Milk production in Zimbabwe continues to grow and the latest
figures show that total production of milk in 2015 rose by 4
percent to 57.5 million litres compared with 55.5 million
recorded in 2014. Production in 2016 started at 5.52 million
litres. At present Zimbabwe’s dairy subsector has 233 large
scale producers and 1743 small holder farmers clustered. Small
scale farmers have no access to the right and high yielding
inputs.
As consumers demand and milk markets change, many milk
producers are now looking for alternative options to retail their
milk. Value added dairy is a means of marketing a product that
sets a producer apart from their competition in order to
increase value. Farmers in Zimbabwe are now forced to venture
in processing agricultural products like cheese, bottled milk,
yoghurt, ice cream and butter. This has seen some dairy
farmers reaping significant benefits as they embrace value
addition as a new way of doing business.
The significant decline of large scale commercial dairy farmers
in Zimbabwe has seen the role of small scale dairy farmers as
key producers and suppliers of milk being scaled down.
“This category is riddled with crippling challenges as it is
resource poor and infested with constraints that refrain their
potential to be economically viable. Grazing needs
improvement. As 2018 season progresses ,we are encouraging
farmers to plant fodder crops and trees like velvet bean, to
make silage from maize and collection of hay to improve
quality of their dairy cows’, said Vongayi Mbano, a Crop and
Livestock Officer in Kwekwe.
