Charity group to support dairy farmers in villages

Kamuli. Heifer International, a charity organisation, has pledged to improve the quality and productivity of rural dairy farmers in the country.
Speaking in Kamuli District last week, the organisation’s senior vice president of programmes, Mr Mahendra Lohani, said the body would fulfil its pledge with members of Balawoli Kyebaja Tobona Dairy Cooperative Society whose milk cooling initiative he launched recently.
“We are here to help transform dairy farming communities in productivity and production and connect them to markets,” he said.
According to Mr Lohani, farmers should embrace commercial dairy farming because it improves livelihood and boosts income.
He said rural communities are endowed with abundant resources which need to be combined with technical and business capacity so as to unlock the country’s production and productivity challenges.
The consumption of milk per person in Ugandan is estimated at 60 litres per year, a much lower intake compared to 200 litres expected/recommended per person by World Health Organisation.
Marketable milk in Uganda is valued at $317 million (about Shs1 trillion) annually and shared among the estimated 1.7 million households that keep cattle.

Expansion
Heifer International country director William Matovu encouraged dairy farmers to use field extension staff to improve their milk production and animal breeds.
Mr Matovu said the charity organisation in partnership with East African Dairy Development and International Livestock Research Institute is meant to improve the welfare of dairy farmers in the region, including Uganda.
“We are focused on building capacity of dairy farmers and improve breeding and animal health technologies so as to boost productivity and household incomes,” he said.
“But farmers need to have the right breeds, feed and manage animals well. Also get advisory services from extension field staff,” Mr Matovu added.
The LC3 chairperson of Kagumba Sub-county, Mr Simon Ssentongo, urged farmers to learn basic book keeping, develop a database and focus on the business.

The numbers
50
The number of milk processors in the country, with majority being petty milk vendors.

1.9 billion litres
Uganda’s annual milk production according to Dairy Development Authority’s 2013/2014 statistics.

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