Kenya dairy farmers get Sh2.3b funding

NAIROBI: Thousands of small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya are set to benefit from part of a Sh2.3 billion financial support that seeks to improve their livelihood though enhanced productivity.

This follows the signing of a deal between Family Group Foundation and Heifer International Kenya to improve dairy farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in a five year programme.

Dubbed East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD), the project in its second phase is partly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and targets about 136,000 farmers in the three countries.

Family Group Foundation is supported by Family Bank Limited, Kenya Orient Insurance Limited and Nyara Farm. During the inking of the deal, Family Group Foundation Executive Director Annie Muya underscored the role of the foundation in achieving improved development through partnerships.

“This partnership lays credence to what the Foundation hopes to achieve, which is to improve and transform lives through developmental programmes,” she said.

She further promised of their commitment to work with Heifer International and EADD II partners, to contribute to the realisation of development objectives under the EADD programme in Kenya.

On their part, EADDP said that they will further refine and improve the hub approach, partly through focusing more on building social capital, and partly through actively pursuing partnerships. “We will seek partnerships with investment from local processors, the financial sector and other private sector players will explore ways to increase hub sustainability, thereby readying this approach for scale by other public and private entities,” Kapoor noted.

The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) program is designed to boost the milk yields and incomes of small-scale farmers in the region to lift their communities out of hunger and poverty. The second phase of EADD aims at improving dairy production and access to markets over the next four years.

Besides, it seeks to provide additional opportunities to create financial independence and social equality in addition to changing the nutritional landscape in East Africa.