Milk production in Mt Kenya drops due to drought
Nkandone Dairy Farmers Society chairman Mr Douglas Mutugi supervises loading of gallons of milk onto a pick up ready for transportation to the processor in this photo taken in September 2021. The society has recorded low production due to drought and high cost of fuel.
Milk production in the Mt Kenya region has dropped by about 40 per cent due to drought, even as dairy farmers complain about high costs of production.
Farmers called for subsidies on animal feeds to be introduced, though President William Ruto’s new administration insisted that subsidies were unsustainable when he scrapped them for fuel and maize flour.
Processors said they had to increase farm-gate prices due to low supply of milk as demand for it soared, with farmers now being paid Sh53 a litre, increasing the cost of processing.
Meru Highlands Dairy CEO Justus Nguu said production was low due to lack of feeds, whose prices have risen remarkably over the past six months.
“The drought situation is serious because farmers cannot get enough feed for their animals and the increased fuel cost is bound to worsen the situation,” Mr Nguu said yesterday.
Fuel prices have skyrocketed, with a litre of petrol hitting a historic high of Sh179.30 in new prices announced by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) yesterday, while diesel is retailing at Sh165.
Mr Gilbert Naivasha, a dairy farmer in Timau in Buuri sub-county, said that while he milked over 200 litres six months ago, he now delivers 130 litres, a drop of over 40 per cent. He cited the high cost of animal feeds and supplements, saying cows were not getting adequate feeds.
Dairy societies are reeling from high fuel costs because they use pickup trucks and motorcycles to deliver raw milk to processors, said Douglas Mutugi, chairman of the Nkandone Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society.
He said societies faced high costs of production, and lamented that the new fuel prices were likely to spell doom for the sector.
“Even with the old prices, the cost of fuelling our one pickup and two motorbikes had risen to Sh56,000, up from an average of Sh25,000 per month,” he said.
“With this increase, the situation will deteriorate and we will be forced to reduce the rate at which we pay farmers.
“With a membership of 400, we are now delivering to the processor 1,300 litres of milk daily, down from 1,800 four months ago.”
The prices of feeds had also increased from an average of Sh2,600 to Sh3,000 for a 50kg bag of various brands of feeds, he noted.
Consumers have also been hit by the high prices, with the main processor in Meru, the Meru Dairy Cooperative Union, now selling a litre of unpackaged milk for Sh75, while half a litre retails for Sh53, up from Sh50.
