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Life and Style Agriculture Kenya to host Africa's dairy conference
Kenya to host Africa's dairy conference
Written by Henry Opondo
The Eastern and Southern Africa Dairy Association that brings together dairy producers in ten African countries Wednesday announced the 8th Dairy Conference and Exhibition which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya on April 25-27.
The event promises to be the largest convergence of dairy stakeholders in Africa bringing together providers of technologies and solution in the dairy industry in the region.
Under the theme African Dairy: Driving competitiveness through technology, the event, according to the Peter Ngaruiya, the Executive Director of the ESADA, “will seek to address key issues that are facing the industry and chart the way forward by providing solutions that are workable for consumers of dairy products and other players in the dairy industry”.
The participants will also discuss on the ways of having the dairy industry play a bigger role in trade and industry development in Africa.
But according to Moses Nyabila, the Regional Director of the East Africa Dairy Development Project of the Heifer International, there are many bottle necks facing dairy processors who trade within the various trading blocks in Africa.
He says the agencies in charge of dairies, they have all erected barriers.
He adds that although they all want the barriers to come down, they however raise them up when products from the neighbouring countries export products across the borders.
“There are issues with the import licensing is still there and makes it hard for products to cross the border. Then there are issues with the standards, and the customs who hold products at the borders for long,” he said.
The dairy sector faces problems both at the products side as well as inputs side all of which do not offer farmers benefits.
Ngaruiya says that over the years, the cost of production has increased, slashing the profit levels that farmers would normally enjoy. “We hope that by understanding new ways of managing costs then farmers would increase their output among other benefits.
In Kenya, livestock producers contribute to 17 per cent to the GDP and generate KSh320 billion annually.
But the sector has suffered somewhat due to reduced effectiveness of extension services, low absorption of modern technologies, limited capital and access to affordable credit.
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