STRENGTHENING CONSULTATIONS TO NOURISH THE DAIRY COOPERATIVE SECTOR.
The Cooperative Development office on Monday led by the Chief Officer, Dr. Benadatte Tiony had consultative talks with Aldai Dairy Cooperative Society Management Committee.
The engagement aimed at addressing ways in which the dairy cooperative could facilitate early and prompt payment to its farmers.
The concern was that, farmers felt that the society was not assuming more milk marketing and sale facilitation especially in the wake of the large informal milk market characterized by rampant hawking of raw milk.
The Chief Officer Dr. Tiony highlighted the various approaches the County Government has taken to provide the dairy processing and marketing institutions within the county; with ways of facilitating high and fast payment of milk to its member farmers.
The establishment of the Nandi Cooperative Creameries is one of them. The processing plant has an installed processing capacity of 100,000 liters per day. It will operate with the 30 cooling plants spread out in every ward in the county; each with a capacity to hold 3000 liters of milk.
The project is expected to be a major boom to dairy cooperatives across Nandi. It will push for better prices of milk output channeled through the dairy societies.
Dr. Tiony also informed on the partnership the Department has with the Department of Trade and Industrialization.
This cooperation aims to put in place revolving fund that will support cooperative societies run their operations.
A Legislation is underway where a bill was prepared, signed by the cabinet and is now before the county assembly for approval. The County Government hopes upon consent of the bill to open the fund to Cooperatives.
The Chief Officer also committed to follow through an application by Aldai Dairy. The application was in request of allocation of investment funds provided for through NARIGP program.
National Rural Inclusive Growth Project (NARIGP) has supported 8 dairy cooperatives thus far with funds for investment and capacity building.
NARIGP is a project initiated by the national government supported by World Bank aimed at strengthening producer organizations and value chain development.
She also advised the Cooperative Society to consult with Transnational bank. The bank is in liaison with the County Government to help Cooperatives manage their financial scaling through facility funding.
In addition the Chief Officer urged the cooperative to build on their share capital by scaling up their numbers. She stated that the office will help through its Cooperative Officers to carry out capacity building and sensitization on the benefits of joining a cooperative society to farmers in Aldai.
“A large share capital means good business and therefore a good lure to dairy farmers who want to be economically sufficient.”
She encouraged the team to tap into the resources the County Government is providing to conceptualize and deliver trans-formative boost to dairy farmers in the cooperative.
Chief Officer Cooperative Development, Dr. Benadatte Tiony.
Aldai Dairy Cooperative Society Management Committee.