23 By Cornelius Kipkoech Chebwaai.
Plans to establish the first ever milk processing factory in Nandi has kicked off after the County Government of Nandi begun to hold a series of consultative meetings with dairy stakeholders in the county to lay down all the necessary strategies.
In a consultative meeting held in Kapsabet with all the Dairy Cooperative Societies in Nandi on Tuesday, Nandi Governor Stephen Sang said the County government has allocated 115 Million shillings in the 2018/2019 financial year towards the establishment of the milk processing plant and the process of building the factory and acquisition of machines will begin before the end of this year.
However, Governor sang lamented that low volumes of milk being produced currently could adversely affect the 200,000 Capacity factory once it is operational.
Sang said the current capacity of milk produced stands at 51,000 Litres only and there were need for the farmers to improve the productivity to meet the capacity of the processing plant.
The county boss said the his administration will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the daily milk production targets are met as the construction of the milk factory gets underway citing the already running Artificial Insemination program as one of the ambitious interventions by his government to ensure that high quality livestock breeds are sired for the dairy farmers.
On the other hand, Dairy farmers lauded governor Sang’s efforts to transform the County’s Agriculture sector pledging to put together their efforts to ensure the success of the Value Addition Strategies laid down by his government.
It is estimated that nearly 17,000 households in Nandi practice small scale dairy farming with an Avarage milk production standing at a paltry 3Litres per household.