Fresh Dairy to intensify trainings for dairy farmers

VALUE ADDITION | MILK PRODUCTION

Regular training of farmers in best practices in dairy farming is one of the ways through which Fresh Dairy plans to ensure that there is continuous production of milk to meet export demandS.

The trainings will be channeled through farmer field days that bring together stakeholders in the dairy value chain in different places where their farmers are based.

The trainings will be accompanied with close monitoring on their farms to ensure that they are putting into practice what they learn.

While speaking at a farmer field day in Sembabule district, John Gethi, the director of milk procurement at Fresh Dairy, said: “We want to train farmers and show them how best to manage and handle milk. We have given them milk coolers. We want to make sure that there is quality milk right from the village to the processing plant”.

According to Gethi, trainings conducted in the past are already yielding results, as evidenced by a growth in exports from $13m between January and August 2016 to $18m in the same period this year.

PIC: Lwemiyaga MP Thoedore Ssekikubo addressing farmers. (Credit: Shamim Saad)

He said pay outs to farmers by Fresh Dairy increased from sh24b last year to sh58b this year. Apart from enriching the economy with earnings from export, the milk processor also contributed to the tax base sh3b this year up from sh2b last year.

“This shows that Dairy is becoming a major contributor to the national economy and is positioning itself as one of the major foreign exchange earners,” added Gethi. 

During the farmer’s field day, farmers called on stakeholders to help find a lasting solution to ticks, which they said are making it hard for cattle to produce milk.

Lwemiyaga county MP Theodre Ssekikubo, who was the chief guest, called on the  government to speed up the programme of extending water to rural areas.

“Cows get infected by some of the diseases as they move around in such for water," he said.