The Busia County government has stepped in to tackle the milk shortage that is being experienced in the County. The County Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, his Deputy Moses Mulomi and the County CEC for Agriculture Moses Osia have said that the County government intends to tackle the shortage through buying dairy cows for farmers in the County who have formed groups.
Speaking at Asing’e in Teso South and at Nambale town in Nambale sub county during the handing over of fifty dairy cows to farmers’ groups, the trio revealed that the County faces a shortage of eighty thousand litres of milk per day, “Every day our people buy milk from shops and vendors who bring it from outside the County. And still the supply is not enough. That is why we have come up with this program of buying dairy cows for our farmers and we hope this will help bring the shortage to an end soon.”
According to the County officials, Busia County residents use at least eight hundred thousand shillings daily on milk alone, an expense that can be reduced through farmers rearing dairy cows, adding that they target to buy over four hundred cows for farmers in the County, “Most of these cows are bought when they are about to sire and once they give birth, the young ones should be given to another member of the group.”
Apart from dairy farming, they also appealed to the farmers to practice cash crop farming as a way of boosting their income. The cows are bought by the County government through ward development fund overseen by MCAs.