Dairy Board to help farmers

MASAKA - The Ministry of Agriculture, through the Rwanda National Diary Board (RNDB), will start providing modern dairy equipment to farmers to help improve milk quality through testing. The remarks were made during the grand launch of RNDB and Diary Quality Assurance Laboratory (DQAL). RNDB’s chairman,, Emmanuel Ndahiro, said that they have equipment to preserve milk samples from various sectors for testing. He, however, added that plans were underway to upgrade them. “We plan to provide auto machines to test at least 65 percent of the milk. These will be given to those few who have shown an effort to improve the quality of milk. We are mostly using the lactometer which is a simple method of testing. The auto scan will give better results hence improving the quality of milk,” Ndahiro said. He added that they will also hold seminars to sensitise milk producers on the use of the auto scans and how they are used. David Mupenzi, the Managing Director of DQAL, noted that there had been a tremendous increase in milk quality. “In January 2010, only 9 percent farmers produced quality milk in the Eastern province, but now, they are 61 percent. We plan to extend our services to other provinces so the whole of Rwanda can produce quality milk,” said Mupenzi. David Gahiga, a local milk producer, observed that through the RNDB offices at Masaka, it would be easier for him, alongside other milk producers, to get help. “We have been making huge losses due to bacteria, but now we shall have the milk tested to boost our income and productivity,” added Gahiga. Ends