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Monalisa Chikwengo
SMALLHOLDER dairy farmers in Zvimba district of Mashonaland West are contributing 68 230 litres of milk monthly to the national output – a remarkable performance given that country’s monthly milk production was 7, 6 million litres last year.
Nestle extension manager Mr Isaac Mugoni said a total of 32 smallholder farmers from Zvimba district were contributing 68 230 litres of milk monthly.
Zimbabwe Integrated Commercial Farmer’s Union (ZICFU) president Mrs Mayiwepi Jiti added that smallholder dairy farmers were making significant progress in increasing milk production and promoting the dairy farming in the country.
“The smallholder farmers in the district are complementing Government efforts to rebuild the dairy national herd and improve on high yielding breeds.
“The farmers are also sourcing for alternative feeds like maize bran, soya, wheat bran and masese, as well as silage to try and break-even, which is difficult due to low prices of milk and its products,” she said.
Currently there are 39 000 in milk cattle in the country – 70 percent Friesians and Jerseys while 30 percent is made up of dairy crosses.
“The district’s dairy farmers are successfully using Holstein crossbreeds and Jerseys to increase milk production and maintain high quality dairy products,” she said.
The areas of Battlefields and Beatrice are the biggest producers and suppliers of milk. There are small-scale milk producers who are now complimenting milk production all over the country.
Transforming Zimbabwe’s Dairy Value Chain (TranZDVC) project coordinator Dr Edson Chifamba said challenges faced by the dairy farmers include feed, genetics, poor animal health management and poor dairy value chain linkages.
“Feed constitutes 76 percent of the total variable costs on milk production while the numbers of dairy animals are still low,” he said.
Government and TranZDVC are training farmers on high protein on farm feeding regimes to reduce feed cost.
“Government has since availed a command silage scheme where dairy farmers are getting maize seed, fertilizer and legume seed for feed production,” said Dr Chifamba.
It is also promoting breeding centres and encouraging dairy animal importation while TranZDVC imported and distributed free 500 calf dairy heifers to small holder farmers in 2020.
“TranZDVC has distributed 8 000 dairy semen straws to dairy farmers,” he said.
Last year the country managed to produce 91, 4 million litres of milk and this year production is expected to increase by 15 percent.
Online Reporter