Dairy strategy to improve production
Kushatha Tabengwa | Monday June 23, 2014 10:56
Speaking at the gathering, the Minister of Agriculture, Christian De Graaff said he was aware of the problems facing dairy production and promised to personally see to it that the situation is tackled and improved. He said dairy production has great potential for economy diversification.
“Dairy industry is not doing well at all, this is evidenced by its observed decreasing total production levels in recent years in spite of the high potential demand that exists. Annual production has been going down from 8.3 million liters in 2009 to 2.9 million liters in 2013,” De Graaff said.
He said government considers dairy as one of the sub sectors with great potential for diversification of the economy and it is for that reason that through the coordination of the National Economic Diversification Council, a Dairy Strategy has been developed with the contributions from the stakeholders. The strategy is intended to address challenges with a view to filling in gaps that negatively affect the industry.
“I am therefore happy to pronounce to you that this Dairy Strategy has since been approved by the government and it is now under implementation stage. I appreciate the heart work you do in this Dairy production, it is not well but you never gave up. The ministry is going out of its way to help and make land available for dairy farmers. I promise you that government is going to spend no matter what to refurbish the Pitsane milk collection,” De Graaff said.
The outgoing chairperson of the Diary Association, Wellim Herbst said the farmers are facing major hiccups and hoped the minister’s promise will bear fruit. Herbst asked De Graaff to intervene where financial institutions are concerned. He said commercial banks do not grant farmers loans, making the already challenged diary farming business the more difficult.
The workshop heard that recently some dairy farmers went on a benchmarking trip to Kenya.
The delegates told the workshop that Kenya is doing well in dairy production, with 3.5 million dairy cattle, producing five billion liters milk a year.
Meanwhile, a senior lecturer in Department of Animal Science and Production, Gaolebale Mpapho, advised the farmers to consider goat milk. She said goat milk is more nutritious than cow milk and goats in general live long than cattle.