Dairy Farmers in Murang’a to Receive a Sh5 Subsidy per Litre of Milk

Murang’a County will pay farmers Sh5 per liter of milk as an incentive to boost the county’s milk production from the current 600,000 liters per day to 1 million liters.

Peter Nyamora, the county’s director of livestock production, said that in order for dairy farmers to take advantage of this policy, they will have to sell their milk through a cooperative while speaking at a public forum on county integrated development projects.

“The registered cooperatives must be professionally managed and will be subjected to regular audits by the county in order to avoid cases of fraud,” he said.

According to the director, the cost of producing one litre of milk is between Sh27 and Sh32, and farmers charge between Sh33 and Sh42 for it.

Since the cost of various inputs has been eating up the majority of farmers’ profits, the money will be used to buy farm inputs and lessen the burden on them.

One of the campaign promises made by Murang’a governor Irungu Kang’ata was the county initiative, which aims to encourage farmers by increasing the profitability of dairy farming and shielding them from suffering any losses.

In order to build its database, the county will first conduct a baseline survey or registration in which all of the qualified farmers will participate.

All farmers who sell milk through cooperatives are eligible for this program of subsidies.

The initiative will be divided into separate funds for milk and another for mangoes, with the goal of giving a similar amount for every kilogram of mangoes.

The new policy focuses on milk and mangoes in an effort to balance the county’s dryer regions with the much wetter dairy farming zones.

To prevent farmers from abusing the program and providing subpar goods, quality control officers from the county will be required to evaluate the quality of the produce.

The Department of Health released a policy known as the Social Health Security Fund, which aims to enroll vulnerable families in the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) in order to improve access to healthcare.

The health fund will also provide cash stipends to pregnant women and new mothers in an effort to improve maternal and child health by encouraging mothers to seek prenatal care at health facilities.