Milk production to go up

ZIMBABWE’S raw milk production is likely to go up by 15% in 2017 on the back of an anticipated bumper harvest, the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) has said.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

In a telephone interview with NewsDay, ZADF chairperson, Emmanuel Zimbandu said milk production is likely to improve in 2017 on the back of an improved agricultural season.

Zimbabwe is looking forward to a bumper harvest following good rains which pounded all parts of the country this season.

“In 2017, we are anticipating a 15% increase in raw milk production from last year’s figure of 65 million litres,” Zimbandu said.

“However, cost of production is our biggest challenge compared to other countries like Zambia and South Africa. Their costs are low because they are more mechanised,” he said.

Zimbandu said in February 2017 milk production dropped 12,7% to 4,4 million litres compared to 5,03 million litres achieved during the same period last year.

In January, milk production grew to 5,53 million litres compared to 5,51 million litres last year.

“Milk production dropped in February because of heavy rains. There was lot of mud. We are, however, starting to see some improvement now,” he said.

Milk production in 2016 reached 65,36 million litres, which was a 13,5% growth from prior year’s 57,54 million litres.

The government is targeting milk production to rise to between 97 million and 100 million litres per annum by 2019, leveraging on increased national herd and sectoral protectionist measures.

The industry is also highly affected by shortage of stock feed.

Zimbabwe produced around 150 million litres annually at its peak in the 1990s, but production fell shortly after the land reform programme which had a negative impact on the country’s dairy herd.