Brains Behind Kakamega County’s Milk Production Increment By 50 Million Litres in 5 Years

How Kakamega County increased milk production by over 50 million litres in five years.

No wonder short tea is replacing long tea in Kakamega.

Did you know that milk production in Kakamega County increased by 50.9 million in five years?

Now that you know, here is what was done to make the county in which most residents depended on sugarcane and maize production achieve this laudable transformation.

In the financial year 20/2016, former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya initiated a dairy farming upgrade programme to help farmers contribute positively to food security through milk production.

The county, noting unexploited potential in milk production, established that the majority of dairy animals owned by most farmers were low- and average-milk producers.
This revelation pushed the county to subsidise artificial insemination costs, train more artificial inseminators, and provide a source for pedigree heifers.
The three-pronged approach was to ensure Kakamega farmers could afford to inseminate their dairy cattle with improved breeds with high-milk producing genes, access artificial inseminators in their localities, and have high-milk-producing animals.

Oparanya commenced the donation of pedigree and high-milk-producing heifers to farmers across the 12 sub-counties in Kakamega under a project dubbed the One Cow Initiative.

Under the initiative, farmers who registered and received the heifers would donate the heifers to other members of their groups with the aim of ensuring more farmers get better milk producers.

Ugatuzi vile inafaa established that so far, the county has distributed 1,960 dairy cows to selected farmers since 2015.
Out of these, 916 heifers have been passed on to other farmers between 2015 and 2023.

Hundreds of beneficiaries passed calves from the cows to other farmers, in the process increasing the milk production capacities of each household and ultimately the county.

To sustain the programme that has been lauded and attracted investors and partners from as far as the Netherlands, the county set up structures to ensure a ready market for milk produced locally.

This was through the initiation of the Smart Dairy Farm programme under the Kakamega Dairy Development Corporation (KDDC.)
KDDC is tasked with steering the Smart Dairy Farm Project, which, among other things, includes setting up milk processing plants and farmer training centres.

The farms will be established in all 12 sub-counties in Kakamega. Already, a KSh 150 million smart farm is up in Malava sub-county.
Oparanya’s successor, Fernandes Barasa, picked up the project and, in 2023, donated 170 in-calf cows valued at KSh 15 million to farmers is Malava.
The processing firm in Malava will approximately process 50, 000 litres of milk daily and create hundreds of employment opportunities, both directly and indirectly.

Ugatuzi Vile Inafaa found out that the deliberate push to upgrade dairy farming in Kakamega has seen dairy cows increase from 147,720 animals in 2016 to 177,578 in 2021.

This increase in dairy cows translated to increased milk production, from 131.7 million litres in 2015 to 182.6 million litres in 2021.
This is an approximately 39% increase in milk production and, subsequently, more income for more farmers.

A milk trader in Panpaper Shopping Centre in Lugari told Ugatuzi Vile Inafaa that she had opened a milk ATM business courtesy of the availability and steady supply and demand for the commodity.

“Most people are now doing dairy farming as a business. They’re investing in good breeds, and county veterinary personnel have been helping inseminate cows with pedigree breeds and counseling farmers on how to produce more. With this, milk supply for traders has eased,” she said.

On a light note, this means Kakamega County tea lovers are no longer taking long tea, but enjoying ichai inyimbi (tea laced with enough milk).
Isn’t this a Ugatuzi Vile Inafaa moment?! I believe it is.

Share those Ugatuzi Vile Inafaa kind of stories from your county via michollinga@gmail.com or DM via Messenger.