EDITOR—It is high time the Government focused on modernising the dairy
farming sector. The industry is one of the most important and promising business sectors.

The latest report from the Dairy Development Authority executive director, Dr Nathan Twinamasiko, indicates that our farmers produce about 3,000, 000 lion litres daily yet only 560,000 are processed.

The total annual production is 1.5 billion litres from 11.5 million cattle. That figure is only 10% and means that about 90% of the milk in the country is sold unprocessed or partially processed. The implication is that there is still a lot of room for investment.

We need to construct huge milk collection centres, expand storage capacity, purchase more machines for powder milk and ultra heated milk in anticipation for future increase.

Powder milk stock can cater for the seasons of drought and shortfall in raw milk. There is need to develop milk by-products with long shelf lives. Farmers should be sensitised about modern scientific and marketing techniques. They should also have proper marketing and accounting skills in addition to being literate.


The Government should ensure there is reasonable provision of veterinary services, reduce costs of artificial insemination, proper water supply, drugs and dipping facilities which play a vital role in the development of the dairy sector.

Farmers should form cooperatives that will enable them penetrate more markets and buy cooling plants to protect farmers from heavy losses caused by the limited market for their produce.

The dairy sector should transform the traditional farming methods to advanced farming systems like the vacuum bucket milking, step-saver milk, fully automated milking systems and milk pipelines to
save farmers from the laborious methods of hand-milking.

Lastly, dairy processors and producers must work together in developing a care system which will guarantee quality up to the final consumers.

Rodney Henry Mugisha
Kampala