The speaker on Thursday evening was Geoff Mathis who gave a presentation on the Kondiki Dairy Project in Tanzania which he has been driving for the last 10 years.
He talked about the progress in milk volumes and milk quality through improved processing capabilities and then with better transport systems now in place getting products to market in a timely way.
Improvement in on-farm management practices was a big challenge and will continue to be so but the initial purpose of the process was to get biogas digesters into the community to avoid the burning of wood for fuel and utilising the waste of cow and animal manure. To date 103 digester’s have been installed – milk production on farms has increased and factory milk flows have risen from 700ltres a day in 2007 to greater than 5,000 per day now.
Maintenance within the factory is of concern as money is always in short supply.