Rwanda Cattle Livestock Sector In Strong Recovery

The number of cows in Rwanda grew from just 172,000 in the immediate aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi to 1.3 million currently, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources..

Milk production went up from over 7.2 million litres per year in 1994 to 817 million litres in 2019, increasing over 110 times over the last 25 years.

Solange Uwituze, the Deputy Director General of Animal Research and Technology Transfer at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), told The New Times that Rwanda’s cattle are today composed of 43 per cent crossbreeds, 41 per cent local breeds, and 16 per cent pure breeds.

A big proportion of crossbreeds, Uwituze said, were donated to citizens through the government-backed Girinka scheme (One Cow per Poor Family) under which more than 354,700 cows had been distributed to needy Rwandan households by mid-June 2019.

The initiative has significantly boosted nutrition, farm productivity and household incomes.

“There has been a deliberate effort to improve the genetic potential of our national dairy herd through artificial insemination. Today, we inseminate 100,000 cows per year,” Uwituze said.

Shortly before the Genocide, the country had 600,000 cows but most of them were butchered by Genocide perpetrators during the three-month slaughter.

In the end only 172,000 cows were left by July 1994.

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Solar-Powered Milk Coolers Proposed For Rwandese Dairy Farmers

“Sometimes, a farmer milks the cow and will wait for two hours until he will transport the milk to the [milk] collection centre. The milk is hot such as at 35 degrees, [and] the climate is hot. So, the milk is fermenting, and every 20 minutes, the number of germs in the milk doubles, and the quality of milk is deteriorating,” he said as he explains an instance of impact of lack of effective cooling system to the milk.

The remedy to the problem...is very quick cooling, and to do this, you need to have cold system just near the farm, or at the farm itself.

“...we have some new equipment that are actually very low energy consuming, and they can be run easily by solar or normal single-phase electric power...with this equipment, you can cool the milk very, very quickly, just near the cow, so that each farmer will become like a milk hub, and all these milk hubs [farmers] will deliver the cold milk to the milk [collection] centres.”

Full article

Uganda: new dairy plant to reduce unprocessed milk uptake

by Ephriam Kasozi

Arrangements to start the construction of a milk factory have been finalised, a move that will reduce consumption of unprocessed milk in Uganda. Under the arrangement, dairy farmers from the cattle corridor in the western region will have their 500,000 litres of milk processed daily at the factory based in Mbarara.

Mr Akash Kumar, the managing director of the Midland Group said the $15 million processing plant that starts its operations effective January 2012 will produce various

milk products including skimmed milk powder, butter oil, liquid milk, cream, ghee and cheese.

“The building of the plant is already under way and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter and milk power production is expected to begin in January 2012. The powder milk plant will have a capacity to turn 500,000 litres of milk every day,” said Mr Kumar adding that the company using Pearl Dairy as its brand will use its experience to deliver to the African Milk industry.

Speaking at the launch of the, Kumar the factory on a 15 acre land will see farmers organised to work in groups to increase milk production for sustainable production.

The Monitor

Zimbabwe maize production in four-fold increase since 2008, tobacco five-fold

Zimbabwe's finance minister Tendai Biti, speaking in parliament in answer to questions about government support for maize farmers, said,  "In 2008 the maize production was 400 000 metric tonnes but in 2011 the production of maize stands at 1,5 million metric tonnes. It could have been 1,7 million metric tonnes but because of the drought between December 2010 and January 2011 we lost 11 percent of hectarage.''

"The second crop is tobacco. In 2008 we produced 34 million kg and in 2011 our expected delivery will be 174 million kg and as I stand here 134 million kg have been delivered. In fact, with all the crops and livestock in Zimbabwe there has been a fundamental increase in production between 2008 and 2011 with the exception of two crops, tea and coffee. Even milk has risen to 94 million litres although this is still below the over 200 million that we need," he said.

Zimbabwe, he added, was set to meet its target of 500 000 tonnes of strategic grain reserves due to increased deliveries to GMB.

Minister Biti said Government had spent US$1,9 billion on agriculture since 2008, adding that they are also crafting an input scheme for vulnerable groups and large scale and A2 farmers this farming season.

Government had released US$10 million to pay farmers that have delivered grain but part of the money they are owed would be offset by inputs.

"What we have done is that we are gathering inputs to the tune of US$30 million and a farmer can liquidate his indebtedness with seed and fertiliser. But we will be able to pay any cent we owe by December 31 in the year of our Lord 2011," he said.

Minister Biti, however, took a swipe at the GMB for having a large salary bill that is chewing upUS$10 million a month. The parastatal would soon be unbundled into two companies dealing with collection of the strategic grain reserve and the other commercial activities.

Minister Biti, however, said the long term solution to ensure that farmers are paid on time was to have a commodity exchange.

The Herald

New technology extends shelf life of milk in Kenya

by Gitonga Njeru

A new milk processing technology, which preserves milk for up to a month, is helping Kenyan dairy farmers significantly reduce losses. "The new technology, used now for a few months in Kenya, allows better freshness, a natural taste, no loss of vitamin content, and a longer shelf life," says Macharia Gichohi, managing director of the Kenyan Dairy Board. The Dairy Board is also providing loans to farmers to enable them to take advantage of the technology and has announced plans to purchase excess milk produced from farmers.

