Last Saturday I was talking to a dairy farmer in my village about his business and some of the challenges he faces, while literally standing standing outside the fence. He had of course invited me in but I was in a bit of a hurry and politely declined, so I had to conduct the interview — if you can call it that — from outside, and from where I still had a good view of all the activities going on inside: his herdsboy feeding two cows fresh grass from a sack sitting next to a sickle.
Obote, a middle-aged dairy farmer in Nambale, Busia County first began by praising one of his cows, a Friesian breed, for how it has been the breadwinner in the family, before starting to lament on the lack of feeds since there’s no longer grazing land like back when he was young. Today if you don’t have enough nappier grass in your farm then you will be in trouble because nappier grass is being sold exorbitantly. He said people have been forced to feed their livestock on mature sugarcane leaves that are hard to chew and even digest affecting milk production.
“You see that grass,” he said pointing at the grass that was being fed to the cows. “The boy had to go all the way to Khadoda village in someone’s cassava farm to get.”
But when I asked the farmer if he knows how to make silage, it was interesting to note that he vaguely knew what silage was, let alone how to make it. I had to quickly explain to him what silage is, how important it is, and how to prepare it. He took my contacts and promised to call me in two weeks time so that I can go and teach him how to prepare silage. I noted that the farmer only depends on green fodder. A very poor diet for any cow, even with the addition of potato veins (sometimes) and supplements.
Obote has good breeds: the Fresian, three crosses, both of which he tethered in the tiny grazing space by the river. Quite sad.
Unfortunately that’s the story of most farmers in rural Kenya. Even those who have upgraded from the local breeds are still managing their herd the same way as before the upgrade and the results are scrawny looking cattle that can only produce a pathetic yield at the end of the day. Some farmers don’t even avail licking salt to their cattle and the consequences are cattle with poorly formed bones and weak legs that can’t carry them through pregnancy. And when the cow doesn’t stsnd up the next day they start wondering what went wrong.
Some farmers don’t even do basic things like deworming or to tick control, not even when they see their cattle hardly eating for lack of appetite. No wonder when they take their stock to market, they only get peanuts. These farmers don’t know that over 70% of cattle diseases are caused by ticks. The moment you control ticks and worms in your herd, you’ve done away with almost all diseases affecting cattle.
I think farmers in rural areas need to be trained on the basics of cattle farming if the country is to make this industry appetizing even to young people. The government through the Ministry of Agriculture can get people on the ground, especially the youths still fresh from school — which will be one way of creating employment, and also inspire these young people to venture into farming — to instill some important lessons to this farmers, some of who never had basic education and who you can’t sent to YouTube or blogs. This would go a long way into ensuring this industry thrives cause we also need small scale farmers if the economy is to grow and if we need to manage the unemployment crisis.
Obote also wondered why can’t the government resurrect the communal dips that used to help poor people. This would encourage farmers to control ticks and also use it as an opportunity for farmers to interact and share.