Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana and Kenya will soon establish a working partnership to boost beef and dairy industries in both countries.
This came to the fore during President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi visit to some dairy farmers on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Friday.
President Masisi who was in Kenya for the week-long United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) also visited the Githunguri Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society before completing his visit to the Kenya Animals Genetics Resource Centre (KAGRC).
“There is a lot of hope and I yearn for the cooperation you talk about because back home cooperative movements started back very well then got weakened and I suspect we took our foot off the pedal and we need to put it back. I have seen it succeed because those who drove it were mission-driven and they succeeded. I wish you well, I have visited some of the members of the cooperative, using very little land and getting the most out of it. I am impressed by how Kenyan farmers have compressed land and gotten value out of it,” added President Masisi.
He encouraged the cooperative to expand products lines and share knowledge with Batswana farmers.
At the KAGRC Kenyan Secretary for Cooperatives, Micro and Small Enterprises, Mr Simon Chelugui told President Masisi that there was plenty of opportunity for collaboration between the two countries.
“We can exchange between Kenya and Botswana on areas of research, disease control, and production as we are good in dairy and relatively better than Botswana and you are much better in beef than Kenya, so there is an opportunity for partnership,” said Mr Chelugui.
He said in terms of beef they had Africa, Europe, Middle East all markets which were looking up to Africa to produce.
“Imagine all the beef in the Middle East and even in Europe majority of all that comes from Australia and Brazil flown 18 hours yet here in Africa we have the opportunity to harness the potential and serve these markets. So we can approach this as a region, we can collaborate, we can work together in producing the right amount of beef to serve our region and serve our neighbours,” added Mr Chelugui.
In terms of dairy production, Mr Chelugi said his government was targeting to produce 10.2 billion litres of milk annually against the current 5.2 billion litres.
He said all that could not be achieved without science, research and the right breeds.
For his part Botswana Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Lemogang Kwape reiterated the need to forge strong bonds between the two countries.
He said exploring potential areas of cooperation was a call Botswana had been taking notes on and was ready to work on.
Kenya is one of the leading producers of milk in Africa and dairy is the largest agricultural sub-sector in the country in terms of income and employment creation.
With Botswana producing less than 10 million litres of milk per year the dairy industry is one of those that President Masisi had encouraged farmers to venture into and had recently donated some dairy bulls.
The success of Kenya’s dairy industry could be traced back to the establishment of the KAGRC which focuses on improving dairy cattle genetics.
The Githunguri Cooperative Society has revolutionised the Kenyan dairy industry commissioning a processing plant in 2004 that has led to an increase in profitability and size. It supports farmers to increase productivity through the provision of essential services for dairy farming.
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