Hon Kagwe can move dairy sector to next level of transformation

Dairy cows at Oscar Sudi Dairies in Kapseret, Uasin Gishu County on March 08, 2024.

Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group

I congratulate Hon Mutahi Kagwe on his appointment as cabinet secretary for Agriculture and Livestock, a docket with critical mandates for national food security, agro-industries, exports and generation of jobs and household incomes.

I am mostly domiciled in the energy sector, but I have also been a dairy farmer in Mathira sub-county in Nyeri since 1990s.

Thanks to reforms initiated by former agriculture CS Hon Munya some four years ago, the dairy sector can be considered stable, awaiting take-off to the next level. A raft of measures taken four years ago include firm and resolute protection of Kenya milk production from imports, especially from Uganda.

Ugandans cried foul quoting EAC trade protocols, but the reality is that Uganda agricultural production costs are comparatively lower mainly due to favourable climate and soils.

The other winning policy action was introduction of “minimum recommended” producer prices paid to farmers to reflect true costs of milk production and a fair return. The Dairy Board was to periodically compute farmer production costs, with New KCC playing a proactive role in guiding payments to farmers by processers.

The result was unbelievable as milk prices to farmers jumped from below Shs30 to over Shs40 per litre. The President recently promised a minimum price of Shs50. All this time the retail consumer retail prices have remained mostly unaffected, with some processers actually discounting.

For Hon Kagwe, the current barrier to sector expansion is high animal feeds prices which are similarly impacting pork and poultry production.

Maize is the main starch input in animal feeds formulation, and when maize prices came down, the benefit was not reflected in dairy feeds prices.

The protein fraction of animal feeds which is derived from oil crops (soya, sunflower, canola) is mostly imported at high costs.

The ministry of agriculture will need to rigorously promote and empower sustainable oil crop farming to drive cooking oil and animal feeds imports substitution, balance of payments improvement, oil crop value chain jobs, and affordable cooking oil and animal feeds prices.

On the veterinary side, the government has announced plans for affordable high-quality semen and embryos to the dairy sector.

I also wish to confirm that my dairy herd has been vaccinated against foot and mouth disease (FMD), a decision influenced by a very devastating experience of losing half of my herd when FMD spread across Kenya in early 2020.

Yes, it is possible to sustain ongoing dairy sector progress and target making Kenya a net exporter of dairy products- especially to Middle East.

The writer is a petroleum consultant, [email protected]

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