New KCC has come to the rescue of dairy farmers in Kirinyaga county who have incurred losses due to lack of market.
For days, more than 6,000 farmers affiliated to Kirima Dairy Co-operative Society have been pouring their milk after failing to be collected for sale.
Manager Wachira Chomba said there was high supply against low demand.
The co-operative has been selling about 45,000 litres to New KCC daily, leaving farmers with an excess supply that did not have a market. The situation worsened when the amount was lowered to 25,000 litres.
“Our storage facilities got full due to the slow off-take by New KCC and the milk haulers would take too long before coming back for more. This led to farmers pouring away their milk because it was not being collected,” Chomba said.
The farmers were plunged into a crisis, not knowing what to do with the milk and the cows they had heavily invested in.
On Wednesday, members of the co-operative met officials from the parastatal and agreed to have the daily amount collected increased to 65,000 litres.
Chomba said most of the milk produced by farmers will be collected, shielding them from further losses.
“I want to assure farmers that the co-operative is now stable and normal collection will resume immediately,” he said.
Tye farmers urged the parastatal to make adjustments and honour the agreement that requires New KCC to collect all of their milk.
Chomba said the co-operative was making plans to establish a processing plant for value addition and to diversify its markets.
Currently, the farmers have been co-packing their milk with other processing plants. The manager confirmed the co-operative will be increasing the amount of milk packed to avert a similar occurrence.
“We’re working on putting up our own processing plant and pray that what we have gone through will never happen again,” he said, lauding local leaders for intervening and helping stem the losses.
Kirima dairy co-operative is one of the largest in the county, contributing heavily to the local economy as most homesteads invest in dairy farming to complement their income.
Co-operatives executive Calbert Njeru said the meeting was a breakthrough for farmers as their market problem will be addressed.
Njeru urged farmers to continue with their normal activities, assuring them that their produce will no longer go to waste.
“We have seen videos of farmers pouring their milk after it was not collected and it was very painful but the issue has now been resolved,” he said.
The farmers called on the management of Kiganjo dry milk facility in Nyeri county to step in when there is a glut to avert such crisis in the region.
Farmer Peter Kimani said most farmers depend on loans and poor market makes it impossible to pay their debts.
“Feeds are very expensive. We wake up before the crack of dawn to milk and take care of our cows, so it’s very painful when the milk is not collected,” he said.
by ALICE WAITHERA
