Nharira dairy faces viability challenges

shortage of pure dairy breeds and high prices of packaging material.
Supervisor of the centre, Mr Norbert Gwese, recently said the majority of the 85 farmers involved in the project no longer had pure breeds for the project, which was grossly compromising the milk output.
“Pure breeds died during the droughts that hit the country in recent years, leaving the farmers turning to crosses from beef stocks for milk to sustain the project, something that has caused a huge drop in output.
“On the other hand, we buy packaging material from Harare where they sell a minimum of 30 000 sachets for US$950, which is difficult to raise at the moment,” he said.
Mr Gwese explained that dairy breeding stock cost between US$1 200 and US$1 500 for a single animal, an amount that farmers could not afford.
In the past when the farmers had pure breeds, they used to send milk quantities of between 1 300 and 2 000 litres a day to the centre, but the figure has since fallen to between 250 litres and 300 litres per day.
“Our markets are local boarding schools and the general public,” said Mr Gwese.
He also added that they were facing transport challenges in collecting the milk from the farmers as they only had one old truck.
Additionally, Mr Gwese said some of the farmers were now using artificial insemination to produce cross breeds with beef cattle for the dairy project.
On the issue of pastures, Mr Gwese said farmers were getting assistance from a non-governmental organisation, Swedish Co-operative Centre (SCC) to shift to zero grazing in which they would make their own feeds and restrict cattle to feeding pens.
SCC came to Chikomba in 2010 and launched the programme, Farmers Fighting Poverty (FFP) and worked with Agritex, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, Livestock Development Programme and the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment to name just a few.
They established a district management team to assess the situation of the farmers and their project.
Among the challenges, the farmers have inadequate fodder production and utilisation.
SCC consequently facilitated the training of farmers to equip them with knowledge to prepare their own feed mixes, fodder and hay.
“We initiated a programme to train the farmers on fodder production and many other key areas of dairy farming.
“To date, 71 have benefited from an artificial insemination programme that came as part of the capacity building drive.
“Our intention is to empower the farmers to produce effectively and be able to meet their socio-economic concerns from the dairy proceeds,” SCC country programme co-ordinator, Mr Jonathan Kagoro said on the sidelines of a field day held at Nhende Village last Thursday.
SCC has also helped the dairy centre with a loan of US$18 800 to repair its broken down equipment, purchase a tri-cycle, order bicycles for 23 farmers, vet drugs, feeds, milking cans and packaging material.
Nharira Dairy was established in 1986 and was officially opened by the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo in 1990.