Govt to boost dairy sector

Precious Manomano Herald Reporter

Growth of the livestock sector is critical in achieving food security, providing raw materials for further processing and promoting sustainable agriculture in line with Vision 2030 of an empowered upper middle class society.

The livestock growth plan is part of the agriculture food systems transformation strategy, which seeks to achieve an US$8,2 billion agriculture economy by 2025.

The Government has put in place measures to address animal health such as the January Disease outbreak, and that has seen intensive dipping and toll manufacturing of dip chemicals.

In an interview, the director of Veterinary Field Services in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Jairus Machakwa, said they are targeting to increase the milk production from 76.7 million litres in 2020 to 150 million litres in 2025 and interventions are put in place to meet the target.

“We are targeting to increase productivity, interventions aim for average increased milk yields from 13 to 18 litres per cow per day during lactation by 2025 though improved dairy cow nutrition, genetics and milk quality. Increased productivity will lead to an increased annual milk production of 20 million litres by 2025. We also have strategies to Improve animal health so that we aim to reduce cow and calf mortality from 9 to 5% through improved health management and disease control of dairy animals,” he said.

The signing of the Dairy Declaration of Rotterdam in 2016 by representatives of the global dairy community, demonstrates the commitment of the sector towards sustainable development. In line with the first pillar of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, dairy farmers are committed to producing nutrient-rich milk on their dairy farms for consumers to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

In 2001, World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation to recognise the importance of milk as a global food, and to celebrate the dairy sector. Since then, the benefits of milk and dairy products have been actively promoted around the world, including how dairy supports the livelihoods of one billion people.

Previously there has been a slow growth, generally in both dairy animal numbers and milk production from both the large scale commercial and smallholder sectors in the last decade owing to loss of valuable genetic material. Milk output is projected to reach 95 million litres in 2022.

The Government was supporting the dairy sector in the national Budget by introducing a 5 percent duty on dairy imports to capacitate the dairy recovery programme.

Under the livestock and recovery growth plan, milk production is intended to rise from the obtaining annual production of 79,9 million litres to 150 million litres, and increase the dairy herd from 39 980 to 60 000 by 2025. About US$75 million is required to fully revitalise the sector.