Kenya: Murang’a Dairy Farmers to Get Sh5 Subsidy for Every Liter of Milk

Muranga — The county director of livestock production, Peter Nyamora, speaking at a public participation forum on County Integrated Development Projects, stated that the dairy farmers will be required to sell their milk through a cooperative in order to benefit from this policy.

“The registered cooperatives must be professionally managed and will be subjected to regular audits by the county in order to avoid cases of fraud,” he said.

The director said that the county statistics put the cost of production per liter of milk at between Sh27 and Sh.32 while the farmers sell the milk at between Sh33- 42.

“The subsidy policy will ensure that every farmer gets a minimum of five shillings in profits per liter of milk,” Nyamora said.

The money is meant to go into purchasing farm inputs and reduce the strain on the farmers as the current prices of various inputs have been eating into most of their profits.

The county initiative, meant to motivate farmers by making farming more lucrative and protect them from incurring any dairy losses is part of Murang’a governor Irungu Kang’ata’s campaign promises.

The county will start by a baseline survey registration, where all the eligible will be factored into the database.

All farmers selling milk through cooperatives will be eligible for this subsidy programme

The initiative, which also targets to give a similar amount for every kilogram of mangoes, will be separated into different funds for milk and another for mangoes.