Chama lifts farmers one yoghurt at a time

Vehicles and pedestrians zoom past the old building in Kakamega town without caring much about it.

Its faded coat of white paint perhaps is its undoing, but this is the headquarters of Kakamega Dairy Cooperative Society, a farmers’ outfit that is breathing life into the nascent sector in the county.

Kakamega is currently not among the biggest producers of milk in the country, but the society is keen to change this as it collects milks from farmers and adds value to it, selling the products in several retail outlets.

“For many years milk products from other counties including Uasin Gishu and Kiambu have been dotting the shelves of our supermarkets, but right now ours are competing with them. It makes us feel great,” Derick Khaemba, the assistant production manager, says with a smile.

Theirs is a story of resilience, hard work and desire to survive despite adversities as they make yoghurt and mala besides selling fresh milk.

“We have 100 active members spread across Kakamega County but in particular in Shinyalu, Ikolomani, Matungu, Butere and Mumias. We collect on average 400 litres of milk daily which we process here,” says Khaemba, noting some farmers do not deliver all their produce to the outfit.

They collect the milk twice a day, with some farmers bulking and having it transported to the plant. While others transport it directly from their farms.

“We buy milk from farmers at Sh40, with the highest bringing in 50 litres daily. Some even deliver just a litre,” he says.

Once the milk arrives at the cooperative, they conduct three tests to ascertain quality.

“The first is the smell test to ascertain its freshness, we also check the acidity levels using a lactometer and finally the density before processing begins.”

Seeds of Gold finds him dressed in a white overcoat and matching gumboots at a structure made of iron sheets, which house a charcoal-powered pasteuriser.

The machine is fitted with three stainless steel cans holding 200 litres of milk.

He opens the lead of one, dips in a thermometer and reads.

“This is where we process our yoghurt. To make the product, milk must first be pasteurised to about 50 degrees Celsius while for mala, the sour milk, we heat it to 90 degrees Celsius,” says Khaemba, adding they, thereafter, add sugar to the pastuerised milk used to make yoghurt.

The milk is further heated to 90 degree Celsius for at least an hour in the pasteuriser. Afterwards it is cooled to 46 degrees Celsius and starter culture added.

RIGHT TASTE

The milk later goes through what he calls ‘incubation process’ for six hours where the acidity, which should range from 0.13 to 0.16 per cent, is monitored.

“At this point we introduce different flavours, skimmed milk powder to get the right taste and then it is refrigerated. We package the yoghurt into plastic containers for sale,” says Khaemba.

The yoghurt comes in strawberry, vanilla, passion and banana flavours. A pack of 500ml yoghurt costs Sh60 while 250ml Sh40, with the products being sold in Kakamega, Mumias, Vihiga, Bungoma and Webuye.

They supply 800 to 1,000 bottles of yoghurt to local shops and supermarkets such as Maisha Mart, Choppies and Mama Watoto after four days.

On the other hand, milk meant to process mala is cooled after pasteurisation to 20 to 26 degree Celsius.  They add culture and package in 500ml bottles.

In a day, they make 200 (500ml) and 400 (250ml) bottles of yoghurt.

Mala, on the other hand, is packaged in 500ml bottles only, with the group producing 100 to 250 bottles a day. “Sometimes when demand rises especially during school holidays or when there are events in Kakamega, we increase production.”

The society’s secretary Nathaniel Alu says that they went into value addition in search of better income for farmers.

“Previously we received milk and sold it over the counter. But after a series of training by USAID in 2013 and GIZ in 2015 to 2016, we decided to make yoghurt and sour milk to increase the shelf life of produce we receive from farmers,” says Alu, noting their products are certified by the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

From the 400 litres of milk they receive each day, they sell about half to schools and other institutions at Sh60 per litre. The rest is used to process yoghurt and mala, says Alu, adding the society has six employees.

In a good month, the society makes sales of between Sh600,000 to Sh800,000 on the dairy products.

But it has not been an easy journey as the society started back in 1970s with some few farmers in Malava but collapsed and was only revived about 10 years ago.

They got a boost in 2013 when they received a 1,200-litre milk cooler worth Sh980,000 under the Njaa Marufuku Kenya programme from the national government and its partners.

And in 2014, the society was awarded Sh8 million grant by the World Bank under the programme Western Kenya Community Driven Development and Flood Mitigation Project.

GATHERING PACE

The money went into the construction of processing plant, buying of a 3,000 litres milk cooler and an electric weighing machine.

Members of the cooperative access loans and get annual dividends, besides being paid well for milk deliveries.

Treasurer Patrick Wanyonyi says new members pay a registration fee of Sh500 and buy shares of at least Sh2,000.

Henry Shikali, a member of the cooperative who keeps eight dairy cows and milks four getting 56 litres daily, says he has been with the society for three years and has seen the benefits.

“I have been a beneficiary of loans which I have invested on my farm by expanding the dairy unit,” says Shikali, noting the society provides artificial insemination services for members, with the charges deducted from milk earnings.

In the 1980s, according to Alu, dairy farming was picking in Kakamega, but the government’s move to liberalise milk marketing in 1990s starting with milk price decontrol in 1992 opened a floodgate of problems to societies.

The cooperative’s revival is gathering pace, and members are optimistic they may would soon take over the region’s milk market, but still challenges like inadequate milk supply abound.

“Not very many people are keeping dairy cows in the county but there is hope. The county government has a dairy programme that would boost milk production in the region,” says Alu.

In the next five years, the dairy cooperative targets to process 10,000 litres of milk daily and tap into the production of other milk products such cheese, ghee and ice cream.

Prof Matthews Dida, a lecturer at Maseno University Department of Agriculture, says that most dairy cooperatives collapse due to mismanagement and unreliable supply of milk.

“To survive, a society must widen its supply of milk, if possible have contracted farmers to have steady milk supply. Farmers should be encouraged to adopt intensive zero grazing,” says Prof Dida.

He further advises that the cooperative should invest in extension services for members to encourage best dairy management systems that would boost milk production.