The Extended Shelf Life (ESL) technology works by applying heat indirectly and reducing the levels of lactose. According to Philip Karanja, a farmer from Limuru, ESL has enabled him to sell a larger quantity of milk. "What I like most is that farmers can sell their milk at a later date when they do not get customers immediately," Karanja explains. Before, he produced 25 litres of milk every day but 50 per cent was spoilt due to poor storage and preservation methods.

Over 3,000 farmers are now benefitting from this pilot project which is being implemented by the Limuru Dairy Farmers' Union. To expand the project, the Union is also partnering with banks, government agencies and dairy insurance companies.

According to Kenya's livestock minister, Mr Mohamed Kuti, the dairy sector contributes 3.5 per cent of the country's GDP and due to increasing demand the price of milk has increased to more than US$0.30 per litre in the last few months.

New Agriculturalist

South African dairy goes green with manure power

by Fidelis Zvomuya

Thandeka Mabuza's small-scale dairy farm, on the banks of the Olifants River, gives off hardly any of the earthy smell you might expect from a thriving dairy operation. But the lack of manure odour is hardly the only benefit from the farm's pioneering biogas dairy.

By using vats to digest cow dung and then harvesting and burning the methane, Mabuza now produces electricity for her house and barns. "This project is a triple win situation," said the former agricultural extension officer with the South African department of agriculture and land affairs. "I can confirm that through turning manure into energy, I have reduced my electricity bill by a quarter. And I am preventing deforestation by reducing destructive harvesting of fuel wood," a major source of power for many small farming operations.

The 12-hectare farm in South Africa's Limpopo province, about 150 kilometres (94 miles) northeast of Pretoria, has a 16 dairy cows, whose manure is fed into three anaerobic digesters. The resulting gas is then burned to produce electricity, Mabuza said. The fermentation process benefits the farm both by offering a way to dispose of manure and by producing electricity, she said.

Mabuza invested more than $6,700 in the project in 2007, after attending a biogas conference in Nairobi. She became interested in biogas after learning in her government job that livestock contribute more to global warming than vehicles.

"With new research suggesting that methane emission by livestock is higher than previously estimated, I said to myself, 'I will go into dairy production with environmentally friendly production knowledge in my mind and it is going to define my business,'" she said. "Livestock has been my love and I engaged technical people who assisted me in designing diets for my cows to eat better, stay more energetic and secrete smaller amounts of the offensive gas," she said.

Dairy farming plays an important role in driving climate change, as cows emit large quantities of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases. According to a 2006 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report , the entire livestock commodity chain, from land use and feed production to livestock waste and product processing, contributes about 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.

On Mabuza's farm, the bio-slurry from the digesters, after the methane is captured, is used as an organic fertiliser to produce food crops such as tomatoes, vegetables and maize that she sells in the nearby town of Groblersdal. At the farm, cow dung from specially adapted cattle sheds is mixed with water and channeled into fermentation pits. The resulting gas produced as a by-product of this fermentation is collected in a simple storage tank and piped directly into the farmer's home and her milking parlour to provide energy for cooking, laundry and lighting.

"Burning biogas is much cleaner than burning woody biomass. Apart from being smokeless, it emits only carbon dioxide and water to the atmosphere during combustion whereas a wood fire generates a much greater level of global warming and pollution," she said. "This technology improves hygienic conditions, especially for women and children, by eliminating indoor air pollution and by stimulating better management of animal dung since livestock stables are cleaned and the dung fed into the digester on a daily basis," she said. "We have to bring a balance between feeding the nation and protecting the environment as farmers," Mabuza added. "I feel the dairy sector should be pro-active and not wait for legislation to be put in place when it comes to climate change."

After using Mabuza's project as a yardstick, the Limpopo provincial government has started to roll out biogas technology to nearby villages. So far more than 300 villages in the district use biogas.

"People's living conditions and the environment have improved, forests are protected and the labour force has more time for agricultural production. A large amount of straw, which was previously burned, is now put into biogas tanks to ferment. This further reduces air pollution from smoke and helps produce high-quality organic fertilizer," she said.

The organic sludge left over from the manure and straw fermentation process is also increasing crop yields in the area, said Zola Majavu, a local villager. As well, biogas units reduce the risk of manure contaminating rivers and landfills and lower the demand for wood and charcoal, which are implicated in both climate change and respiratory illnesses.

Reuters

Senegal's cattle sidelined for imported powder milk

by Laurence Boutreux

Senegal has three million cattle, but it is imported European powdered milk that is found at the breakfast table, in coffee or local yoghurt as poor infrastructure keeps fresh milk from consumers.

In a Dakar suburb, "milk powder with vegetable fat content" from France is poured into large tanks and mixed with filtered water at the Jaboot factory to make local favourites like curdled milk and yoghurt and cereal mix, or "thiakri."

