Govt develops comprehensive dairy policy
Govt develops comprehensive dairy policyBy Diniwe Mumba in Senanga
Sun 26 Dec. 2010, 04:00 CAT
THE Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development has developed a comprehensive dairy development policy.
Livestock minister Bradford Machila said the key out puts of the policy included the enactment by parliament of the dairy industry development Act this year.
"The immediate impact of our intervention is that many smallholder farmers will see opportunity for making regular and steady income throughout the year through dairy farming" he said
Machila, who was speaking during the launch of the milk collection centre in Senanga, Western Province urged dairy farmers to focus on improved management of their cattle to ensure that they had high pregnancy, calving rates and high milk yields that go hand in hand with good record keeping, the basis for profitable dairy farming.
He was however happy to note the significant improvement in the milk production in the country.
"Statistics indicate that in the year 2000, Zambia was producing about 136 million litres of milk per year. By 2009, the country was producing 215 million litres of milk per year and a large portion of the increase in the national production was as a result of the involvement of the smallholder dairy farmers" he said.
The project is being implemented by a consortium of Micro Bankers Trust, Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust and Agro Consult Africa of the Netherlands with the support of the European Union under the support to dairy diversification and savings program for food security.
Machila thanked the consortium for taking the initiative to start the milk collection centres that were a learning process that gave farmers great experience in the dairy commercialisation.
The milk collected at the centres is from the indigenous Barotse breed of cattle and some of it is brought to these centers by boats and canoes.
Machila announced that the ministry in conjunction with cooperating partners was setting up an artificial insemination centre at Ngonga in Mongu saying it was through the center that productivity of the dairy cross-breed cattle would improve.
This means that farmers would be getting more milk per animal hence increased income per household.
And speaking earlier, Micro Bankers Trust chief ex-ecutive officer Grace Nkhuwa said the bank had a passion for financing agricultural activities especially for small-scale farmers.
Labels: BRADFORD MACHILA, DAIRY
posted by MrK @ 6:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home