Governor Bii , Pets and KCC Hold Consultatione With Dairy Farmers Co-ops On Dairy Farming
Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii on Friday in conjunction with the Presidential Economic Transformation Secretariat led by Food Security Advisor Dr. Dominic Menjo, the New Kenya Creameries Co-operative (KCC) Managing Director Nixon Sigey and Chief Manager Factory Operations Damaris Chirchir on Friday hosted leadership of the county dairy farmers Cooperative Societies on maximization of dairy production at the wards level.
The Governor called on the dairy farmers to engage with his government on the type of Artificial Insemination(AI) they need to boost their milk production and to realize best breed.
“We have plans to revive all our cattle dips and provide you with the required acaricides to help in improving animal’s health to realize production and to be able to meet our milk production and the capacity of our KCC” said Bii during the meeting held at KCC
He further instructed Ward Extension Officers to train farmers on emerging sustainable technologies.
On his part Sigey said that KCC – Kenya’s oldest and largest milk processor- is working towards 24 hour operation urging farmers to compliment with increased production.
Speaking about the dairy value chain farmers through the current production and the county’s potential, Sigey said its is time every society takes dairy farming as a key component for economic growth.
He said Kenya Kwanza Government economic transformation agenda focuses on value addition and aggregation to change the existing model of farming achievable through noting that it is through co-operative societies.
Uasin Gishu county has a potential of producing atleast 756,000 litres of milk from a total of 342,000 lactating cows on daily basis.
This according to Dr Menjo out of 756,000 litres,atleast half of the milk goes to informal markets challenging farmers to work towards attaining the capacities which will see the factory fully served.
“The problem with our cooperatives is focussing on a single value chain model.We need to have atleast one vibrant co-op society in every ward so that we can be able to deal with various value chains”, Menjo said.
Statistics show that current production of a single cow stands at 4litres. On this farmers claimed that high cost of feeds remains a challenge to production.
On their part, County Executive Committee Members for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and her counterpart for Trade and Cooperatives Martha Cheruto affirmed their department’s commitment to ensuring that dairy farmers meet their dairy production targets.
Chief Officers Nixon Cheplong (Livestock), Elphas Kesio (Agriculture), Co-op Commissioner Roselyne Rae, Agriculture and Co-op officers were among present.
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