In five years, Senegal has more than doubled its bill for imported milk from 25 billion CFA Francs (38 million euros, 52 million dollars) in 2002 to 58 billion in 2007, said Djiby Dia, researcher with the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research.

While Jaboot has stated its intention to "gradually substitute imported powdered milk for local milk," its rapid expansion has led to import higher quantities.

"It is because the biggest problems remain the collection and transportation of fresh milk," director Pierre Ndiaye said in an interview.

Milk abounds in the largely rural country. But its mainly traditional methods of production are irregular, according to the seasons and are unable to cover the needs of the entire population.

Mostly impassable farm roads and an insufficient number of refrigerated trucks make reaching consumers all the more difficult.

When the rainy season arrives in the isolated northern region of Ferlo, an abundance of milk and a lack of infrastructure means "some farmers pour their milk on the ground to be licked up by the cows," said Dia, the author of a thesis on the "geography of milk" in Senegal.

Production channels need to be organised, professionalised and encouraged - but the imported powder has already invaded city markets, as well as those in the bush.

In the village of Niakhar, 155 kilometers (91 miles) from Dakar, farm technician Mamadou Niassy admits his own family consumes powdered milk every day.

"I prefer unpasteurized milk but it is not available, although I live few kilometres from a farmer," said the 55-year-old.

In Dakar, the director of the agriculture ministry, Mamadou Ousseynou Sakho, explained that "at the moment, conditions to collect and process the milk are still quite rudimentary." He said the government was encouraging an increase in the booming mini-dairy industry, "that is to say the small rural plants where milk is pasteurised, put in a sachet, processed into yoghurt etc." In 2009 government acquired an additional 10 mini-dairies "that we will put in place soon," he said.

Researchers increasingly question the inequality of international commerce laws, as milk from poor countries finds itself in competition with milk from rich countries. A debate over whether higher customs duties should be imposed on imported milk powder has largely fallen by the wayside as the biggest importers constitute an influential lobby and have little interest in paying more.

Bagoré Bathily, director-general of the Berger Dairy -- the first industrial unit for the collection and processing of local milk -- wants "fiscal incentives" for those who give priority to the local product.

In 2008 in the midst of a global food crisis, "the government suspended taxes on certain imported foods such as milk," said Sakho.

Presently, "small industries want Value Added Tax on milk produced in Senegal to be lifted, so that the local product is more competitive, but it is a big problem .... there is a comprehensive reflection to be carried out," he said.

AFP

Mali invests for milk self-sufficiency

Mali is putting in place plans to produce milk locally to ensure self sufficiency in the product, according to official sources.

The project, estimated to cost 15 billion CFA francs (about US$ 30 million), was also aimed at contributing to poverty reduction. It will involve the establishment of 41 'milk basins' in the country with each supplying enough product to its area of coverage.

The government will also set up eight milk transformation units with capacities ranging from 2,000 litres and 10,000 litres of milk per day.

Mali is one the greatest livestock-farming countries in the West African sub-region. Its livestock profile is estimated at 8.1 million bovines, 23.4 million sma l l ruminants and 800,000 camels.

Livestock farming constitutes the third largest earner of foreign exchange for the country after gold and cotton.

The government said "With this potential, the national production, estimated at 500 million litres per year, is far from meeting national demands," adding that i t spends between 10 million and 15 billion CFA each year to import milk.

The new project will enable Mali promote its local milk production and develop a national milk industry in order to improve the level of milk consumption for it s people, improve revenue earning for the producers and reduce importation.

Afriquenligne

South African dairy exporters protest EU sanitary import standards are protectionist

by Craig McKune

South African dairy farmers say they're sitting on 8 000 tons of cheese ready for export to the European Union, but are blocked by protectionist measures dressed up as sanitary standards.

This is according to a recently released report that consolidates the responses from Western Cape dairy farmers and other industry players at a dairy "crisis" summit last month.

The meeting was called by MEC for Agriculture Cobus Dowry in response to the dwindling profits for dairy farmers that have driven many off the land.

South Africa could export up to 8 000 tons of duty-free cheese to the EU under a reciprocal trade agreement, Dirk Troskie, an agricultural economist with the provincial Department of Agriculture, said. He said South African dairy products were safe for consumption and accepted throughout the rest of the world.

While the country also placed standards on EU dairy imports, specifically relating to mad cow disease, Troskie said those put in place by the EU were often "used as a mechanism to keep certain products out of the market." The department was to investigate the possibility of taking up the dispute with the World Trade Organisation's committee on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, he said.

Another possible response to the export problem, Dowry said, was to target untapped markets, particularly those in the Southern African Development Community, more aggressively.

Dairy farmers said the low tariff on dairy imports was contributing to the industry's problems.

South African farmers are unable to compete with those in the EU, Canada and the United States as these competitors receive hefty government subsidies. For example, in Canada, subsidised milk produced at R4 a litre remains more profitable than milk produced in South Africa at R1 a litre.

The summit called for more support from the government on this issue.

