Nestlé Zimbabwe’s Agriprenuership initiative is steadily increasing national milk production while accelerating the development of capable and willing farmers to grow their farming skills, competences and business management.
Nestlé Zimbabwe managing director Luke Gomes highlighted this at the World Milk Day Agroprosperity Trust Field Day held at Malwatte Farm, Plot 1, Marondera, recently.
“We tested this approach seven years ago with our first small scale farmer network in Chitomborwizi, where we anchored 21 small scale farmers around a major commercial farmer.
“We helped the network by importing 100 dairy cows, which were subsequently dispersed to small-scale farmers (70 cows) and the anchor farmer (30 cows).”
Nestle Dairy Empowerment Scheme (NDES) was introduced in 2011. Under the programme, the company has distributed almost 500 dairy cows through imports and local sourcing. Gomes said that the concept has taken root and is growing steadily to feed in the national drive to meet the country’s milk demands through local production.
According to international analysis site, mordorintelligence.com, Zimbabwe had an annual milk demand of over 180 million litres and in 2012 could only produce 52 million litres. Nestlé Zimbabwe moved in to fill that gap through NDES.
Gomes outlined the steady and spectacular growth of the Agriprenuership initiative:
“In March 2016, the first milk delivery of about 4 000 litres from Chitomborwizi to the Nestlé Harare factory was made. The Chitomborwizi herd for the small-scale farmers has expanded to over 360 cows, which supply the factory with 46 000 litres monthly.
“Building on the success of Chitomborwizi, Nestlé Zimbabwe moved on to build two other farmer networks using the hub and spoke model: Watershed in Hwedza in 2019 and Agroprosperity in 2020, at a time when the globe and the nation were dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Agroprosperity Trust’s first milk collection was less than 100 litres, but they now collect 7 000 litres per month and hope to increase to 40 000 litres per month by the end of 2022. More than 80 independent small-scale farmers work in these three small-scale centres.”
Nestlé Zimbabwe’ has been in the country for over 60 years enhancing the quality of life and contributing to a healthier future for the communities.
“Commercial farmers are the hubs of collection and supply in ramped up through linkages with small scale farmers in the area.
“NDES began with commercial farmers and expanded to include small-scale farmers in 2015. Small scale farmer development has been accomplished using a hub and spoke strategy in which we anchor small scale farmers/out growers around an anchor farmer where we create a milk collecting facility,” Gomes said.
“Via NDES, we focus on rural development since the well-being of farmers and rural communities is critical to the long-term success of our company and society.”
In addition to distributing dairy cows, the company has also given interest free loans, supported commercial and small scale farmers to access grant funding, introduced stock feed support schemes and installed solar powered boreholes.
“We focus on water, in addition to nutrition, since water shortage is a severe concern in many parts of the world worsened by the onset of climate change across the globe, and water is simply the cornerstone of food security,” Gomes said.
The improved Nestle milk results are, however, still not enough to utilise the Nestle Harare factory capacity to process 45 million litres of milk per year.
Therefore, the company continues to focus on reinforcing existing farmer developmental programmes and structure expansion programmes to strengthen delivery chains through their market dairy strategy.