Between Blantyre City and Mulanje Town, bikes carrying grass and milk tanks flash past.
Unlike on many roads of Malawi, the cattle feed and urns on the Robert Mugabe Highway outnumber illicit charcoal bags on the move.
These encounters proclaim a milk production boom in Mulanje and the surrounding districts.
“Dairy farming is big business and farmers cycle all the way from Chiradzulu, Thyolo and Phalombe to get grass for dairy cows. We had to join them or remain poor,” says Christopher Nkhoma, from Golden Village in Mulanje.
He is one of the founders of Golden Dairy Cooperative, comprising 68 men and 32 women. They view milk production as their pension and a trusted weapon in the fight against poverty.
The group received a K129 million grant from Government of Malawi’s Agriculture Commercialisation (Agcom) Project to acquire 100 dairy cows, animal housing and milk urns.
Today, they sell milk to Lilongwe Dairy through Chisitu Milk Bulking Group under the Shire Highlands Milk Producers Association, a union of over 12 000 farmers in at least 35 bulking groups across five districts: Blantyre, Zomba, Thyolo, Chiradzulu and Mulanje.
The country’s largest union of milk producers received a K1.2 billion matching grant from the $326 million flagship initiative to boost agricultural productivity, value addition and commercialisation, a central pillar of Malawi’s vision to become a self-reliant, industrialised middle-income economy by 2063.
Agcom—funded by World Bank and Multi-Donor Trust Fund bankrolled by the European Union, Ireland, Norway and Flanders—is part of a four-nation Food Systems Resilience Programme running concurrently in Malawi, Somalia, Kenya and Comoros.
Cow breeding tips
The project supports a series of training in artificial insemination skills and standards for farmers like Nkhoma to get more milk, meat and money.
For years, both new and seasoned farmers have endured a long, costly and frustrating search for hybrid calves worth K600 000 to K1 million.
The problem? Semen purchased from Mikolongwe Research Statio, the National Artificial Insemination Coordination Centre, arrives on the farm either stale or too late for the animal in heat.
This frustrates not only the farmers but also Fatima Kazembe, the national artificial insemination coordinator in the Ministry of Agriculture.
“Some give up while others come to complain,” says the animal scientist, based at Mikolongwe.
Kazembe unpacked why farmers feel discouraged when semen from the bulky Jersey and Friesian bulls at the livestock research station gets to them too late to make cows pregnant—it’s much ado about nothing.
“Artificial insemination is a sensitive process. If we miss the heat, the semen and the cow’s eggs won’t produce desired results. That’s why a farmer complains or quits when a cow couldn’t get pregnant because the semen was not handled properly,” she says.
Semen perishes when exposed to temperatures above five degrees Celsius.
The Ministry of Agriculture requires inseminators to carry and store frozen semen in liquid nitrogen tanks until it reaches the cow at the receiving end.
Every Monday and Thursday, Kazembe and her team collect and freeze semen from hybrid bulls for sale to farmers.
“To us, it’s a waste of time, energy and resources when farmers get a raw deal due to poor handling of semen. Sometimes, I offer to go and do it myself,” she says.
Kazembe is leading the training of animal reproductive health agents to ensure artificial insemination bears the desired calves.
The Agcom-supported weeklong drill got underway with the training of 17 artificial insemination technicians from Lilongwe, Mulanje, Kasungu, Dowa and Salima districts.
Last month, the team trained 11 veterinary assistants—from Mzimba, Mulanje, Thyolo, Kasungu, Dowa, Salima and Dedza—to eliminate gambles in the handling of artificial insemination services and supplies.
The dos and don’ts included applicable laws, policies and standards, how an animal’s reproductive system works from conception to delivery and ways to collect, manage and administer semen for maximum benefits.
Kazembe states: “As scientists, we constantly collect semen from our hybrid bulls, which are bigger and produce more milk.
“Improving the volumes of meat and milk means more money going into farmers’ pockets and our economy. So, insemination agents have to know how to manage semen and detect whether it is still alive.”
Keep it alive
Frozen semen can stay potent for up to three years if properly chilled, she says.
However, experts say it can lose its effectiveness within minutes if exposed to high temperatures.
“If you don’t keep the liquid nitrogen tank well, it cracks and loses nitrogen, which is essential for cooling. The main losers are the farmers who believe the cow is getting a real deal when it is actually a raw deal because artificial insemination technicians are not following procedures.”
Some trainees say they use unauthorised bottles because we have no cooling kits.