According to Troskie, solutions to international subsidies are complex and a multipronged approach was necessary. He said the industry needed to improve its efficiency, investigate international mechanisms to prevent dumping and explore the sensitive question of raising import tariffs.

Dowry said "crisis" was a strong word for the industry's situation, but Troskie said this was how some in the industry were experiencing it.

Dairy farmers said at the summit that the price paid to them for raw milk had decreased, whereas their costs were soaring.

The department said that, on average, one farmer a day left the land. This translated into a projected loss of 15 percent of producers in the next few months.

Mistrust among players, arising in part from the Competition Commission case against price-fixing by several Western Cape dairy processors, was also cited at the summit as a problem.

IOL

As new South African farmers enter the industry, dairy margins get tighter

by Craig McKune

While the South African government is spending millions on boosting emerging farmers, they will be the first to go as dwindling profit margins squeeze them off the land.

This emerged at a dairy industry summit held in Stellenbosch on November 20 and called by MEC for Agriculture Cobus Dowry. He said that 70 percent of the Western Cape Agriculture Department's R344-million budget this year was being spent on emerging farmers, who were crucial roleplayers in food security.

'The industry is not sick, but it does have big problems'But with 10 to 15 cows to each of these farmers, compared with the commercial players' hundreds, "there is no way they can survive", he said.

The dairy industry was losing a farmer a day, Bertus de Jongh, a director of the Milk Producers' Organisation (MPO), said. He said the industry was down to 3 500 farmers, from 4 510 in 2005 and 15 400 in 1990.

But De Jongh also highlighted that in recent years the dairy industry had done almost twice as well as all other livestock industries. "The industry is not sick, but it does have big problems that must be addressed." He said the crux of the problem was a recent decline in the price farmers were paid for raw milk. "The consumer is paying more, while the producer gets less."

De Jongh and Dowry pointed to an unfair international playing field where subsidised farmers in the United States, the European Union and Canada were able to out-compete South Africans, despite much higher production costs.

In Canada, for example, a litre of milk cost about R4 to produce, compared with R1 in South Africa, but dairy farming remained profitable in Canada because of the hefty subsidies.

De Jongh and Dowry said the government needed to intervene by raising import tariffs on milk from the present 2 percent, a step that would go a long way in alleviating the strain on emerging farmers.

Dowry said that in the Western Cape, commercial farmers were "reaching out tremendously" to nurture and support emerging farmers, who contributed R12-million a year to the province's turnover.

"But the government needs to correct the wrongs of the past. We must help them to get through," he said.

Delegates also spoke of an air of mistrust in the industry, fuelled by the Competition Commission case against price-fixing by several local dairy processors.

"This is a necessary process, but because it is dragging on, everyone is reluctant to talk," said another Milk Producers' Organisation director, Etienne Terre'Blanche.

Bredasdorp farmer Dèan Kleynhans said: "The whole supply chain must create dialogue so we know what's going on in all aspects of the industry."

Farmers had no influence over prices. If there was a problem in the supply chain, farmers were the first to suffer, Kleynhans said.

Terre'Blanche said: "The import market is far too big. In one year, 48 000 tons of milk (products) have been brought in. It's not necessary to import."

IOL

Malawian dairy farmers seek new milk marketing strategies

Dairy producers in Malawi say new strategies such as marketing milk as a soft drink should be put in place if consumption of milk is to increase.
In his presentation, Jason Agar—a consultant with Kadale Associates—noted that currently the quality of pasteurised milk was still too variable at point of sale and that distribution or availability is a major weakness, particularly outside the urban areas. He said this calls for more innovative distribution methods.This suggestion comes against the background of declining prices of milk offered to local farmers at a time when demand for the product continues to rise in the country.
A visiting expert on diary industry from Kenya, Kipkirui Langat—who is the executive director for the East and Southern Africa Dairy Association—told a two-day National Dairy Symposium in Blantyre on Monday that unless new ways of marketing milk are found and implemented quickly the price for milk will never go up. He said the result was that most dairy farmers will abandon the sector.
Langat said in Kenya farmers are able to add value to their raw product which enables them to sell milk at better prices. He also advised farmers to improve on the quality of milk they sell to processors, saying most farmers add water to the milk to increase volumes of the commodity.
"So far, preference exists for powders and imported long life [milk] among consumers and retailers. There is need to promote more and distribute better raw milk [loose and packaged] preferred by some low income consumers. Milk could also be promoted or sold as a ‘soft’ drink like Coke and Fanta," said Agar, a consultant. He noted that 50 percent of dairy products consumed by Malawians are imported.
Secretary for Agriculture and Food Security Andrew Daudi, speaking at the opening of the symposium, said currently Malawi is the lowest milk producer and consumer of dairy products in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, with milk consumption at five litres per capita against the recommended 80 litres per capita and the World Health Organisation’s 200 litres per capita.
"We want quality to improve. Pricing issues should be ironed out and look at developing a strategic plan for the growth of the industry," said Daudi.
Malawi so far produces 35 million tonnes of milk annually. The country has 6,000 registered farmers with about 30,000 dairy cows.
The Nation

Ugandan dairy doubles milk collection from farmers

For the last 18 months, Uganda's Sameer Agriculture and Livestock Limited’s (SALL) raw milk collection has increased from 50,000 litres to 120,000 litres per day with a monthly income of Shs1.4 billion (1US$ = 1,620UgSh) up from Shs330 million to dairy farmers. SALL predicts their milk collection is likely to hit 300,000litres in the next 6 months.

