Kiambu County government has been urged to support dairy farming by reducing cess fee.
Speaking in his office Wednesday, Githunguri Dairy Farmers Co-operative Society chairman Charles Mukora called upon the county government to reduce the fee saying it was hurting the dairy sector.
“Before the establishment of Kiambu County government, we were paying 30 cents per litre of milk to the now defunct Kiambu municipal council. When the office of the county government came into existence, they fee was raised to Sh1 for per litre,” said Mukora.
He said the new fee is not reasonable and Githunguri Dairy Farmers Co-operative Society went to court to shave the fee reduced so as to save farmers from incurring losses.
Even though the matter is pending in court, the chairman said the county government had no reason to hike the cess fee.
He added that the fee is charged to the dairy farmers co-operative societies who in turn transfer the cost to farmers.
“We are the ones who pay the cess but we have to recover it from farmers when we buy milk from them. If the cess is high, we pay farmers less so that our cost of production does not become unmanageable,” said Mukora.
He said if farmers do not get profits, it will discourage them from venturing into dairy farming adding that this may kill the industry.
The chairman advised dairy farmers to sell their milk to processing plants instead of selling it to hawkers.
He added that processed milk has value addition than raw milk and that the profits fetched by milk processing plants through value addition trickles down to farmers.