Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has been taken to task by Senate over the government's silence as the country faces a severe milk shortage crisis.
Kagwe who appeared before the Senate Plenary to answer questions, said that the current shortage of milk was due to lack of rain in many high-production areas, leading to a reduction of animal feed, and the situation is expected to improve with the onset of the rainy season.
The CS said that there are two companies developing powder milk, which is in high demand.
“The government is working to ensure that milk cooperatives are well managed to ensure that the milk produced is well handled to ensure that we have enough supply that can cushion the country in times of drought when there are not enough animal feeds,” said Kagwe.
Senate Minority Whip Stewart Madzayo expressed concern that the Cabinet Secretary has been silent over the milk crisis in the country and sought to know what the government was doing to ensure that the matter was addressed since this was affecting young children who were in need of milk the most.
Kirinyaga Senator Kamau Murango said that the country needs to have a mechanism of converting milk into powder for storage whenever there is a milk glut, saying that if that was done we would not be facing severe milk shortage, yet for a few months there was plenty of milk going to waste.
“We would the Cabinet Secretary to tell us measures and plans the ministry has put in place to reduce the cost of milk production, particularly the cost of animal feeds, stabilise milk prices, improve profitability and competitiveness of dairy farming and increase farmers incomes,” said Murango.
Kagwe told Senators the Ministry of Agriculture has developed an animal feeds development strategy to address feed situation in the country, in which it prioritises promotion of increased production of animal feeds, promotion of animal forage conservation, use of technology such as irrigation to facilitate production of animal feeds in arid and semi-arid lands.
The Cabinet Secretary told Senators that the ministry is availing its unutilised land for animal feed production through lease of the parcels of land by local and international investors with the land used for the production of pasture for commercial purposes and distribution to farmers.
“The government is setting up a National Strategic Feeds Reserve which once operational will reduce feed fluctuations, facilitate access to animal feeds, reduce dairy production costs and sustain milk production throughout the year, this will also go a long way in stabilising milk prices since there will be no period of glut or scarcity,” said Kagwe.
He said government land such as the Agricultural Development Corporation, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, Livestock farms under the ministry and former livestock holding grounds will be utilised under the Land Commercialisation Initiative.
The CS explained that the government is promoting public-private initiative partnerships to ensure that there is sufficient investment in the livestock sector, with participation in an international investors conference in Rome where it has pitched for feasible investment options in the animal feed industry.
“As result several investors have already arrived in the country to invest with key among them being De-House Animal Feed, a dutch-based company who are investing Sh300 million to produce 200,000 metric tonnes of feed annually in a modern feed milling factory at Athi River,” said Kagwe.
He revealed that the government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Arab Emirates-based Al-Dahra Company which will lease and manage up to 200,000 acres of irrigated farmland in the Galana-Kulalu Ranch with an estimated investment of up to 800 million dollars.
