Address challenges facing dairy industry

ISSUES OF poor quality control along the milk supply chain keep coming up all the time. This is a serious concern considering that milk is an essential component of the government’s drive to improve nutrition among households. The dairy sector is expected to play a major role in as far as achieving the objectives of the second phase of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRSII) is concerned. As such, all stakeholders need work together and solve these challenges that might compromise milk quality. That’s why upstream and downstream stakeholders in the dairy industry need to collaborate and support each other to make sure that the final consumers get safe product. This should be the starting point to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. Of course, the sector being predominantly informal, presents a lot of challenges. These problems can only be eliminated through collaborations between farmers and milk dealers, as well as policy-makers and enforcers. The dairy development authority could step in, but it cannot be everywhere all the time, meaning that self-regulation is always the solution in such situations. It should now be every dairy farmer’s or dealer’s responsibility to ensure high standards while handling dairy products. However, the dairy authority should see to it that the necessary safeguards are in place to support efforts of individuals and organisations that are doing everything possible to ensure the sector is vibrant. Like they say, ‘together we can do more’.

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Address challenges facing dairy industry