Dairy farmers send SOS

Manicaland Correspondent
DAIRY farmers here are lobbying Government to assist with inputs to increase milk production which has declined significantly over the years.

They said the shortage of vaccines, machinery and stock feed was hampering their efforts to increase production.

Mr Washington Sagonda, a small-scale dairy farmer in Tsonzo, Mutasa District, expressed hope in securing financiers who would help them revive the sector.

“As small-scale dairy farmers we hope to increase milk supplies, but we are failing to import animal vaccines, stock feed and supplements for cattle which has result in dwindling milk supplies,” he said.

“Our cattle were also succumbing to drought, but if Government assists us with inputs, we might be able to increase production and produce 1 000 litres per day.”

Another dairy farmer in Penhalonga, Mr Taurai Mutangabende, said dairy farmers could help reduce the country’s import bill in respect to milk products.

He said farmers needed a new herd of heifers as the one they had was producing less milk.

“We aim to reduce the import bill of milk products such as cheese, yoghurt and powdered milk. Our cows now produce less milk due to poor breeds so we also need support with new cattle breeds that produce more milk,” he said.

Provincial livestock production and development head, Mr Joshua Zvoutete said they had sent a project proposal to Government, with the intention to provide inputs such as maize and vaccines to dairy farmers in Tsonzo.

“Government has to put up measures to assist dairy farmers with inputs so that they increase production,” he said.

“We recently sent a project proposal to Government, to assist dairy farmers with inputs. Dairy cows consume a lot of silage hence there is need of more maize to process the silage which is the major feed.”

Mr Zvoutete indicated that Chipinge Dairy Farm had the capacity to produce more than two million litres of milk per year, but was now producing less than 300 000 litres.

He said that it was necessary to capacitate small dairy farmers to catch up with the global technological developments.