In an effort to boost the level of milk production in the county, the County government of Busia through the Department of Agriculture has impacted on training and distribution of dairy goats to farmers in milk cooperatives across the county.
The timely move comes amid sky rocketing milk prices on the shelf in retail and supermarkets across the county.
Farmers from various self-help groups in four wards within Busia County received 46 goats from the Kenya Livestock and Commercialization Project (KeLCop) in a pilot program to increase their daily income through dairy goat farming.
Selected groups that practice goat farming from Elugulu ward in Butula sub-county, Bunyala North ward in Budalangi Sub- County, Nambuku/Namboboto ward in Samia subcounty, and Amukura West in Teso South benefitted from the project a move that will see them venture into goat farming for commercial purposes.
“We are currently in four wards across the County and we selected these wards based on population, availability of other stakeholders to partner with, and poverty levels. Our goal is to upscale the project and spread it to other parts of the county,” said Mr Radoli Shiundu, the Busia County KeLCop coordinator.
According to him, farmers with Indigenous variety will also access the buck services (male servicing) to get an improved variety of goats from the Indigenous variety adding that the purpose of encouraging indigenous goats to be serviced by dairy bucks is to upgrade from the Indigenous goats to improved varieties.
Currently, Busia produces 27,367,551 litres/year of milk with Nambale, Teso North, Teso South and Butula leading in production respectively. Unfortunately there are only 6 dairy cooperatives which jeopardize milk collection and processing in the county.
During the FY 2019/2020 the County through Development and Ward funds, allocated funds to the directorate to implement “County Dairy Heifers Program,’’ where, 465 dairy in-calf heifers were distributed to more than 186 farmers groups across the seven sub counties, with 247 additional heifers distributed to farmers in 2021/2022 FY.
Mildred Okello Musumba from the Bulemia Dairy goat farmers’ self-help group applauded the move by the county noting that the initiative will propel the milk production as the goat farming is more profitable and less expensive to maintain.
“Farmers who rear five dairy goats stand to benefit 45 per cent more than those farmers rearing one dairy cow. This is because goats do not need much feed and space to keep their milk, yet their milk always retails at a high price as compared to that of a cow,” said Musumba.
Her sentiments were echoed by George Mulamba the dairy goat farmer from Bukhalalire in Marachi central ward who urged the county to establish more milk collection centers and cold-storage infrastructure to caution farmers from losses they incur as a result of milk going waste before they reach the factory.
“Most milk cooperative societies in Busia face collapse due to delayed payments by the New KCC and exploitation by cartels in milk processors who are offering as low as Sh40 per litres while in other areas people receive Sh50 to 55,” said Mulamba.
According to data from an economic survey, in Kenya the quantity of wasted milk in 2023 was 290 million litres, translating to income loss to dairy farmers of Sh14.7 billion.
Dairy farmers are now appealing to the county government of Busia to ensure dairy parks are in all sub counties and are fully functioning to mitigate wastage and farmers being taken hostage by middlemen in the sector.
By Absalom Namwalo
