Majority of farmers in Sugoi location of Uasin Gishu County now prefer dairy farming as their main source of income to their traditional maize farming due to the alleged continued challenges facing the maize sector such as poor pricing and lack of market.
One of the farmers who abandoned maize farming for dairy, Paul Samoei affirmed that maize farming was no longer profitable.
Speaking in Sugoi during a farmer’s field day, Samoei said that their interest in dairy farming was boosted by the entry of Small holder Dairy Commercialisation Project, SDCP, funded jointly by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, and the Kenya government, that trained them on dairy management and value addition.
“Before SDCP we were so much behind with the dairy farming as our major activity, due to lack of proper care and attention given to our cows as well as letting our livestock roam all over in search of pasture”, said Samoei adding that they used to get only five litres of milk from one cow," said Samoei.
We now plant dairy feed and we were sensitised on the importance of feeding our dairy cows with more dry matter which increases milk yield. After the training we now get up to 22 litres of milk daily from one cow, added the farmer.
Members of Sugoi Dairy Commercialisation Area have also been introduced to dairy goat farming that gives them at least three Kgs of milk per goat.
“The sale of milk from the cows and the goats has significantly improved the economic income of the farmers, and more farmers are now abandoning maize farming for dairy farming since they get better returns,” noted Samoei.
According to the livestock officer in charge of Turbo sub county Paul Kibuba 600 farmers have so far been trained on modern dairy management and value addition while 300 of them have been taken for exposure tours to counties that have performed well in dairy keeping.
Kibuba said they had also brought on board the Kenya dairy board to sensitise farmers on the importance of ensuring the quality and safety of their milk was maintained until it reaches the consumer.
The Kenya dairy board regional manager Bernard Simiyu said to ensure that the consumer gets high quality and safe milk, the board conducts inspection and surveillance of all milk handlers.
“We take random samples at the outlets to check on the quality”, said Simiyu adding that currently there were more than 120 licensed milk handlers in the region," said Simiyu.
Simiyu advised farmers in Sugoi to make use of the Sugoi milk cooler saying by collecting their milk together and chilling at the cooler, quality of the milk was maintained until it reached the consumer, a move which was facilitated by IFAD by donating the coolers.