Ndumberi dairy co-op taps Family Bank Sh1bn fodder funding plan

Ndumberi Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society in Kiambu County has become the first to tap credit from Family Bank’s recently launched Sh1 billion loan programme that finances fodder production.

The cooperative, which boasts about 1,000 farmers, said it hopes the access to better quality fodder through the programme will help to double its milk yield to 30,000 litres per day.

“With availability of quality fodder, we expect milk production to increase from the current 14,000 - 19,000 litres to 30,000 litres per day. We look forward to this partnership bridging the core challenges in the sector,” said Ndumberi Dairy Farmers Co-operative Vice Chairman Peter Waititu.

Family Bank last year partnered with a dairy farming investment advisory firm Perfometer Agribusiness Limited in the programme dubbed CashCow Initiative, which is targeting about 100,000 farmers.

“With the on-boarding of Ndumberi Dairy Farmers Co-operative and the cemented partnership with Perfometer Agribusiness, we are assured of quality control in the fodder all the way to the milk, so that the benefit of our financing is spread to all the actors across the supply chain,” said Family Bank CEO Rebecca Mbithi in a statement.

The firms did not immediately disclose the terms of the financing in a sub-sector that is generally associated with risks such as livestock diseases and poor milk preservation.

The funding aims at ensuring that the dairy farmers have all-year-round access to fodder to boost their incomes through increased milk production.