ESTABLISHMENT OF EMBU COUNTY DAIRY FARMERS SACCO. Background information Savings and credit Cooperatives (SACCO) society all over the world offer members much more than just financial services. They provide members with an opportunity to own their financial institution that conforms to their financial needs. Besides SACCOs are formed by people with a common objective so that they can pool their resources together and expend their individual opportunities such starting business, investing in value addition of their products among others. In our county, the tremendous impact of Public Service Vehicles has brought cannot be underestimated. Apart from bringing a certain degree of sanity into a rather chaotic industry, they have also economically impacted on the lives of their members. Today, matatu SACCOs have invested in courier companies, fuelling stations, hospitality industry among others. Other SACCOs such as Nawiri, Daima, Winnas just but to mention a few have transformed lives of their members for better. CURRENT SITUATION Embu County is an agriculturally endowed and offers a very conducive environment for dairy farming. Over the years dairy farming has evolved from a simple part time venture to market oriented farming. However, farmers have continuously faced severe challenges thus marking this industry almost collapse. In fact, dairy farming is practiced at small scale level with no investments in technology thus making it very uncompetitive. A pragmatic approach in this sector by the County Government will turn the fortunes for dairy farmers in the county. Today the work of dairy promotion is left to hands of the farmer who has no even marketing skills. There is no way we can expect results in such a scenario. This sector is faced with challenges that we seek to redress through formation of the dairy Sacco and equally has many opportunities that can be exploited moving forward. Challenges • Low milk prices; • Lack of ready and steady market; • Unscrupulous milk brokers who exploit farmers and pose health risks to consumers; • Poor farming techniques; • Lack of proper storage facilities resulting into wastages; • Increased cost of energy; • Increased cost of feeds; • Uncertain weather patterns. Opportunities • Dairy farming offers employment and can create jobs for our youths; • The Sacco will offer platform for value addition; • The Sacco will be marketing of the base for the dairy farming products; • Maintaining of steady market prices for milk and its products through protracted negotiations with milk processing companies like New KCC; • Dairy farmers will invest in modern technology like coolers and refrigerators has the Sacco will encourage them to save; • Solve financial woes of the dairy farmers especially when costs of production( cost of energy and yields) rise up; • Cushion the farmers from winding up farming in case of natural calamities like drought or emergencies like post-election violence. Currently dairy farming in the county is in such uncoordinated situation that Government interventions are necessary to cushion the farmer from continued exploitation by the middlemen. Today, farmers are only able to sell their morning yields with evening yields going to waste as a cartel of brokers/middlemen buy milk in the morning at a very low price and sell it to retailers who sell it high prices. In addition, this milk is not even safe and poses health risks to our population as its transportation and packaging is uncouth. To make matters worse New KCC buys milk to farmers at kshs 25 a litre and sells one litre packet of milk at kshs 50. Today, we cannot ignore the success stories of other such Saccos notably the Githunguri dairy and community Sacco the successor of the Githunguri dairy farmers’ cooperative society in Kiambu County. It is well known form fresha dairy products including fresha fresh milk, yoghurt, cream, ghee, and butter among others. This too does not require rocket science to be replicated in Embu County. Currently dairy farming in the county is in such uncoordinated situation that Government interventions are necessary to cushion the farmer from continued exploitation by the middlemen. Today, farmers are only able to sell their morning yields with evening yields going to waste as a cartel of brokers/middlemen buy milk in the morning at a very low price and sell it to retailers who sell it high prices. In addition, this milk is not even safe and poses health risks to our population as its transportation and packaging is uncouth. To make matters worse New KCC buys milk to farmers at kshs 25 a litre and sells one litre packet of milk at kshs 50. Today, we cannot ignore the success stories of other such Saccos notably the Githunguri dairy and community Sacco the successor of the Githunguri dairy farmers’ cooperative society in Kiambu County. It is well known form fresha dairy products including fresha fresh milk, yoghurt, cream, ghee, and butter among others. This too does not require rocket science to be replicated in Embu County. FUTURE PLANS Based on the above challenges and opportunities we will consolidate all dairy farmers in all the county wards and form a county dairy farmers Sacco. The Sacco will promote dairy farming in the county right from ensuring the farmers have the much needed capital to venture onto commercial dairy farming, use the best and modern farming techniques and technology, market their products, and encourage savings for future investment. The market imperfections as a result of unpredictable milk prices, wastages due to lack of storage capacity or in times of excess production will be a thing of the past. The Sacco will have the capacity to absorb any amount of litres of milk produced in the county, store it and market it even without the borders of county and abroad. Of significant is the negotiating block the Sacco offers to the dairy farmers and therefore ensuring never again will much hard work of our farmers exploited by a few brokers for their own benefits. TWENDE KAZI SASA
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 19:02:07 +0000