Sameer is a joint venture established by Sameer Group of Kenya, which operates various businesses in East Africa, and RJ Corp, a food and beverages industry in India.

Sameer took over the Dairy Corporation Limited (DCL) in August 2006 with only 60 milk collection centres mainly in South-Western Uganda which it has today increased to 100, spread in Eastern, Central and Western Uganda.

DCL had been instituted by the government of Uganda to buy, process, and market dairy farmers’ milk but failed as it was embroiled in challenges of inadequate funding and vehicles like milk tankers, dilapidated machinery and demoralised workforce.

As such DCL was unable to buy farmers’ milk and frustrated farmers sold their animals and switched to crop and beef production. Sameer intervened to rejuvenate the dairy industry in Uganda.

About 50,000 dairy farmers are partnering with Sameer all over Uganda. Sameer’s current processing capacity of over 400,000 litres daily offers dairy farmers a guaranteed market for their milk compared to DCL’s time “where milk was going to waste during flush period”. This, according to Sameer, has contributed to employment.

By the time of take over, DCL had nearly all its equipment broken down. Today Sameer has repaired the chilled water refrigeration system enabling them to get a 240 tonnes refrigeration capacity and bought new vehicles.

Sameer has installed three pasteurized milk machines and cream separators to boost their production capacity.

It cost Sameer US$15 million to erect the milk powder plant that was commissioned in January 2008. Sameer’s products are sold under the “Fresh Dairy” brand. Currently Sameer produces skimmed milk powder, full cream milk powder, pasteurized milk, plain and flavoured yoghurt, ghee, butter and ultra heat treated (UHT) milk among other products. Sameer presently exports over 300,000 litres of UHT milk monthly to Rwanda which DCL had never recorded.

The corporation is to launch field extension services for dairy farmers soon to educate them on animal health, disease control, animal feeding and dairy animal breeding. This is aimed at boosting milk returns. SALL claims to be offering interest-free loan facilities to farmers and arranging for credit from commercial banks so that they can buy dairy farm implements.

It cost Sameer US$15 million to erect the milk powder plant that was commissioned in January 2008.

The Independent

Kenya's milk production below sector's potential

According to a production report provided by the Production Officer of Nyanza Dairy in Kenya, Raphael Kitonga, the region has the potential to produce 5,090 million litres of milk per year, but manages approximately 300 million litres only.

According to records by the Livestock Department, milk production in 2007 was 249.5 million litres, compared to 284 million litres in 2006, a drop of 36 million litres.

“We have done an audit report on the number of livestock in the province and it’s a pity that we produce too little milk as per estimates. Most farmers rear local dairy animals which produce only one litre of milk per cow in a day, compared to high grade ones that produce up to eight litres of milk in the same period,” said Mr Kitonga.

In 2006, production of milk by dairy cows and goats was 284 million litres compared to last year’s figure of 249.5 million litres which is only 5.1 per cent of the region’s potential.

Mr Kitonga said that there has been a record decrease in production from low grade cattle from 101 million litres in 2006 to 85.5 million litres in 2007. Hybrid animals also recorded a reduction from 201 million litres in 2006 to 162 million litres in 2007.

“The total production from hybrid dairy cattle reduced in 2007 by 39 million litres, while the local breed also recorded a decline by 15 million litres of milk. This was a result of a trim down in the number of grade cattle reared by farmers since the breed is expensive to maintain,” said Mr Kitonga.

However, dairy goats production in the province is picking up with the yield standing at 220,000 litres of milk in 2007, whereas the animals had minimal production in 2006.

The number of low grade dairy animals also rose to 1.4 million in 2007 compared to less than a million in 2006. “We have registered an increment in the number of local dairy animals, but production from the breed has been going down.

Also, hybrid animals’ production seems to decline while dairy goats production is picking up in the province,” said Mr Kitonga. He said that poor management systems by farmers was to blame for the poor production, adding that many did not clear bushes surrounding their farms thus creating favourable conditions for the survival of tsetse flies.

“Most animals die in the region due to diseases caused by tsetse flies. We are encouraging farmers to clear bushes and use the fields for other activities,” said Mr Kitonga.

Besides diseases that cause death, the tsetse flies also spread diseases that lead to a decline in milk produced.

Currently, the government is running a five year programme dubbed Pan African Tse Tse Flies and Tripanosomiasis Eradication across the country, with the aim to eradicate the vermin, including controlling ticks.

The programme has been initiated in all districts in Nyanza province and livestock extension officers were sent out to the field to educate farmers on the importance of the programme.

Under the project, animals are sprayed with chemicals that kill the flies and then released into fields invaded with the insects. Upon biting the animals, the flies die instantly.

