Small scale dairy farmers in Mutasa are struggling to increase production owing to expensive stockfeed for their cows and unavailability of nearby water sources.

The farmers say most feed companies have pegged their prices in US dollars, making the local currency equivalent expensive for many.

Tsonzo Dairy Farmers Association chairman Mr Washington Sagonda said while some companies were offering farmers a subsidy on stockfeed, the prices they were getting were still very high since they were pegged using the black market rate, instead of the official bank rate.

He said a 40kg bag was being sold for US$12.50 or $1 500. Those buying at a subsidised price were paying $1 350.

Calculated using the official rate, the price is equivalent to about $1 050.

Besides feed, Mr Sagonda said prices for dipping, chemicals as well as vaccines were also pegged in foreign currency.

“Feed is expensive and not every farmer can afford this. If we could access forex using the bank rate, we would be getting feed at a cheaper price, but as it is, even the subsidised price is more expensive than the US dollar price.

“And we cannot afford to buy it on the black market. As a result, our cows are not getting as much feed as they should be getting and we have seen a significant decline in production figures,” he said.

Mr Sagonda said early this year, farmers were producing about 900 litres of milk per day, but that figure had gone down to about 690 litres per day.

The milk is being sold to Dairibord at $35 per litre.

Mr Sagonda said to break even, farmers should get at least $50 per litre but as things stand, most are making losses.

For this season, he said the association has managed to buy inputs for their farmers using part of the revolving fund to ensure everyone plants grain for fodder.

However, the available inputs can only cover 18 hectares of land instead of the 40 hectares required to produce enough fodder for the association members’ herd.

Mr Sagonda said individual farmers would have to fund the remaining hectarage themselves, although some might not be able to.

Manicaland has been hit by successive droughts over the past two seasons, which have resulted in many water sources drying up.

According to the District Development Fund, 152 water points across the province have dried up while another 143 are no longer yielding as much water.

The unavailability of water has severely affected milk production because cows have to walk long distances to access drinking water.

“Dairy cows are not supposed to walk long distances for water, the more kilometres they walk the less milk they produce,” said Mr Sagonda. “But because most of the nearby water sources have dried, we have no choice but to make them walk.”

The association received a US$29 000 grant from the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), which was set up into a revolving fund to drill boreholes for all 39 members.

This year, 10 farmers benefited from the fund and have started utilising water to grow their own fodder.

The association is targeting to drill at least four boreholes for its members every year until everyone has a water source at their farm.

“If a farmer has readily available water, they can reduce the amount of stockfeed they buy as they will be growing their own maize and grass.We hope that the revolving fund will continue to support all our farmers,” said Mr Sagonda.