Construction Of Milkafric Dairy Project Underway
Tumelo Mouwane | Monday October 12, 2015 18:00
Construction of the high biosecurity entrance is almost at completion stage, roads have been fully constructed and an erection of a 21-kilometre electric fence around the farm has began.
It is envisaged that boreholes are to drilled to mitigate against watershortage that continues to bedevil the southern part of gthe country.
During a media tour held last week, MilkAfric chief executive officer (CEO), Phil Matibe said that construction of staff housing and administration facilities are yet to begin. Matibe said they recently went to United States of America (USA) alongside Lobatse Town Council leadership to appreciate the model of dairy production to be replicated in Lobatse.
“In the USA, we appreciated the dairy production model to be replicated in Lobatse. We also met MilkAfric partners, Alliance Dairies. The next stage is the construction of staff housing, the paddocks, grazing area, administration block and other facilities,” Matibe said.
The multimillion pula project, which has already employed 25 permanent workers will house over 2,000 dairy cattle and will produce close to two million litres of milk annually, which will be a third of Botswana’s milk production. Despite its size, Matibe said that the dairy would not be able to export milk to other countries.
“Botswana has a very high demand of milk, which we will not be able to meet fully. We will consider exporting milk at a later stage after the production rate expands,” He said.
Asked how they will overcome the power and water shortage crisis, Matibe told Business Monitor that they are yet to drill boreholes in the farm in order to provide adequate water and they have renewable energy measures in place.
“We are yet to drill close to 10 boreholes on this farm alone. We found some (boreholes) here and they need renovations. We are also yet to construct a biogas power generation system to meet the power challenge crisis,” he said.
During the tour, it emerged that 15 students who were to leave for the US for intensive study ahead of the dairy operation have not done so due to challenges of acquiring visas. Matibe said acquiring the visas is something, which is beyond their control.
The first cup of milk from the dairy is expected to be served by April next year and the project is anticipated to create more than 1,000 jobs for the residents of Lobatse.
Besides fresh milk, MilkAfric proposed that it would produce milk by-products such as yoghurt.