Milk producers court govt on challenges
The Malawi Milk Producers Association (MMPA) on Wednesday outlined a myriad of ‘outstanding’ challenges still gripping the local dairy sector which needs government’s urgent attention.
The association presented the challenges in Lilongwe during association’s annual general meeting where director in the Department of Animal Health and Livestock Department Dr Bernard Chimera was present.
The MMPA comprises Mpoto Dairy Farmers Association (MDFA) in the North, Central Region Milk Association (Crempa) and the Shire Highlands Milk Producers (Shimpa) in southern Malawi.
MMPA national director Hebert Chagona said the association is worried about continued suppressed prices of milk paid by milk processors and asked government to intervene.
He said over the past three years, there has been an increase in milk price on the market paid by the processors from K68 per in 2009 to K135 per litre currently.
“But still that is not enough if we calculate the cost of producing that litre because a farmer is spending a round K120 and if we factor in other costs, we see that a farmer is still not benefiting from the sales of milk,” said Chagona.
He also complained about low number of dairy cows in the country currently estimated at 18 000 animals.
Such a low number of dairy cattle, according to Chagona, has also led to low milk production and low milk consumption.
“Our consumption rate of milk is very low since milk is still taken as a luxury by many Malawians when it should be a necessity to drink milk and the other question is that does Malawi have a drinking culture?” he asked.
Last year, the country produced 29 million litres of milk which, according to Chagona, is still very low to meet the potential demand for milk by Malawians.
He also blamed low milk consumption on high cost of milk on the market which he said is between K150 and K165, which some people find unaffordable.’
Commenting on the outdated laws governing the milk industry, Chagona cited the Milk Act, Meat and Meat Products Act and the Livestock which he said are not proving conducive growth of the dairy sector.
“We have been talking of this issue since 2009 somewhere there but the issue is still hanging.Such things need to go with speed and time,” he said.
As of June 2014, government had only met MMPA members twice only on the Milk Act amendment and according to random reports by some members during the AGM, “the meeting did not yield any positive results.”
Chagona also bemoaned low funding to the Department of Animal Health and Livestock Department which he said is crippling the operations of dairy sector through poor extension services among dairy farmers.
Reacting to the MMPA challenges, Chimera in an interview said government has been importing dairy cattle over the years but said the imported numbers are so low.
Quizzed on low prices of milk paid by processors, Chimera said government continued to mediate between farmers and the processors but quickly said the challenge is that the economy is now liberalised; hence, difficult to dictate prices.
On outdated laws, Chimera admitted that most of the legislations are outdated but assured the association that his ministry is leading a review of the Milk Products Act which he is said is now beyond his ministry.
“We also reviewed Meat and Meat Products Act and some Acts. Imagine some of the fines in the Acts talk of K2 because in those days K2 was an equivalent of 1 pound , so we have to revisit the penalties and so on to fit today’s world,” he said.
