Milk shortage to ease by end of this month

Kenya Cooperative Creameries chairman Matu Wamae says pastures require time to regenerate following a long period of dry weather.

Milk processors are grappling with poor supplies after farmers resorted to hawking the produce, arguing that it fetches more than when they sell it to plants.

A litre of milk sold directly from the farm goes for Sh70, up from Sh40 in December last year in most parts of the North Rift.

“Hawking has increased so much that processors are not receiving enough milk, as was the case before,” said Mr Wamae.

New KCC is paying Sh28 a litre to farmers, who argue that the price is too low compared to what the firms sell to consumers.

“New KCC is paying us Sh28 a litre while they sell a 500 millilitre packet at Sh60. The difference here is too big and this demoralises farmers,” said Mr Eliud Wechuli, a farmer in Trans Nzoia County, Rift Valley.

He says the cost of production has gone up, noting that it is yet to be reflected in the buying price that processors are offering.

“Seventy kilogrammes of animal feed that used to cost Sh1,700 has soared to Sh2,700 while the price of milk remains low. This implies that we are working at a loss,” said Mr Wechuli.

At Taragoon chilling plant, production has dropped from 3,000 litres last year in December to 1,600 litres currently, according to the management.

The situation is even worse at the Cherangani dairy group. According to the chairman, Mr Moses Kiptanui, they have registered a drop of 13,000 litres.

“As late as January, we used to get a total of 20,000 litres in a day, but currently we are registering 7,000 litres.

Mr Kiptanui attributes the drop to poor dairy farming methods which see farmers lose hundreds of litres during the dry spell.

He says many farmers in the North Rift are used to the free-range system and when the dry spell hits, production reduces owing to lack of pasture.

“If farmers could be planting and storing fodder, we could alleviate the problem of milk shortage,” says Mr Kiptanui, a large scale dairy farmer.

“Unlike Rift Valley where farmers rely on field pastures milk, farmers in Central have embraced zero grazing which ensures constant supply of milk throughout the year,” he said.

by  Daily Nation
http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/smartcompany/Milk+shortage+to+ease+by+end+of+this+month+/-/1226/1382932/-/5gt7op/-/index.html




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