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Smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya are could earn additional Ksh 156 billion from increased milk production according to new projections by the Nourishing Prosperity Alliance: Forage for Animal Growth in East Africa (NPA-Forage).
The alliance forecast the industry to grow by 53pc between this year and 2028 and record an year-on-year annual growth rate of 10pc supported by key interventions.
Among interventions NPA-Forage targets to implement include building a self-sustaining commercial marketplace for nutrient-dense, climate-adapted forage accessible to small-scale dairy farmers who make up 80% of the total dairy farmer population and meet more than half of the country’s milk needs.
“By building a market for nutritious, cost-effective forage, we are targeting to grow the dairy industry by 16% this year, 26% next year, and up to 53% in 2028. This growth will be measured through various parameters, including the amount of milk produced by each cow, the number of farmers adopting NPA’s nutritious forage techniques, and the overall commercial benefit accrued to both farmers and forage sellers,” said Ian Mutua Muthama, NPA-Forage Country Lead Technical Manager.
The alliance says during the three year period, more than half a million small-scale farmers are projected will produce at least 3.4 billion liters of milk from a total herd of 2 million animals.
Data by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicates that poor animal nutrition contributes to a milk supply deficit of 4.42 billion liters annually in Kenya equivalent to Ksh 169 billion in unrealized dairy sector revenue.
“This is not a pipe dream, as we have seen the results from the pilot project that took place between 2020 and 2023 and what we have managed to achieve in our first year in 2024. Dairy farmers are changing their attitudes and practices around how they feed their animals, resulting in higher milk yields. We are also training farmers to grow nutritious, climate-adapted forage for their animals and for sale,” added Brenda Rono, NPA-Forage Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager Kenya.
Since the launch in 2020, NPA Forage says it has trained 5,500 commercially oriented small-scale dairy farmers on forage production and optimized rationing.