“After the animals are sprayed, they are released to the fields and the flies that bite them die on the spot. When the livestock are brought back home in the evening, they are also injected so that they do not become sick,” added Mr Kitonga.

Business Daily Africa

Heifer International assists rural farmers integrate livestock rearing with crop production

Dr. Jim DeVries, Heifer International's Vice President of Programs, says agricultural development projects can help sustenance-level farmers increase their production and they, in turn, can bring low-cost food to market, which would help feed the urban poor who are most vulnerable to market forces.

In developing countries rice and other staples are being priced out of reach for the world's poorest people, resulting in shortage-related violence in Haiti, parts of Africa and elsewhere. The causes of the crisis are not short-term but rather trends in oil prices, increasing demand for food in rapidly developing countries like India and China, and diversion of land to crops for biofuel production. The United Nations warns that more than 100 million people could be pushed into hunger.

DeVries asks: "In light of this new reality -- the high price of energy, global warming and increased demand, what is our strategy? In Africa and the developing world, upgrading small rural farms through livestock used with integrated farming techniques can boost crop production while conserving and protecting the environment. That would mean a continuing source of food in the places where it is needed most," he said.

Farmers with incomes of a few hundred dollars a year can hardly afford to buy cows or goats, but Heifer's projects provide the cows or goats and then ask the farmers to pay for them by "Passing on the Gift" of offspring of the livestock to others. That multiplies and spreads the benefits, and it makes it possible for farmers, with training in integrated agriculture, to begin developing environmentally sound farms that can double or triple their previous output. Since Heifer started in 1944, this approach has helped more than 48 million people become more self-reliant.

Scaling up Heifer's approach is the goal of a recent $42.8 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Heifer to expand its model to produce milk for commercial dairies in parts of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. The goal of the East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD) is to help one million people -- 179,000 families -- lift themselves out of poverty by developing 30 milk collection hubs with "chilling plants" where farmers will bring raw milk for pickup by commercial dairies.

Farmer business associations will own and manage the chilling plants. The project will provide extensive training in animal agriculture, animal well-being, and business practices. Thus, farmers with only one or two cows will be able to participate in the "value chain" of profit through the commercial dairy industry while maintaining pastoral production methods that are environmentally friendly.

Heifer's mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. For more than 60 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 57 countries, including the U.S., to help families and communities become more self-reliant.

Sun Herald

Botswana needs to increase milk production

Botswana should brace for a shortage of milk in 2010 unless the countrys dairy farming capability is scaled up.

Head of the dairy section in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Lebane Nthoyiwa, said Botswana still had a long way to go to achieve self sustenance in milk production.

This is in spite of the fact that the market for milk and milk by-products remains largely unexploited.

Mr Nthoyiwa says government needs to intervene to avert a crisis resulting from South Africa, the major supplier, stopping milk exports in 2010.

South Africa is expecting to host millions of tourists in 2010 because of the FIFA World Cup.

Botswana was hit by a shortage of milk last year.

Mr Nthoyiwa challenges Batswana to venture into dairy farming to fill the gap created by under supply of milk in the market.He also wants the dairy herd at a NAMPAADD farms to be increased to avert shortage.

At present, Botswana dairy farmers produce only 48 per cent of fresh milk consumed in the country while the bulk of the processed milk is imported mostly from South Africa.

Lack of infrastructure in the form of roads and electricity are some of the challenges facing dairy farmers.The fact that milk production is highly capital intensive compounds the problem.

Mr Nthoyiwa contends that a viable dairy initiative costs around P2 million ($307,000 to start. A dairy farmer, he says, needs to be focused and well equipped with management skills.

Mr Nthoyiwa expressed concern that though government undertakes initiatives to equip farmers with necessary dairy management skills, most of them preferred to delegate, which defeats the objective.

Botswana currently has 5000 dairy cows but at any given time only 33 per cent of them are producing milk instead of at least 80 per cent.

This state of affairs, he says, is very disappointing. In addition, some dairy farmers do not observe the prescribed feeding regimes and end up producing far below their potential.

While a well-fed cow is reported to be capable of producing between 50 to 60 liters of milk per day, most dairy cattle around Jwaneng produce below 10 liters a day.

Naledi based dairy farmer, Mrs Sedijame Dingalo acknowledges that most dairy farmers perceive milk production as just another farm activity, a situation which impedes the full exploitation of opportunities offered by the sub-sector.

She is one of the few farmers that are still in production despite huge challenges that range from lack of capital to poor management.

She maintains a herd of 30. Mrs Dingalo says dairy farming has been highly mechanised because of the high hygiene standards required.

She therefore decried lack of capital to produce milk on sustainable commercial scale.

Jwaneng-based dairy officer, Mr Rhemsden Ramalepa identified poor management practices, perennial droughts and poor marketing strategies as the main factors impeding the growth of dairy farming.

He called for proper feeding strategies and regular supply of fresh water. Another problem, he said, was that some farmers were reluctant to ask for loans from financial institutions.

