By John Majau
The Gankumbu Dairy Farmers Group in Tharaka Nithi County has received a donation of 1,000 packets of free semen, a milk ATM machine and milking cans from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Delivering the items to 2,500 farmers in Chuka town recently, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya’s personal assistant Kofia Kaunani said the support would boost the farmers’ earnings by reducing the cost of production.
He said the Ministry had also installed three liquid nitrogen plants managed by the Kenya Animal Genetic Resources Centre (KAGRC) in Chuka, improving artificial insemination (AI) services and reducing its cost by over 40 percent.
“The 200-litre milk ATM that costs Ksh.350,000 will enable the farmers to conveniently sell their produce to local consumers thus increasing their earnings,” said Mr Kaunani.
Dairy farmers had requested that a milk processing plant be established in the region and the ministry had initiated the process.
The Group’s Chairman, Irungu Kea, lauded the Ministry noting that the farmers had benefited from various subsidies that minimized the cost of production.
With the semen bank in Chuka, he said AI services that used to cost Ksh.7,500 and Ksh.1,200 significantly dropped to Ksh.4,500 and Ksh.400 respectively.
He said with the affordable and quality AI services, milk production had increased immensely but buying prices offered by private processors were still low.
“The government has offered us a lot of support and we hope that it will establish a milk processing plant in our county so that we can add value to our milk for better earnings,” said Mr Kea.
Local leaders including Mercy Kirito, Dennis Mutwiri and Munene Mugo lauded the government for the reforms.
With the changes in the tea and coffee sectors, Ms. Kirito said farmers in the region were also smiling all the way to the bank. Mr Mutwiri called on the youth to embrace dairy farming noting that currently most of the farmers were elderly.
