Dairy farming chaotic
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by TONY SAXON
Monday, 26 April 2010 16:50
CHIPINGE – Dairy farmers here who have been supplying milk to the country have said Zimbabwe’s national dairy herd is down to just 22,000 cows from 192,000 in 2000.
The low herd count had resulted in drastic reduction in milk production. All this is as a result of the 2000 chaotic land invasions.
Darin Biscoe, a farmer in Chipinge, said the situation had been slow to improve because many cows had died due to lack of technical know-how by the new farmers.
He said some of the commercial dairy cows were sold for consumption purposes as the resettled farmers did not have food in their fields. Another farmer, Thomas Palmer, said :”We have completely abandoned dairy farming and we are now focusing on something else. We used to supply Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited with huge tonnes of milk, but now many of us here have since stopped.”