Livestock science October 2009
Business hubs for dairy farmers
Dr Amos Omore: A dairy expert from the International Livestock Research Institute
Summary:
Selling milk from dairy cows and goats can be an excellent business for small-scale farmers. Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has established a project in three East African countries, which aims to double the income of one million rural people, through small-scale dairying. Dr Amos Omore from the International Livestock Research Institute explains more to Pius Sawa.
Suggested introduction:
What does a dairy business look like? You might imagine a factory which bags or bottles many thousands of litres of milk every day for sale to shops and households each day. In fact, most milk sold in Africa comes from farmers who own just a few cows, and who sell their milk direct to households or to small traders who have a circle of regular customers.
Selling milk from dairy cows and goats can be an excellent business for small-scale farmers. Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has established a project in three East African countries, which aims to double the income of one million rural people, through small-scale dairying. Dr Amos Omore from the International Livestock Research Institute explains more to Pius Sawa.
Tape in:
The project is titled East Africa...
Tape out:
...for addressing rural poverty.
Closing Announcement:
Dr Amos Omore, on a project to develop business hubs and marketing associations for small-scale dairy farmers in East Africa. Asking the questions was Pius Sawa.
Making the most of it:
Milk - economically, nutritionally or socially - is a great subject for radio. Take an in-depth look at the milk chain and interview producers, processors and traders to find out what they do and how they can be helped to do it better.
Further information:
East Africa Dairy Development,
P.O Box 74388,
Nairobi-00200, KENYA,
Tel: +254 20 252 7563, +254 20 3862377
Mobiles: +254 715 111 333, +254 738 999 855
Fax: +254 20 252 7564
E-mail: eadd@eadairy.org
Website: www.eadairy.org
Transcript
Omore
The project is titled East Africa Dairy Development that aims to double the income of about a million people. That is 179,000 households in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Sawa
Talking of a million people, this is quite amazing. How are you going to make it work and how will it look like?
Omore
The core of the development project is to build marketing hubs, develop dairy business associations for the farmers so that they can exploit their collective action to enjoy higher market prices and enjoy easier access to various input and output services.
Sawa
Maybe you could just paint a picture of how this is going to work out? How are you going to build this structure?
Omore
Yes when you go to some of the hubs that are already beginning to work and when you see the beehive of activity that is taking place there then you begin to have good hopes that the goal of doubling incomes is going to happen. These hubs you have got very many bicycle milk vendors collecting milk from several farmers, each of them ferrying from 60 litres, if they are using bicycles, to 1,000 litres or more if they are using pickups. And these are the kind of businesses that are being built that we hope, as times goes by, they are going to go further to collect more milk from more households and within time, those areas will find it viable to set up similar market centres. Already some satellite centres are beginning to happen and we hope this process will multiply itself in various places. We have already had questions from some politicians who want to use local community funds to set up similar hubs within their communities. And we hope that really this will be the pathway towards doubling rural income.
Sawa
Do you think you are on target?
Omore
Well the project has only lasted for one and a half years. We have got another two to two and a half years for the pilot phase and based on that, the lessons learnt will be used to inform the development for out scaling in various areas within the countries where we are operating now but also additional countries.
Sawa
Talking about additional countries, do you think this is only relevant for East Africa or are you going to roll it out to other countries?
Omore
The focus is on East Africa because this is where you have got the largest number of livestock, dairy households. But, yes, other countries could be looked at on a case by case basis.
Sawa
Now this Rwandan government policy of ensuring that every rural household should have at least a cow, how is it going to work?
Omore
All I know is that, that policy provides a very good opportunity to improve rural livelihoods because livestock and particularly dairy production is potentially a very useful avenue for getting out of poverty and improving not only the nutrition but also the general welfare in terms of income for rural communities.
Sawa
Any other comment you would like to give us?
Omore
I think dairying presents a great opportunity for improving rural livelihoods that is yet to be fully exploited and we would like to encourage countries and various organisations that are looking into opportunities for improving livelihoods, to look at doing that through dairying because it is one of the most promising opportunities for addressing rural poverty. End of track
