Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said it has been striving to hit its set target by doubling country’s milk production within two years.
Daba Ajema Milk’s Resource Development Acting Director at the Ministry told The Ethiopian Herald that through the sustenance of the tasks in the sector, increasing productivity will be in the domain of achievement.
Nationally, as compared to the past five or six years, better performance is evident now. The industry is exhibiting systems of better production than before and the production rate is improving gradually, he noted.
Currently we have a better production capacity. We can sustain this effectiveness to optimize the benefits of quality production, increase numbers and change genetics of livestock .But this presupposes upturning farmers’ outmoded perception, he added.
As to him, in order to step up productivity, working on genetic betterment is the main task. Feeding agro industry parks with the necessary input will be the major change.
Hence, changing the nonproductive livestock and increasing modern farming process are tasks pending. This will be done by respecting the nation’s law and keeping the county’s economic growth.
Daba said, it is not enough to come up with more yields. There is a call for more market linkages and fulfill infrastructural facilities for the producers. As to technology, its advantageous for supplying quality products for the community is obvious; It has also been working towards supplying technologies for cooperatives, which work on dairy products. And it has been endeavoring to increase their market linkage.
Awareness creation, capacity building, and technology usage trainings have been given to farmers, he added.
He said, the experience of those engaged in the private sector of milk production has not been enough on milk production. So there is a need to render the sector modern. MoA is striving to make it more modern to let those engaged in the sector get enough benefits.
We do not have considerable export experience in the sector. But the focal attention MoA attached to is decreasing the import rate and serving the society’s need. More than 45 million birr is outlaid annually for the import of milk powder and other dairy products. So MoA is strenuously working to fill this gap.
There are 39 industries that have started actions to produce powder. If they get enough governmental support they can easily produce the milk powder.
For export purpose, there are factories being built to produce and import camel’s milk. Around Somalia state factories are being built. Dire Dawa and Afar states have also started producing and exporting camel’s milk to Djibouti and other Arabian countries.
The Ethiopia Herald February 23/2020
BY GENET FEKADE
