The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Musiiwa
THE Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers working with Government and a non-governmental organisation, WeEffcet, has imported 200 dairy heifers for small-scale farmers to boost milk production after receiving a 7 million Euro grant from the European Union (EU).
Speaking during the handover of the heifers at Dendairy Farm in Kwekwe last week, WeEffect project co-ordinator, Dr Edson Chifamba said there are 300 more heifers that would be imported for small-scale dairy farmers before August as the country enhances a wider inclusion of locals in dairy farming.
Dr Chifamba said the country requires 50 000 heifers to meet the annual demand of 130 million litres while the national dairy herd is at 39 000 producing 80 million litres of milk annually. He said the project would also be reinforced by animal cross-breeding.
“We also have a heifer facility where we are buying 500 in-cow heifers that we will distribute to farmers on a one to one match. Buy one and get one. So far, we have imported 200 heifers that we are going to distribute through our large-scale processors which are Dendairy, Dairibord, Kefallos, Pro Dairy and Nestle.
We have 95 heifers for Dairibord and Kefallos that are coming in the next three weeks that will be distributed to small-scale farmers. We have also identified 300 heifers that are going to be bought for small-scale farmers. We expect to buy them before August. We also have 4 000 straws of conventional semen and 4 000 straws of sex semen which we are going to give to our small-scale farmers to improve the breeds and the genetics,” he said.
Dr Chifamba said under the 7 million Euro grant, milk processors would also be receiving productive assets that would be utilised by small-scale farmers. He said the project would run for four years.
“We have a 7 million Euro grant from the European Union for dairy development. The project is a four-year project running from January 2019 to 2022 where we are giving productive assets. The assets are divided into four windows.
The first window is for large-scale processors, and farmers where we are giving 40 000 Euro grant and the beneficiaries will then match with another 40 000 Euro to buy productive assets which are going to benefit small-scale farmers. In the second window we are giving out 10 000 Euro on a 70:30 ratio where our contribution is 70 percent while the beneficiary will cede 30 percent to buy any asset for small-scale milk processors and collection centres,” he said.
“We have also another window which is the third one for small-scale farmers. We have set aside 1 million Euro where we are going to give 2 000 Euro per beneficiary to buy any asset that has something to do with dairy.”
