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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Steps dairy board is taking to achieve 2022 milk target

Smart Harvest

By Jacob Ng’etich | Oct 05, 2019

**Kenya Dairy Board Managing Director, Margaret Kibogy. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]**

Margaret Kibogy, Managing Director Kenya Dairy Board on what the board is doing to lower the cost of dairy production, increase annual processed milk to 1 billion litres by 2022 and the regulations being put in place.

1. What is the status of the dairy industry in Kenya especially on productivity?

The dairy industry has been growing at an estimated rate of 5 per cent per annum in the last few years. The milk production is estimated at 5.2 billion litres per annum. Milk productivity stands at between 7 and 9 litres per cow per day. Our target is to achieve 15 litres and above per cow per day.

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Dairy farming is a source of livelihood for 1.8 million small scale farmers. It creates an estimated 750,000 direct employment and 500,000 indirect employment in such areas as Artificial Insemination services, consultancy, transport, animal feeds and others.

2. What contributions has the dairy sector made towards achieving the government’s food security pillar of the Big Four agenda?

The key objective of dairy is to increase annual processed milk from 630 million litres to 1 billion litres by 2022.

This will be achieved through increasing processing utilisation from 40 to 60 per cent.

We are also building capacity to 3,000 dairy stakeholders along the value chain and delivering 350 bulk milk coolers with accessories to beneficiaries by the national government and encouraging the same by county governments. We are also mainstreaming the participation of women and youth in dairy.

3. What challenges are you facing in trying to achieve your objectives?

Low productivity of between 7 and 9 litres per cow per day, as a result of poor breeds, poor quality feeds, and a large informal sector which sometimes compromises the safety and quality of milk.

There is also inadequate regulations particularly to regulate the large informal sector. Dependency on rain fed agriculture which leads to fluctuating farm gate and consumer prices and poor road infrastructure leading to limitation of milk collection in inaccessible areas is also a major challenge.

This, coupled with poor compliance to legal and statutory requirements by some business operators doesn’t make it easier.

4. How are you dealing with dependency on rain fed agriculture?

Over-reliance on rain for pasture for livestock has seen a decline in milk production since 2018.

Kenya processed approximately 648 million litres of milk in 2018, but production has been declining since February due to the drought.

To combat this, KDB is currently training farmers on pasture conservation techniques to ensure they maintain milk production despite the dry spell.

5. Are there regulations and standards that need to be put in place to ensure that we get to the global best practice?

There already are dairy industry regulations and standards in place but they are not adequate to address the changing dynamics in the sector.

In conformity with the constitution and for ownership, the Board continually sensitises the public and other stakeholders on new drafted regulations with a view of seeking their input and feedback before finalising the same.

Being a member of dairy standards committee, the committee continuously reviews existing dairy standards to come up with national standards as well as harmonise the same to the regional standards.

6. How do you as a regulator go about consumer safety?

We have done this through licensing of all milk premises, inspection of the dairy premises to ensure that they comply to required standards. We also do capacity building of dairy dealers. More importantly, we offer surveillance of dairy produce in the market to ensure that the products meet safety and quality requirements for consumption.

Consumer education through social media, promotional materials and on-ground activities is also one of our mandate. This is aimed at encouraging consumers to demand and consume safe and quality milk as well as ensuring that dairy business operators comply with legal and statutory requirements.

7. The board reintroduced regulations that addresses milk safety, cautioning vendors against dealing in unprocessed milk. Why is that so?

The board reinstated the regulation for consumer safety. The rules will force farmers to pasteurise the milk themselves or send it to a milk cooling facility if they lack capacity. Farmers and other parties that violate the regulations risk paying hefty fines of up to Sh500,000 arising from contraventions including selling of milk to hawkers. However, the board is gathering views from the public before coming up with the final document.

8. Are there plans to grow the internal, regional and continental trade in our dairy products?

Yes. We are doing this through participating in trade fairs and conferences locally, regionally and internationally to promote our dairy products and other opportunities available in our dairy industry.

We are now holding bilateral trade negotiations to increase our exports to existing and new markets. But also we want to improve our dispute resolutions with partner states.

The Board is finalising a state-of-the-art dairy laboratory to support continuous surveillance of quality of our products and advice on quality improvements.

This will enhance and ensure quality of our products and thus their competitiveness and market penetration of the same internationally.

9. Speaking of trade negotiations, how has the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) pact affected the dairy industry?

AfCFTA is a good initiative that will open up the market for Kenya and other African countries, allowing movement of good from one country to another.

This means Kenya will witness an increase in dairy goods from other nations. In order to remain competitive in the market, we are looking for ways to lower the cost of production from the current Sh25 per litre to Sh15.