

Mwangi an owner of two dairy cows says he 2 years ago uprooted his 200 coffee bushes creating a quarter acre of space that he immediately put under nappier grass.

With milk processors and cooperatives now paying as much as Ksh 20 a litre he is able to take his 19 year old son David to a good secondary school.

“This was no possible before, we were being exploited by players in the coffee sector and international brokers who offer whatever price they want for clean “ he adds capturing the kind of frustration many cash crop farmers in Africa go through.

The peasant adds that unlike coffee and tea , milk produced is consumed locally , guaranteeing better prices and a chance for farmers to agree on the price with buyers unlike coffee which is auctioned in Nairobi and bought by foreigners for export.

The recent more than tripling of fertilizers has only helped dampen farmers desire to grow cash crops even further , with even those who have not cut down their coffee trees now intercropping it nappier grass.

The result experts say will be even poorer quality coffee from central Kenya since the new crops will ultimately interfere with the aroma of the end product .

With the two sectors (tea and coffee) now going to the dogs quite literally, despite government efforts and promises of reforms in sectors, the dairy sector is now thriving creating opportunities for farmers.
Animal feeds, veterinary shops and artificial insemination services are cropping up all over central Kenya, a sign of how quickly business can adjust.

Kenya is now producing some 3.5 billion litres of milk annually and new export markets for processed milk have been found in the region.

The revival of once moribund but giant Kenya cooperative creameries (KCC), has largely been cited as the engine behind the new wave.

With a market share of 60% the farmers body has been paying producers as much as Ksh 25 a litre according to chairman Matu Wamae processors to follow trend .

The country has other 2 commercial processors Brookside dairy owned by the family of founding president Jomo Kenyatta and Spin Knit both of which have been in existence for more than 8 years now.

A number of farmers’ cooperatives in Central Kenya have also opened processing factories ensuring that market for raw milk is not a problem.

KCC’s recent venture into export market , mainly to Mauritius Yemen and Rwanda has ensured that a ready market is there , even at peak production months of May- July when a lot of milk used to go to waste.

With things looking up for the resurgent sector the government , is intensifying extension services to farmers and only last month announced plans to hire more than 1,000 veterinary doctors, livestock production officers and technicians.

But livestock development minister Mohammed Kuti while acknowledging the sector was really set for the sky, has expressed fears that his ministry was still understaffed and outbreaks of diseases remained a challenge .

The minister has called for more funding to the ministry to enable it hire more technical staff to enable if fight diseases.
Ends