Dairy processor ramps up sustainability drive

A milk quality control officer from Brookside Dairy checks the state of raw milk delivered by farmers to a cooling station in Mt Elgon, Bungoma county. [File, Standard]

More dairy farmers have benefited from an ongoing campaign on the adoption of regenerative agriculture to ensure sustainability in the dairy value chain in the country.

The Brookside Dairy is working with farmers on the adoption of renewable energy and water conservation to protect the environment and safeguard animal nutrition security.

"We are boosting climate-smart agriculture by supporting farmers to adopt sustainability initiatives that lead to increased milk production, by ensuring availability of quality livestock fodder across all seasons of the year," said Brookside Procurement General Manager Emmanuel Kabaki on the sidelines of a milk conference in Nakuru on Friday.

"We are facilitating farmers to install biogas units on their farms, as this source of energy offers significant environmental benefits, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Kabaki said seasonality in dairy production, brought about by vagaries of weather, still posed a threat to the full development of the dairy sub-sector.

He urged farmers to grow and conserve adequate fodder that would be handy during periods of depressed forage, to ensure that milk production remains optimum year-round.

Kabaki said Brookside has partnered with service providers to set up water pans in milk collection areas across the country, as the reservoirs offered increased resilience to climatic shocks by ensuring water availability during dry seasons.

"We have engaged partners who are providing the biogas units and construction of the water pans on check-off terms to our contracted farmers," Kabaki said.

He attributed the success of dairy in the Central Rift region to the growth of co-operatives in the area, saying farmers are now able to bulk their milk before selling it to processors, thus accruing the benefits of economies of scale.

He challenged farmers to prioritise biosafety on their farms to prevent the transmission of livestock diseases.