The growth of the smallholder dairy sector has resulted in high demand for dairy cows which the country’s breeding capacity is failing to meet.
With a total cattle herd of 800 000, Malawi the world’s fourth poorest country, has only 20 000 dairy cattle resulting in the country’s four main processors failing to reach half of their production capacity. This has resulted in close to 50% of the country’s dairy products requirements being imported.
The country has an undersupplied local market, underutilised milk collection, cooling and processing capacity that has now been receiving support from private sector, government and donor community in a move that will see Malawi becoming Southern Africa’s milk hub.
According to Land O’Lakes country director, Gretchen Villegas, the success behind the dairy industry in Malawi is based on the 1999 establishment of the Malawi Dairy Development Programme (MDDP) aimed at increasing rural incomes through supporting the smallholder dairy farming sector.
Villegas says this goal was achieved through farmers managing high productivity small enterprises, and the improvement in their product quality making use of locally available resources and feed as supplements.
“MDDP was born out of a dairy sector assessment which we took in 1998. During the assessment we found deficient industry support services such as AI, dairy extension, animal health care within the smallholder sector. This saw the extension and professional management of the Milk Bulking Groups (MBGs) which saw farmers sharing a common milk collection and cooling centre,” she says.
MDDP was extended to June 2006 and was set up in three phases with a USAID support of US$9,2 million.
Villegas says her organisation together with the farmers set up a Heifer Loan Scheme which saw farmers increasing their access to high grade dairy animals, quality supplemental feed rations, mineral vitamin supplements as well as access to and availability of affordable high quality veterinary pharmaceuticals.
“The loan scheme was modelled on the Heifer International’s ‘passing on the gift’ model which is based on sharing and caring spirituality.
“This concept requires a family who receives an animal to pass on the first female off-spring to another family in need who is also require to pass on to the next,” she says.
Land O’Lakes has since moved this model a step further from being spirituality to commercialisation which requires a heifer recipient to pay an initial contribution as commitment and ownership.
According to Villegas the heifer loan scheme has five revolving loan products. “We have the heifer in kind loan for passing on the gift, dead cow fund for replacing a dead project cow, veterinary drug fund for increasing farmers’ access priority veterinary drugs for disease control.
“We also have the supplementary feeds fund for increasing farmers’ access to supplemental feeds such as dairy mash, concentrates, cane molasses, mineral supplements in order to increase milk yield. And the AI fund for the farmers to access improved genetics AI services” she says.
Each cow loan recipient signs a contract with the project stipulating terms and conditions of the loan and also writes a will to specify the heir in the event o death so that the cow does not go to wrong hands Villegas says.
This saw Land O’Lakes distributing 426 heifers to nine communities which have produced 238 calves. The collative number of calves born from improved semen increased from 191 in 2001 to 7 103 and there is room for expansion with local Zebu crosses.
“By 2006, more 7 500 farmers were members of MBGs an increase from 1 019 in 2001, with the number of MBGs with 10 or more cows growing from 16 to 57. Milk production went up from 1,3 million litres per year to 6,643 million.
“Adoption of best practices, productive enhancing technologies saw the average milk yield per cow increasing from 8 litres per cow per day to 21,2 litres per cow per day during the same period,” she says.
The value of milk marketed by MBGs increased from US$347 000 in 2001 to US$1,409 140 last year.
Brown Chiphazi Mwale, chairman general of the Central Region Milk Producers’ Association says the project has taught them to focus much on fertility and look at a dairy cow has a milk producer and at the same time have a calf every year at the lowest cost.
Mwale says with the technical, material and financial support from Land O’Lakes they are now aiming at professional commercial production. “We have started ensuring bio security by concentrating on quality and sustainable production, creating a support system that will maintain productivity and future expansion,” Mwale says.
Access to capital, expertise, proper training and sound managerial skills has been the yard stick that they are using to measure their success. “Most of our members who used to rely on subsistence agriculture are now having money to build modern houses, send children to school, open bank accounts and have three meals a day,” he says.
This success recorded by the project has seen the project receiving significant support from other partners.
The Opportunity International Bank of Malawi has approved dairy loans amounting to MK6 million (about US$43 000) for the purchase of cooling tanks. Plan International awarded Land O’Lakes a grant of US$55 035 in January 2005 to implement a pilot dairy project in one of its project areas.
Several other NGOs and donor organisations have also chipped in with animal donations, semen and AI equipment.
Wilson Lipita, director for the department of animal health and livestock development in the ministry of agriculture, irrigation and food security says after realising the potential dairy farming can have in the country the government started restocking its dairy farms some three years ago crossbreeding Malawian Zebu with Friesian sires to respond to the demand and may start selling heifers from this year.
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