Made Takes Swipe At New Dairy Farmers

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) October 26, 2005  10/28/2005

ONLY 34 A2 dairy farmers out of a possible 1 000 have applied for loans from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to boost the country's milk production. This low application rate comes at a time when there is an acute shortage of milk and other dairy products, leading to stockists resorting to imports to meet demand. The shortages paint a grim picture of the industry as the country which could end up as a net importer of milk if the situation does not improve. Statistics made available by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe show that only 34 farmers have applied for loans under the $300 billion loan facility out of the potential 1 000 A2 dairy farmers. It was in this context that the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Joseph Made, has launched a scathing attack on new commercial dairy farmers who are not utilising their land saying they risk losing it. "I am saying this without fear or favour. "A massive audit will soon be conducted to assess those dairy farmers who are not effectively utilising their land and those farms will be taken over by the Government. "RBZ has availed financial resources and our various agricultural sub-divisions are ready to provide technical assistance. So why are they failing to deliver. "These people took up production four years ago but milk and dairy production in the country has continued to decline. "Of course, we had some hitches here and there but there is nothing on the ground to show that they are working to come up with innovations to improve the performance of the industry as is the case with wheat and tobacco farmers," said Dr Made. Several dairy farmers around the country have abandoned the industry, opting for crops such as paprika and soyabeans without authority from the Government. This has opened up a huge gap in the production of milk and other dairy products, such as cheese and yoghurt. New farmers were given dairy farms to rear cows and produce milk during the fast-track land redistribution exercise. Although A2 farmers had also accessed loans from the Government to buy dairy cows from former commercial farmers some had channelled the funds to non-dairy farming activities. Farmers who abandoned the industry cited scarcity of inputs such as stockfeeds, inadequate veterinary services and technical expertise required in dairy production. Stockfeeds account for more than half the costs in dairy farming. Apart from being expensive, they are in short supply following three successive droughts while there has been a decline in cereal crops, the main ingredients. Enditem