Over 7k Smallholder Farmers Empowered in Dairy Programme
ZIMBABWE - More than 7,000 smallholder farmers have been capacitated to venture into low cost commercial dairy farming using their ordinary cattle breeds and are now supplying milk to markets in their districts.The capacity building programme is being supported by Feed the Future Zimbabwe Livestock Development Programme, a local non-governmental organisation with a bias towards food security interventions.
On Tuesday the western region provincial team led by Mr Meynard Chirima, conducted a tour of dairy projects run by beneficiaries of the programme in Umzingwane district, Matabeleland South.
Mr Chirima said the intervention covered Umzingwane, Mvuma, Gokwe South, Gweru, Chipinge and Kwekwe districts.
“We have aggregators who collect milk from members of the community before the milk is sold at milk collection centres in the pilot districts. The overall objective of the programme is to reduce rural poverty and increase incomes, food security and build resilience,” said Mr Chirima.
He said the programme was targeting 1,800 farmers in the beef sector and 1,200 smallholder dairy farmers. Mr Chirima said the programme had already surpassed targets as it has about 7 000 farmers and was now concentrating on boosting production.
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Source: Chronicle
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