Online Reporter
Lovemore Kadzura-Mutare Bureau
GOVERNMENT is targeting an increase in the milking herd to around 80 000 to sustain local demand and penetrate the export market.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri made the remarks at the tour of FG Franklin and Sons Dairy Farm on the outskirts of Mutare.
He said the current herd of 59 000 cows was producing enough milk to meet national demand, but there was need to add more cows to cover powdered milk imports.
“The daily value chain is critical for our country. We require about 150 million litres of milk per year. As a country we are doing very well and in the past year commercial farmers produced about 120 million litres and rural milk production was around 30 million litres.
“This means that the country is essentially sufficient in terms of the milk we produce. This is why we do not allow the importation of raw milk; we only want the powders. Even so, we would want the next phase to increase our production and process the powder locally. We have a herd of about 59 000 milking cows, and we intend to grow that to 80 000 to be fully self-sufficient at commercial level,” said Professor Jiri.
Ms Carol Smith, a director at FG Franklin and Sons Dairy Farm, which has 1 012 dairy cows, said production is achieving 25 litres per cow per day.
“This farm has been operating since the early 1950s, going through different generations, producing milk and crops. We have 800 heifers and the production averages 25 litres per cow. We have a ready and reliable market as we are contracted by Nestle Zimbabwe,” she said.
Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Advocate Misheck Mugadza said Government is rolling out programmes to support indigenous dairy farmers and success has been registered at Cynara in Mutasa, Risitu in Chipinge District and other areas.
“There has been a consistent rise in milk production in the province in last five years. The province is currently producing 36 million litres per year. What is quite pleasing is that our indigenous farmers are also contributing significantly. There is Cynara and Risitu dairies that are run by indigenous players and are doing extremely well in terms of production.
“In Chipinge, Dairibord has upgraded its machinery to state-of-the-art to boost production. We are targeting to increase value addition and come up with a number of dairy products as opposed of transporting raw milk to be processed elsewhere. We are talking to investors so that we have another milk processing plant in Mutare,” said Minister Mugadza.
Milk production in Manicaland rose by 5,18 percent, climbing from 30 739 450 litres last season to 32 331 913 litres.
The growth was driven by the Presidential Silage Scheme and small-scale farmers, consolidating the province’s position as Zimbabwe’s second-largest milk producer, contributing 27 percent of national output.
An estimated 5 409 405 litres were produced from beef cows milked across seven districts during short 30-50-day lactation periods. The scheme has been credited with reducing production costs by providing free inputs.
Nationally, Mashonaland East leads with 43 percent, followed by Manicaland at 27 percent and Midlands at 20 percent. Together, the three provinces contributed 90 per cent of the total raw milk output of 121 846 916 litres in 2025.
This marks a 6,23 percent increase from 114 699 440 litres in 2024.
Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers chairperson, Mrs Rudo Sithole, recently said the dairy sector is on a strong recovery path, buoyed by the Government’s interventions.
Following the ban on the importation of heifers to contain the spread of disease, Mrs Sithole said the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers and individual farmers are now importing semen from countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, which had positively impacted breed production levels.
“There has been a gradual increase in the number of dairy farmers in the province over the past few years, and these are mainly at small-scale level. Under the Presidential Silage Scheme, farmers are receiving free seed to grow silage for dairy cows, and this is helping to boost production levels as the cows now have standard and recommended feed. Government is also supplying us with pasture seed, and in some areas farmers have received feed for dairy cows from China,” she said.
