NAKURU, Kenya, Aug 24 – Brookside Dairy paid dairy farmers in Rift Valley Sh1.8 billion for milk delivered last year, the Regional Manager Mr Davis Mwangoma has said.
Mr Mwangoma said Brookside Dairy was currently receiving over 200,000 litres of milk daily from some 40,000 dairy farmers in the region.
He spoke in Nakuru while presenting sponsorship worth Sh500,000 to the Eastern African Grain Council (EAGC) to sponsor the Agribusiness Fair 2010 to be held at Nakuru’s Rift Valley Institute of Science & Technology between September 16 and 18. Cooper K-Brands Ltd also presented a similar sponsorship through their Sales & Marketing Manager Seraphine Kabutha.
Mr Mwangoma said the number of farmers contracted to supply milk to Brookside Dairy countrywide has increased to over 150,000 with farmers attracted by various incentives offered under the company’s farmer extension program.
The EAGC Country Manager Chris Webo said farmers were facing challenges with post-harvest grain storage but assured them that solutions were being sought as a taskforce recently established by the Ministry of Agriculture had drafted a Bill on Warehouse licensing which will be tabled in parliament soon.
Mr Webo said the Agribusiness Fair, now in its 8th edition comes at a critical time when changing climatic patterns were impacting negatively on agri-business and the economy hence the theme Agribusiness and Climate Change: Our Climate, Our Future.
The Fair, which is targeting over 25,000 participants, will highlight the challenges of increasing agricultural production costs and maintaining profits in agribusiness in the face the changing climatic patterns.
The 2010 Fair is organized by EAGC, the Cereal Growers Association, Rift Valley Institute of Science & Technology and the Swedish International Development Agency SIDA.