BOPA Daily News Service

Kenya dairy industry scrambles to protect export markets

The dairy sector in Kenya will place priority on exports over supplying the domestic market in the wake of shortages attributed to post election violence.

Despite the violence, the industry projects to export some 16 million litres by the end of this year.

Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) managing director, Mr. Machira Gichohi said it was important to guard against losing the export market. Kenya’s main dairy export destination is the Middle East, where some 14 million litres of milk were exported last year. This was an improvement from the six million litres exported in 2006.

Gichohi said the post-election violence critically hurt the sector as most farmers were displaced, transport to processors cut off, causing delays in delivery and therefore unwarranted waste.

By December 2007, some 423 million litres of milk was delivered to processing plants across the country, which was a rise from the 362 million litres delivered the previous year and the highest in the last 20 years. The sector has so far undergone a 195% growth in the last five years and was targeting new export markets in Asia and other northern Africa countries before the outbreak of the violence.

This is against a production scale of 3.8 billion litres in 2007, an increase from 2.8 litres in 2002. The growth is attributed to initiatives by the government to revive previously collapsed processing firms key among them the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) and other regional plants.

New KCC chairman, Mr. Matu Wamae said lending banks to farmers had confirmed that they would loosen their conditions to help restock farmers who lost cattle and property in the skirmishes in efforts to re-empower the industry.

Kenya leads in milk production and export in the East Africa with most of the other countries producing just enough for their domestic market. In Africa, the country's main competitor in milk exports is South Africa, which has captured most of the export market.

"We are keen on protecting the export market because of the stiff competition posed by the likes of South Africa. It could hastily step in to fill the export gap if we ran short of supplies," said Gichohi.

There is a general world milk deficit following the drought that covered most of the southern hemisphere, an opportunity that the Kenyan milk industry is keen on capturing following increased production locally.

East African Business Week

South African agriculture adjusts to electricity shortages

Millions of dollars worth of agricultural produce have been lost due to the electricity crisis in South Africa, which has seen rolling power cuts -- referred to locally as "load shedding" -- across the country over the past few months.

Yet industry players who spoke about the crisis seemed positive about their ability to weather the storm. "This is a time of great challenges, but it is also an opportunity for individuals and groups to come forward with revolutionary plans," said Carl Opperman, chief executive at Agri Western Cape, an organisation that represents a number of commercial agricultural producers in the Western Cape Province.

"There is an old Afrikaans expression ''n Boer maak 'n plan', which means that a farmer always makes a plan. The shock of the power cuts and load shedding is over. We are now in a phase where we are looking for solutions to the problem."

An example of forward thinking is found amongst dairy farmers who, through the national Milk Producers' Association (MPA), are looking for foreign investors to help them establish a biofuel plant that will use the gas produced by cattle manure.

Using methane gas in this way "is an extremely attractive proposition," Koos Coetzee, a member of the MPA, told IPS. "Not only will we be able to generate power, we will also be able to sell carbon credits, offsetting our costs."

Under the Clean Development Mechanism of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, industrialised countries can buy credits to offset their carbon emissions by investing in environmentally friendly projects in developing countries.

The envisaged methane gas project in South Africa will take a while to be established, though. "It will take months to erect a biofuel plant where we can convert manure, and it will certainly not address all of the power needs of the country," said Coetzee.

He estimates that the power shortages have cost dairy farmers some 13 million dollars in loss of income and lost produce. Whenever the power was cut, cows could not be milked and milk could not be refrigerated. Thousands of litres of milk were lost.

Dairy farmers have spent about 32.5 million dollars on buying emergency generators. And, certain farmers have been looking at solar panels and wind technology as alternative sources of energy, said Agri Western Cape's Opperman.

But, "These are extremely expensive options. The huge generators needed for agriculture cost a lot of money -- the equivalent of at least 130,000 dollars -- not to speak of the diesel needed to run them."

According to Lindie Botha, an economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber, South African farmers are ready and willing to invest in alternative fuel sources. "We will not immediately see huge changes, but this crisis is the kick that was needed to really start investigations into alternative sources. We will see great changes within the next three to five years," she said.

"There will be investments in solar and wind energy, not only because it makes electricity users less dependent on electricity, but because it is cost effective. It is interesting that dairy producers -- who are more dependent on technology than, say, cattle farmers -- are those that for a long time have been more open to alternative power sources."

Botha echoes Opperman's sentiment that a farmer always makes a plan. "There will always be the lone individual who comes up with a brand new invention, like the person I read about on one of the industry websites...This farmer has invented some kind of contraption with which he taps the energy generated by the flow of the river on his farm."

Johan Willemse, a professor in agricultural economics, says that generators are not cost effective. Even the large 130,000 dollar generators can only provide enough power for one centre-pivot sprayer. Nonetheless, generators of this size were sold out after the first wave of power cuts. It takes about four weeks for a new generator to arrive from abroad -- and in that time the irrigation farmer stands to lose thousands of dollars daily.

"Farmers have two alternatives. They either have to invest in generators, or they have to stop producing and find alternative sources of income," noted Willemse.

