Ministry needs Sh3bn to save dying animals

It will cost the Ministry of Livestock Development Sh3 billion to save million of beef cattle currently dying due to drought and diseases.

The money would be needed to buy livestock medicine, feed and to finance the Kenya Meat Commission to enable it buy cattle.

The Agricultural Finance Corporation would also need funds to lend to large scale ranchers to buy beef cattle from farmers unable to feed their livestock.

Livestock minister Mohamed Kuti on Tuesday said 100,000 animals have died in the last few weeks either on the fields or during transportation to the Kenya Meat Commission and attributed the deaths mainly to lack of pasture.

“Our figures show that 524,000 households are affected and three million beef cattle are at risk of dying so we need Sh3.3 billion to tackle this problem,” said the minister during the inauguration of Kenya Dairy Board directors in Nairobi.

“We have seen cattle going up Mt Kenya looking for pasture and water in the process encountering conditions they are not used to thus contracting diseases,” Mr Kuti told reporters in Nairobi.

Gone to waste

KMC, the minister said, has used Sh500 million it obtained from the government to buy the cattle from drought-stricken areas.

The government-owned meat processor has so far bought 20,000 beef cattle, he added.

Consequently, KMC produced 700,000 tins of canned beef worth Sh100 million which could otherwise have gone to waste were the animals let to die, Mr Kuti said.

The meat processor, however, faces frequent machine breakdowns and power failure thus affecting its output, the minister said.

Mr Kuti said milk production could easily reduce household poverty and asked the board to recruit more dairy farmers and milk processors.

“We have 300 million dairy cows but by the end of your term, we should have 400 million dairy cows,” he told the directors.

Kenya Dairy Board managing director Gichohi Machira’s contract was renewed for another three-year term.

Mrs Alice Chesire, a director, asked the minister to tour rural areas and explain to farmers the benefits of livestock keeping.