Mumias boosts dairy farmers with new semen centre in Kakamega

Julius Motaroki (left), Mumias Sugar agricultural entrepreneurship dvelopment Officer demonstrates how the Artificial Insemination technology works to Wesley Koech (right), director of Agriculture at Mumias Sugar Company and Ibrahim Juma, chairman of Kenya Sugar Growers Association when the miller unveiled the AI unit hosted at Booker Academy laboratories last week. [PHOTO: COURTESY/STANDARD]

By JAMES ANYANZWA

KAKAMEGA COUNTY: Mumias Sugar Company (MSC) has notched up its efforts to improve dairy farming in the western sugar belt.

The miller, which has initiated several projects in the region to help farmers develop alternative revenue streams, launched an Artificial Insemination (AI) Centre at its Booker Academy in Kakamega County, Mumias Sub County on Friday. Through the Mumias Sugar Foundation, the country’s leading sugar miller also unveiled the Booker Academy Model farm.

The farm will assist smallholder dairy keepers from the region receive training on how to improve their herds.

Speaking at the unveiling of the two projects, MSC Director of Agriculture Wesley Koech said through the AI Centre, the company, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock will provide training and extension services to farmers on how to improve and grow their herds over time. The project, which Koech described as complementary token farming, will also help farmers reduce acidity on their farms by applying manure from their herds.

Through the centre, Mumias targets to improve up to 216,313 local breeds among farmers groups living within a radius of 16km from the miller in the region. Moses Mukhwana, the Foundation’s manager said the AI unit would stock liquid nitrogen — an element used in the storage of semen.

 “The centre will help ease access to semen by farmers in Bungoma, Busia, Kakamega and Siaya counties who in the past have had to rely on supplies from either Eldoret or Kisumu,” Mukhwana said.

MILK PROCESSING PLANT

He added that in the past, farmers have missed opportunities to improve their breeds due to the distance they had travel to access semen.

“Often, they ended up with stale semen or arrived long after the required window when the heifer should be mounted,” Mukhwana. 

The project is part of a raft of initiatives the milling plant is undertaking to help boost milk production as a precondition to building a cooling plant in the region. For close to a year, the miller has been planning to construct a milk processing plant in Busia County.

In what is perhaps the indication of the miller’s intent to venture into dairy, Mumias last month commenced a Sh4.3 million project that allocates dairy animals to farmers in Bungoma, Busia, Kakamega and parts of Nyanza.

Through its Foundation, the miller has already allocated 24 dairy cows to 50 groups of farmers made up of about 20 people in the first and second phase. Another 35 pure breeds will are earmarked for distribution to more farmers between this month and June.

“The project will then be undertaken as joint investments in a bid to boost social entrepreneurship and cut reliance on income from sugarcane,” the Mumias Sugar Foundation Manager Moses Mukhwana said. Launching the project in Busia last month, the Chief Executive Peter Kebati said the miller was ready to build a cooling plant in Busia County if farmers produced sufficient quantities of milk to sustain the factory.

The miller is also set to open molasses distribution outlets across the sugarbelt from which dairy farmers can easily buy it at a subsidised cost. Molasses is a component in animal feeds.

Other projects on the cards aimed at helping the youth and women include setting up retail shops that will stock all Mumias products including sugar and water.

“Besides helping create employment for youth, the outlets will enable farmers to access some of our products at slightly lower rates than found in the market,” Mukhwana said.