While the energy crisis has undoubtedly resulted in substantial losses, the exact extent of these losses is difficult to determine, he says. "We will only see the full effect in the next season."

However, Willemse does not see farmers losing their farms due to the power cuts. "A farmer does not simply stop working when he hits a snag. He carries on regardless."

Botha voices similar views. "If there is a farmer who has to leave his farm, the power crisis will not be solely to blame. It may be the final straw in a situation where other factors have already caused a shaky situation."

However, she warns that although the majority of farmers could weather the crisis in the short term, they may not be able to survive huge losses for three or four consecutive seasons.
"The crisis is definitely a threat to food security. When a farmer has to invest in expensive equipment he eventually passes on this loss, and eventually the consumer has to pay in the form of rising food prices."

IPS

Brookside Dairy to invest $20 million in Tanzania

East Africa’s largest dairy firm, Brookside Dairy of Kenya, will invest $20 million in Tanzania.

The move will see the company boost the country’s milk consumption to 60,000 litres daily in the next two years. It will also acquire new machinery and renovate its newly acquired Arusha factory to handle more milk delivery.

The company’s general manager for milk procurement and extension services, John Gethi, said the Arusha factory, which the company recently acquired, will be upgraded with the addition of a new Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) processing facility at a cost of $2 million.

Mr. Gethi said the firm has already forged a partnership with over 2,000 dairy farmers in Tanzania only three years since venturing into the country. He said the firm has already paid Tsh400 million ($400,000) in the past eight months to Tanzanian farmers for milk delivery.

Brookside receives some 13,000 litres of milk from local farmers daily, up from a mere 1,000 litres three years ago. It has set a target of 60,000 litres by 2009.

“Brookside urged the Tanzanian government to remove taxes on animal feeds and farm inputs, improve infrastructure in milk growing areas and provide farmers with micro-financing to enable growth in the sector,” Mr. Gethi said.

Brookside is the leading dairy processor in the region. Besides Tanzania, the company plans to expand to other African countries in the Comesa and Southern Africa regions.

It has negotiated loan arrangements with some of Kenya’s leading financial institutions, including Kenya Commercial Bank and Equity Bank, to enable farmers to obtain loans to expand their businesses by purchasing additional cattle or farm machinery.

The East African

Nigeria-based Zimbabwean farmers to set up dairy factory

Nigeria's Kwara State Commissioner of Agriculture, Professor Gana Yisa, has said Zimbabwean commercial farmers operating in Shonga, Edu Local Government Area of the state, will soon establish a N400-million ($3 million) dairy factory

Yisa said the factory would soon be completed, and would produce about four million litres of milk annually. Production will start in early 2008. He said the state government has awarded a N200-million electricity contract for the connection of Shonga Village to the national grid.

Yisa said about 900 specially bred dairy cows would be imported from South Africa for the purpose. According to him, the factory would produce cheese for export, while some of the 13 farmers would soon set up poultry farms. "The farmers intend to produce two million broilers per annum once thepoultry farms are in place," he said, adding that soya bean crop would be used for poultry feed.

The farmers had cultivated about 5,000 hectares of farmland with a variety of crops, including maize, rice, soya bean and cassava. "As a matter of fact, each of them has 320 hectares of cassava with an estimated yield of 60,000 tonnes per hectare," Yisa said, adding that a flour producing company from Benue had placed an order for the cassava.

The commissioner said when completed, the cargo shed at the Ilorin International Airport now under construction, would be used to store produce from the farms.

Gana Yisa said contractors are now on site installing transformers for the electricity project. "In a couple of months, the commercial farms will be linked to the national grid. You cannot use diesel to run a factory, referring to the emergency generators in common use because of the frequent power cuts. He observed that infrastructure was springing up in Shonga due to the presence of the white farmers, now called "new Nigerian farmers" by the State government.

Yisa said that some 3,000 persons from Shonga area were now employed both as casual and permanent workers. Investigations showed that only 100 of the workers were on permanent employment, while the rest were casual workers hired during harvest.

Meanwhile, Alhaji Amuda Kannike, the Special Assistant to the Governor onAgriculture, in August disclosed that five Nigerian banks had assisted the farmers with a total of N2.5 billion ($20 million). He said the banks were: Intercontinental Bank, First InlandBank, Bank PHB, Guarantee TrustBank and First Bank.

This Day

Zimbabwe dairy industry in the doldrums

Zimbabwe's dairy industry is nearing collapse as severe fuel shortages keep farmers from transporting milk to processing plants.

Millions of dollars worth of milk is being discarded daily at farms across the country, farmers said at a crisis meeting of national diary farmers and cattle producers. Many of the farmers said they feared they would have to sell their livestock and land and close down their farms..

Milk and butter have disappeared from stores as the National Dairy Cooperative, which collects the milk from farmers, has stopped operating most of its trucks because of the country's worsening fuel crisis.

"The milk is not getting to the processors in urban centers," said dairyman Ezra Ndlovu, "and we are beginning to see the effects of that with the ongoing shortages."

Zimbabwe Standard