The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
THE dairy sector is on a growth trajectory, with milk production increasing to 91,5 million litres on the back of various Government and private sector initiatives to propel the industry towards self-sufficiency by 2025.
The sector produced 80 million litres in 2021 and 91,4 million litres in 2022, with signs on the ground showing remarkable improvement at the beginning of 2023.
Zimbabwe spends millions of scarce foreign currency to import milk and milk products to meet the 150 million litres required in the country.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Ministry’s permanent secretary, Dr John Basera, commended Government and its partners for implementing various initiatives aimed at increasing milking herd of good genetics and milk production.
Dr Basera was addressing farmers at a field day in Chiendambuya last week on Friday.
“Government has introduced programmes aimed at improving milk production, and these include the Presidential Silage Programme, Command Silage Programme and the Dairy Revitalisation Programme.
Success stories are being recorded, and the country has recorded a significant increase in milk production compared to previous years.
“Milk production has been increasing since 2021 as more farmers take dairy farming amid growing support from Government, while the national herd has been supplemented with imported heifers of good genetics to accelerate growth from the local breeding stock.
“The dairy herd has increased by 11,3 percent from 48 000 to 53 000 dairy cows, while milk production has increased from 80 million to 91,4 million litres in 2022,” he said.
The dairy herd is expected to rise to 60 000 by 2025, with about US$75 million needed to revitalise the sector, famed for its fundamental role in addressing food and nutrition security as a source of protein.
It also contributes toward eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and enhancing livelihoods.
Manicaland’s dairy centres in the province’s seven districts recently benefited from the Dairy Revitalisation Programme and the European Union funded-Transforming the Daily Value Chain for the Future Programme.
About 500 dairy cows were imported in 2019 through this project and the cows are now lactating, significantly contributing to the increase in milk volumes produced in the country.
Manicaland received 99 heifers purchased from South Africa at a cost of USD$1 500.
These were allocated to Tsonzo Milking Centre (23), Africa University (15), all in Mutasa District; as well as Rusitu (50) and Jourbet Farm (10) (Chipinge).
Milk production in three Chipinge milk collection centres now stands at least 35 000 litres per month, with an average of milk delivered per farmer increasing from 3 317 to 4 700 litres per year.
The programme relies on improved genetics and modern animal breeding techniques to improve dairy productivity across communal, small-scale and commercial agriculture.
With dipping affected by incessant rains, farmers were complaining of stress-related abortions by the serviced heifers, mastitis and bovine viral diarrhoea, among other livestock ailments.
Dr Basera urged farmers to be innovative and properly manage their herd to increase milk production.
A dairy expert in Chipinge, Mr Emmanuel Zimbandu said there are new techniques to improve the health of dairy cows to increase milk production three-fold.
These include identification, quantification and remediation of the energetic environment in which the animals are housed.
“The method improves health in important areas, including the prevention and resolution of mastitis and bovine viral diarrhoea, without the administration of drugs or the need to cull infected animals.
“The approach will effectively demonstrate a sustained reduction in factors adversely affecting milk quality, including a lowering of the SCC to 300 000 c/mI and below. This is a sincere effort to begin improving animal health and the quality and quantity of milk produced in the country,” said Mr Zimbandu.
Main challenges facing the dairy sector include high production costs including overheads, labour, feed, heifer rearing (calf management), cow life and fertility, among others
Government’s intervention has boosted confidence of value chain actors, resulting in huge investments being made in growing the production base.
This includes importation of dairy heifers and breeding locally, improving production efficiencies as well as installation of modern processing equipment and machinery.
Players in the sector also noted that the dairy sector still faces several obstacles such as high costs of production, inefficient production systems and unavailability of long-term funding.
