Earlier this week, I woke up to a couple of WhatsApp messages on the proposed Milk Bill 2019. Many of my circles, who happen to be affiliated to agriculture were alarmed at the proposal of the Milk Bill 2019.
Dairy produce which is placed on the market or is likely to be placed on the market shall be adequately labeled or identified to facilitate its traceability,” reads part of the regulations.
All operations and activities along the milk value chain including milking, milk collection, transportation, processing and distribution on which evidence of quality assurance is required to be observed under this Regulations, shall have all such evidence recorded and the records thereof processed and maintained in accordance with this Part.
Farmers will be held criminally liable should their milk have contaminants like aflatoxins.
Processors are free to import milk at any time there is no enough milk from the local market. They will determine when the milk is not enough.
In a country where smallholder dairy farmers make up to 80% of total dairy producers and produce 56% of total milk in Kenya, then it would be in order to say that this bill is meant to curb their activities whether one is a zero grazing farmer owning one cow, or a open grazing farmer owning multiple number of cows.
The dairy sector in Kenya has its own share of challenges.Low productivity, inadequate milk capacity to meet the current demands, logistical and technological and policy constraints too.
We are in agreement that the dairy industry does need to be controlled but setting out the rules and not bearing in mind who they will affect is a big slip on the end.
I agree with the need for regulations but they need to be done in a systematic way taking into account the issues of all the concerned persons along the milk value chain. To penalize the farmers for low quality of the milk that comes as a result of the feeds to the suppliers makes no sense. Where is the farmer taking the blame at the end of it all? When it comes to the livestock feeds, the suppliers chain determines the quality and the prices of the feeds which means they are best placed to determine the non issues on the feed. How is a small scale farmers supposed to determine the aflatoxins concentrations in his maize feeds? Does the farmer even have the necessary mechanisms and tools to help identify the ppb levels in the maize feeds? You tell me?
This country does tire me at times but I am glad that the collective power of Kenyan’s on Twitter has resulted to them suspending the bill (which initially they said didn’t exist) until further consultations are done.