ZIMBABWE is poised for an increased dairy herd and milk production should subsistence and communal farmers consider adopting a low-cost dairy running project on cards.

The country is on a massive milk production drive aimed at cutting import bills while at the same time addressing milk deficit following a serious milk shortage owing to viability challenges emanating from poor producer prices and running costs.

Zimbabwe targets to increase its dairy herd to 44 000 by next year from the current 38 000 and meet the nation’s demand of 120 million litres of milk annually.

A Zvimba dairy commercial farmer, Mr Mark Hook, recently urged farmers to adopt a model that is centred on natural regeneration of vegetation to increase milk production.

Said Mr Hook: “It is a lot cheaper to try to regenerate the grass that the animals feed on without having to put in a lot of inputs like fertilisers to resuscitate a pasture. By bringing in layer chickens into the paddock that puts manure into the pasture while at the same time picking up pathogens from the system. 200 chickens add 200kg of nitrogen to the soil in one year.

“Planting legumes that fix nitrogen, is one good example to have a low-cost dairy project. Regenerative agriculture is more like taking agriculture back to what nature does while producing healthier milk,” he said.

He has 350 chickens and 58 cows in a three-hectare area fixing the pastures altogether.

Mr Hook has also experimented with Muchekecha fruit and other indigenous resources to help create stockfeed needed by dairy cows.

“My encouragement to subsistence and communal dairy farmers is to try to improve soil quality to have a high yield of grass for more milk. They should also use an adapted kind of breed that can survive under the Zimbabwean conditions with lower inputs thus getting more lactations,” he added.

Speaking at Mr Hook’s farm in Ward 30 this Wednesday, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister, Vangelis Haritatos who encouraged local farmers to adopt the low-cost dairy project said under the Presidential Inputs Scheme, all small scale dairy farmers were going to get inputs for one hectare of silage.

“The target hectarage for smallholder farmers for silage production is 1,500 and for medium to large scale farmers is five. We are not leaving anyone behind as we want to make sure the country has adequate milk for its citizens,” he said.

He added that while theileriosis had presented serious challenges to the beef and dairy herd of the nation, the Government was rolling out the Presidential tick grease programme for weekly dipping with revelations indicating that stocks are enough until next June.

“The Government acknowledges major constraints affecting dairy farmers that include low herd size, high drug and feed costs and low producer prices.

The Government is implementing the Livestock Growth Plan for transformation of the livestock sector with greater involvement of the domestic financial system in underpinning the financing of agriculture, as well as, improving farmer access to markets for livestock and other agriculture produce.”