Earlier this month, we were very excited to celebrate the official opening of Mayfield Milk Collection Centre and Hamba handover ceremony in Chipinge which included representatives from Dairibord Zimbabwe Private Limited, TranZDVC Project, Zimbabwe Farmers Union, Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers, LEAD Zimbabwe, We Effect, European Commission delegation in Zimbabwe, U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF), and US Embassy in Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, the availability of dairy products on the market currently depends on imports and in a recent study, the Netherland’s Development Organisation (SNV) found that milk production is about 20% of peak production.
However, small scale farmers can viably contribute to the sub-sector to increase production. The SNV study explains that “Milk Producer Associations, with intensive production, could be as good as and better than individual large-scale farmers”.
Dairy production occurs in 4 main provinces in Zimbabwe: Mashonaland, Manicaland, the Midlands and Bulawayo. The Mayfield Milk Collection Centre collects is located in Chipinge, in Manicaland Province. Roughly 61 local small-scale farmers take milk twice daily, up to 28 litres a day per cow, which is stored in the Collection Centre before being collected by Dairibord every other day.
Farmers described often having to leave several litres of good milk at home due to lack of transport, taking only what they are able to carry – usually a 10 or 20 litre canister, on head. Since the introduction of the Hamba, the MCC told us production has increased by 40%. No more milk has to be left at home!
MFA is proud to partner with public and private sectors to help improve dairy industry productivity, and especially support women within the sector.
