By Lawrence Paganga
A total of 4 221 new dairy farmers from 33 districts in Zimbabwe are scaling greater heights through a Europe Union (EU) funded dairy project.
The programme managed by the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP), the farmers, mostly involved in small to medium-scale production are supported in dairy production and capacity building.
This has enabled the dairy producer to increase milk yeilds and their monthly incomes.
One of the farmers, Maggie Mangwayana, is a greenfield farmer who milks her heifer, which produces 15 litres and she ferries it to Dzawa Milk Collection Centre (MCC) in Chipinge district for marketing.
“I feed my heifer with stargrass and velvet beans with mixed maize and the cow is producing 15 litres a day, which I deliver to Dzawa,” she said.
Rudo Sithole, from Mutasa district also in Manicaland province, said through her dairy enterprise she had managed to create employment, and alleviate poverty in the area.
The aim of the project is also to boost the country’s livestock genetics and last year 200 in-calf heifers were imported into Zimbabwe from the Eastern Cape in South Africa.
The business intergrators in the project include milk processors, DenDairy, Nestle Zimbabwe and ProDairy. The three companies are also responsible for the distribution of the livestock to selected farmers through the heifer matching programme.
Through ZAGP, the programme seeks to address the root causes of underperformance in the dairy value chain in Zimbabwe by strengthening linkages between production, processing and financing.
The key indicators of the programme are to ensure the national herd, national milk production, milk and milk products are tested for quality control and properly monitored and tracked.
Meanwhile, ZAGP has also introduced a digital data gathering system through the use of Android tablets that work both online and offline.
