The Sunday News
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
THE Government is pressing ahead with efforts to resuscitate the local dairy industry which is operating below capacity through a programme meant to ensure self-milk sufficiency by 2020.
Zimbabwe requires 150 million litres of milk per annum yet the local dairy industry is only able to supply 70 million litres with the balance being imported. Two years ago, the Government launched a five-year Dairy Revitalisation Programme (DRP) to make the country self-sufficient in milk amid hopes that the dairy sector will up production and target some 200 million litres of milk by 2020. The strategy has since started yielding results as the local supply has risen from 65 million litres some two years ago to 70 million litres in 2018.
In an interview on the sidelines of the International Milk Day celebrations at Mbuya Saunyama Orphanage Centre in Kwekwe, chief director of Veterinary Services in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Dr Unesu Ushewokunze-Obatola said DRP has played a pivotal role in the revival of the country’s dairy industry.
“From about two to three years ago, we have been facilitating farmers to try and import breeding material, heifers under the DRP so that we grow our national herd. That programme is still ongoing and as Government we are committed to seeing our national dairy herd grow,” she said.
The national dairy herd stands at 30 000 against an envisaged 50 000 dairy cattle. Dr Ushewokunze-Obatola said the Dairy Resuscitation Fund has also enabled farmers to import the required milk to augment the milk supply in the country as well as breeding stock.
“Through our Dairy Services Unit, we are working with local dairy farmers through the Zimbabwe Dairy Industries Trust where we are always looking for possible ways of empowering the farmers. When foreign currency is available we always push that they get a portion to necessitate the importation of the required products,” she said.
Dr Ushewokunze-Obatola said the El Nino-induced low rainfall during the 2018/19 summer cropping season has done little to help hence there was a need for farmers to import stock feed, which the Government was also helping farmers in accessing.
The World Milk Day is celebrated every year on 1 June and is meant to celebrate important contributions of the dairy sector to sustainability, economic development, livelihoods and nutrition.
Local dairy companies exhibited their products at the event where it was revealed that Zimbabwe’s national herd has grown steadily from 5 000 in 2008 to more than 29 000 animals in 2018.
The country’s annual milk production increased from 150 million litres in 1980 to peak at 256 million litres in 1990 before it plunged to around 55 million litres by 2013.
