By Miriti Gankiro
The Meru dairy union will hold its eighth farmers field day on June 16 with president William Ruto expected to grace the event.
The farmers’ field day at the ASK showground will bring together more than 30,000 farmers from Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties.
Farmers will learn on best dairy practices besides familiarizing with latest inputs and technologies in the dairy subsector.
The Meru Dairy union, which started with three cooperatives of Buuri, Katheri and Naari has since grown to comprise 130 societies that produce about 400,000 litres of milk daily.
According to the milk processor’s chief executive officer Mr Kenneth Gitonga, Meru Dairy Cooperative Union said they have rose to become the second largest processor in Kenya through farmer training.
“Our products are found across the country in all big supermarkets and moving with speed among consumers due to the quality of the milk we produce,” Gitonga said.
Section of dairy farmers who attended 7th annual Meru Dairy Farmers Field day. PHOTO. POOL
Speaking to The Voice Daily Gitonga noted that more than 17,000 farmers have shown interest in attending this year’s field day.
“More than 17,000 farmers from across our societies have registered to join the event and hope to attract 30,000 members before the day,” he said.
Mr Gitonga noted that this year’s field day will focus on equipping farmers with knowledge on how to produce quality and clean milk.
“It will be a good time for our farmers to have a conversation on why one farmer is producing 50 litres and another two litres,” added Gitonga.
He said the union will be appealing to the government to put in place various interventions to cut the cost of milk production.
“We will be pleading to the president to honor the pledge of providing milk coolers to the societies and also to help get the cheap sexed semen so that farmers will be able to benefit,” the CEO said.
The dairy is eying growing the amount of milk delivered to the processor to tap into the growing markets.
