• Abdi Hassan, a farmer from Garissa, said there are a lot of cattle in the county that can catalyse its economy but they are not fully exploited.
• He said technical officers who can provide advice to the dairy farmers in the county are few, a situation that has prevented them from fully exploiting the potential of their animals.
Image: /STEPHEN ASTARIKO
A group of farmers from Lamu and Garissa have been trained to manage diseases of dairy animals, select suitable breeds and adopt better feeding practices to help them improve milk production.
Officers from the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation conducted a workshop for the 39 farmers from the two counties at the Technical University of Mombasa.
Abdi Hassan, a farmer from Garissa, said there are a lot of cattle in the county that can catalyse its economy but they are not fully exploited.
He said technical officers who can provide advice to the dairy farmers in the county are few, a situation that has prevented them from fully exploiting the potential of their animals.
“We plead with the county and national governments to increase technical officers at the grassroots level so as to build our capacity,” Hassan said.
Edwin Nyambati said Kenya has one of the most-developed dairy industries in East Africa but has not fully exploited its potential. He is an assistant director in charge of animal production at Kalro.
“Our dairy value chain is well organised. However, we can do better,” he said.
Lack of value addition for the dairy products and poor marketing also affects the farmers at the grassroots, who have to make do with poor returns because they cannot access suitable markets within the country and abroad.
Nyambati said Kalro has come up with several technologies that can help solve the problems facing dairy farmers across the country.
“For example, for the Lamu and Garissa dairy farmers, there are technologies like the cross-breed between Friesian and Sahiwal, a dual-purpose cow which produces milk and beef, and is adapted to low management practices including feeds,” Nyambati said.
Paul Leparmarai from the Dairy Research Institute said farmers who grasp the synchronisation of dairy breeds and assisted reproductive technologies, do well.
“We also train them on forages that can be developed and which are suitable for environments like the hot weather in Garissa,” Leparmarai said.
Through the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture programme, farmers in 24 counties have been undergoing eight-day training sessions to improve their farming. Lamu and Garissa counties are the last two counties to undergo the training.
The training provides the farmers with knowledge on milk value addition, proper manure handling and management and feed formulation using locally available resources.
The training workshops have been conducted in West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Uasin Gishu, Nyeri, Nyandarua, Laikipia, Machakos, among other counties.
Lamu county lead farmer Zipporah Wanjiru said they lack knowledge on dairy feeds, which means they have not been farming at optimum levels.
“There is a problem with feeds. We did not know there are different kinds of feeds that we can come up with. We are used to going to the bush and cutting the grass we find there,” Wanjiru said.
She noted that the grass in Lamu has also been depleted because of human pressure and the lack of rainfall only made matters worse.
“Now we know we can mix different feeds for a more nutritious blend,” Wanjiru said.
She also said the improved security in the county means more farmers can now turn to dairy farming.
The farmer also noted that county veterinary officers take too long to attend to cases whenever they are requested to provide their services.
Nyambati said three varieties of Brachiaria grass have been developed by Kalro and this has helped farmers across the country
The three Brachiaria varieties are high yielding and have food protein higher than other grasses available.
“Once the farmers are introduced to this kind of grasses, they will be able to increase their milk production,” Nyambati said.
Nyambati said the training is focused on imparting knowledge on how to mix the different feed resources to provide nutrients for the dairy animals.
“They do not have suitable dairy breeds that can withstand diseases like trypanosomiasis, which is caused by the tsetse fly,” he said.
Hassan called on the national government to increase allocation to Garissa county to help them support dairy farmers better.
(edited by o. owino)