This past week, I was fortunate enough to spend time working on
a smallholders dairy project in Naari, Meru County. Farmers helping Farmers,
the Prince Edward Island NGO that started working with the Mukurweini dairy nearly
20 years ago, also works with other co-operative dairies in Kenya. VWB-Canada
partners with Farmers Helping Farmers to offer veterinary and other services to
their partner dairies. Due to the success of the Mukurweini dairy, Farmers
helping Farmers is now working alongside new and developing dairies throughout the
Mount Kenya area to provide valuable knowledge and support so that these dairy
co-operatives can grow in a sustainable and profitable manner. The Naari dairy
has recently partnered with Farmers and Helping Farmers, and this summer,
several Canadian veterinary students and Kenyan veterinarians are conducting
research on cow nutrition and health as part of a baseline survey in this area.
My visit to Naari was a wonderful opportunity for me to gain exposure to
smallholder dairy farms in another area, and for me to appreciate the
opportunities for development of the smallholder dairy farming in Kenya. And
both Maggie and Sarifa will also be visiting Naari as well! So I packed my bags
and off I went to the other side of Mount Kenya.
Mukurweini countryside
Visiting Naari and the Meru area was an eye opener for me for
a number of reasons. Meru may only be about three hours away from Mukurweini by
car but the landscape changes drastically from tropical and extremely hilly to
flat and arid. Accompanying these geographic differences is a change in the way
cattle are farmed. There are more beef cows in Meru and dairy cows are often
found grazing in fields rather than being zero-grazed (where food is cut and
brought to the cows in their pens). This presents different challenges and
benefits for the farmers. For example, grazed cows are more likely to acquire
ticks harbouring diseases, and farmers must dip or spray their cattle with acaricide,
a chemical that kills ticks, much more than zero-grazed cattle. However, the
benefit of Meru’s flat and less populous landscape means that farmers may be
able to graze their cattle along roadsides and in pastures more, thus reducing
the work of having to harvest and carry forage for their animals. But in both Naari
and Mukurweini, cattle are a very important source of income and pride for
farmers.
The Naari dairy is what I imagine the Mukurweini dairy must
have been like 20 years ago. It is hard to paint a picture of the two dairies,
but I will compare and contrast them to give a sense of their differences. The
Naari dairy was started in 2010 after a ten-year hiatus when the co-operative
fell apart. Now, the dairy is under new management and the growing success of
this dairy is attracting more farmers and investment. The Naari dairy has seven
employees and has a bulk tank where milk is stored before being shipped to Meru
as milk is not processed nor sold at the Naari dairy. There are 500 farmers
that supply milk to the dairy and milk cans are collected each day by several donkey
carts and motor bikes. By contrast, the Mukurweini dairy has 6,500 farmers
supplying milk to the dairy. Milk is collected by trucks at collection points
before being processed on site and then sold on to Nairobi. The Mukurweini
dairy might currently be larger and more developed than the dairy in Naari, but
they both started in the same place; thirty years ago, the Mukurweini sold only
32 litres on its’ first day in business!
The possibility of
improvement and development of the dairy industry in Naari and other
smallholder dairy farming regions in Kenya is tremendously exciting. Having a
good dairy co-operative is extremely important for smallholder dairy farmers,
as a well-functioning co-operative dairy can provide loans, veterinary
services, and farming education to its’ members. By learning from the successes
and challenges in developing the dairy in Mukurweini, Farmers helping Farmers
(and future Veterinarians without Borders interns), can transfer this knowledge
to new areas like Naari and continue to research best farming practices that
benefit both farmers and their animals.
P.s. On
a fun note, we have noticed some interesting trends in cow names. A very
popular name for cows in Mukurweini is ‘Meni.’ I would hazard that at least 85%
of cows here are called Meni (we even met a Meni Junior!). In the Meru area,
cows are often called ‘Matune’, meaning brown, or ‘Kairo’, meaning black.
Occasionally, cows are given names that are also given to women. I met several
cows named Mawdu-ay, meaning ‘beautiful lady’ in the local language.
Milk cans in Naari
No comments:
Post a Comment