The government through the National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) has procured 3 sets of mini dairy processing equipment to help dairy farmers add value to their milk.
The move is also intended to boost all season’s supply of milk but also stop farmers from over-depending on processing factories.
The equipment valued at 2.2 billion Shillings includes a UHT milk production line, refrigerator, and generator which will benefit farmers of the Isingiro Women Dairy Cooperative in Isingiro district, Tooro dairy farmers’ cooperative in Kabalore and Nyabitanga dairy Cooperative society in Sembabule district.
Grace Kazigeti, the head Agribusiness Department in NAADS revealed this on Saturday during the closure of the five-days training at Mutanonga dairy practical training centre in Kiruhura district. The training was aimed at equipping the beneficiaries with skills and knowledge on how to operate the mini dairy equipment.
The training was facilitated by the Dairy Development Authority, Uganda Industrial Research Institute, and the NAADS Secretariat.
Kazigeti said the government has over time noticed that the dairy industry remains challenged with among others over and low production of milk, price fluctuations, and poor milk handling/ storage because of these challenges farmers have failed to get returns on investment and many have now diversified into bull fattening while others that have remained in dairy farming have since got involved into poor milk handling practices.
She, however, said that the government saw it sensible to procure the mini diary processing equipment for dairy farmers in cooperatives as one of the solutions.
Dr Halid Kirunda, the Director of Research at NAADS warned dairy farmers against distorting the available dairy markets rather than appreciating and sustaining them noting that markets are the drivers of production, but also emphasized the issue of value addition such that milk prices don’t drop.
He said when milk is processed into products that have a longer shelf life, then we can avoid the issues of drop in market prices during the flush seasons, which has always been a common challenge.
Emmanuel Tayebwa, a dairy consultant at Mutanoga Dairy Training Center said many farmers have failed to expand their markets beyond urban centres yet the milk processors focus on international markets only the provision of mini dairy equipment to rural cooperatives hopes for more markets are high to expand.
“There are many areas where the current processors can’t access many deeper trading centres. towns that we cannot exist easily. Also, each time we get a new processor, we create new relationships and new capacity to export the products out of this country. So we think this is going to grow enormously the dairy industry across the country”.
Ronald Kwikiriza the Chairperson of Tooro dairy farmers’ cooperative one of the beneficiaries says with the UHT line equipment that the government has provided, they are sure that their milk can be stored and given a longer shelf life.
According to data from the Dairy Development Authority Uganda’s milk production stands at 2.89 billion short of the target of 3.0 billion litres with prices currently standing at between 1000 and 1500 shillings.
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