Govt urged to regulate cattle trading

By Chris Mugasha

Stakeholders in the dairy industry have petitioned the Government to intervene and regulate the crossborder cattle trading business.

The stakeholders said unless the Government intervenes, farms in the country might run out of good breeds, hence a shortage of milk in the country.

Addressing journalists in Mbarara town recently, Clayton Arinanye, the Uganda Crane Creameries Cooperative Union general manager, argued that the rate at which farmers selling their heifers, which are of good breed to the neighbouring countries like Rwanda and Burundi, is worrying.

“You sell them for short-time gains. However, in future, you will realise that you only remained with the poor breeds,” he said.

Arinanye added that mainly dairy cows are sold to neighbouring countries. He said unless the Government intervenes, re-stocking the farms will be expensive in future, after farms have been depleted.

He noted that if the Government was enabling farmers to access artificial insemination services and good quality breeds under the National Agricultural Advisory Services programme, there would not be any problem with farmers selling their heifers.

Although he is against the issues of selling the heifers, Arinanye defended the farmers, saying most of them have been disappointed because of the issue of the Government neglecting the dairy sector.

“Dairy keepers must be empowered to breed more cattle and there would be no problem if the rate of highquality breeds was higher than the numbers that are being sold across the border,” he explained.

Arinanye said unlike other sectors like crops, which have been receiving funds from the Government, the dairy sector has remained unfunded, yet it is facing threats of diseases, which are killing cows.
He cited areas like Nyabushozi and Ntungamo district where farmers are losing their cattle to diseases.Arinanye added that other areas like Bushenyi have already run out of milk because some farms have been depleted.

“It is unfortunate to find that places like Bushenyi, which used to have model farms, have started to buy milk from Mbarara,” he said.

A litre of milk in Bushenyi costs between sh700 and sh1, 000, depending on where one buys it. A milk cooler operator in Bushenyi town said some businessmen prefer to take their milk to towns like Kasese, where a litre of milk goes for sh1, 300.

Arinanye, however, encouraged farmers not to lose hope, explaining that they are trying to lobby different development partners to intervene by introducing different pro-farmers programmes, which he said will increase milk production.