Dairy farmers in the Eastern Province are not happy with their lot. Their hard work is not paying as it should; all because of middlemen. The farmers’ milk production has to pass through at least two stages before arriving at the processors. The situation is not only time consuming, farmers complain that they get unfair prices. The middlemen have widened the difference between farm gate prices and the final products, a difference that is carried forward to the consumer. Many milk processors have been on record claiming that they operate below capacity because of insufficient supply. Farmers, on the other hand, allege that some of their production does not arrive at the final destination as it gets spoilt along the way, while in the custody of the middlemen. The only way to put an end to the cycle of loss and underproduction is coming up with measures to eliminate the middlemen, and this could be easily be achieved if farmers were more organised. This calls for better coordination between farmers’ local authorities and factories so that milk reaches the processors in the shortest possible time. Once the distribution chain cuts out the middlemen, farmers would be free to negotiate a fair price that would benefit all; especially consumers. With more enhanced modern farming methods being drummed up among farmers, agricultural production is sure to increase. This will call for better and efficient post harvest handling of produce to do away with archaic methods where farmers find themselves at the end of the exploitation table.
