THE INJUSTICE IN MARKET ACCESSIBILITY BY THE SMALL SCALE MILK FARMERS
Injustices faced by small scale milk farmers in Uganda on market accessibility in relation to martin Luther king junior letter from the Birmingham prison.
Global analysis of market accessibility for milk farmers
The injustices in Market access by small scale milk dairy farmers in Uganda by small scale farmers is great. On a global view there is approximately 150 million households around the globe are engaged in milk production. In most developing countries, milk is produced by smallholders, and milk production contributes to household livelihoods, food security and nutrition. Milk provides relatively quick returns for small-scale producers and is an important source of cash income. To this is imperative for any amount of milk produced the farmers has the right to access the market since milk production is expensive and therefore lack of market for milk by any farmers can cause loses that will greatly affect the economic livelihood of the farmer.
Across Africa population growth, rising income and increased urbanization in the African countries as well as the subsidized prices of European beef and dairy exports have helped to stimulate the demand for livestock imports in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa has about 14% of the world bovine population but produces 16% and 3 % of the world beef and milk output respectively. In contrast, developed countries have about 30% of the world bovine population but produce 71 % and 77 % of the world beef and milk output. The number of sheep and goats in Africa constitutes 22% of the world population but contributes only 17% of mutton and goat meat output. The comparable figures for developed countries are 36% of population and 46% of output. The low yields have obviously contributed little to increases in output.
Dairy production is a major contributor towards national economies and household food security and incomes in SSA, in spite of contributing a mere 2% toward the global milk production (FAO, 1998). Milk production in the region is estimated at 1.27 million metric tons/year. However, this level of milk production is inadequate for the existing human population who would require 103 million metric tons/year (Mubiru et al, 2007). Milk production in the tropics is changing from subsistence level to market oriented supply in order to produce additional income for the household (Chamberlain, 1989).
Currently, Uganda produces 1.3 billion litres of milk per year, of which 30 percent is consumed on the farm and 70 percent is marketed to consumers (Balikowa, 2006).There are five main milk producing regions or milk sheds in Uganda and 80 percent of the milk is produced in the southern (south-western milk shed) alone accounts for over 30 percent of the total milk production and therefore constitutes the major source of marketable milk in the country. The average milk production per cow per day is quite low (less than 10 liters) that account for 93.3 percent and only 0.5 percent cows produce 20 litres per day with Friesian cows being most productive. Elepu (2006) and Balikowa (2003) observed that milk collection in Uganda includes direct pick up from the producers by agents, co-operative assembly and individual supply (producers) deliver directly to pick up points. Majority of the milk is collected and distributed through Milk Collection Centers which are owned by private traders. Balikowa (2003) noted that there are two milk collection systems; the formal and informal channels. The informal milk collection channel is characterized by lack of milk collection infrastructure, limited quality control and selling of milk on credit but in some cases cash is paid. The common means of transport at farm level is the bicycles. In Uganda, milk processing is handled by over 10 private companies and over 100 small scale processors (Elepu, 2006). The processing companies include Sameer Agriculture and livestock limited, Jesa Farm Dairy, GBK Dairy products, White Nile Dairy, Birunga Dairy, Teso Fresh Dairy, Paramount Dairies Ltd, Alpha Dairy Products and MADDO Dairies Ltd (DDA, 2008). The products processed by companies are cheese, cream, ice cream, yoghurt, cultured milk, butter and ghee. Sikawa, & Mugisha, (2011), found that on farm processing of milk is done at limited scale and approximately 9 percent of farmers’ process milk into ghee mainly for home consumption while 2 percent make other products particularly yoghurt and ghee and 89 percent do not make any milk product.
Milk production in the country takes place in regions referred to as milk shades (regions with high concentration of dairy animals) and these areas extend from just below 1° latitude in the north to Kabale in the south and from Mbale in the east to Kabarole in the west (FAO, 1992; Okwenye, 1994).
In Uganda the dairy industry remains a key livestock component with significant contribution to food security and income in pastoral communities of Uganda (FAO, 2008; ILRI, 2007). Dairy policies have been relaxed to allow market forces to determine farm level prices. This has exposed farmers to lower milk prices while downstream retail prices are higher (Artukoglu et.al, 2008, Tsougiannis et al, 2008). This has resulted into considerable mistrust among market chain actors in developing countries (Markus et al., 2008).
According to Elepu, (2006) Milk production in Uganda has been declining over the years, the Sameer agriculture and livestock has faced numerous challenges in the milk production of Uganda, this is due to the declining quantity of milk production in Uganda and about 80 percent of marketed milk still passes through traditional informal marketing channels in spite of high profile given to formal milk marketing channel. It can therefore be indicated that most of dairy farmers fail to access the market for their milk this has also led to these farmers making loses something that has put their economic livelihood at risk.
According to martin Luther king junior,
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly”.
From this statement it can also be alluded that the small scale farmers’ lack of market access is threat to their justice of economic freedom since they cannot fully exercise their economic rights.
Some community’s milk producing regions face more challenges than others interms of market access. Cattle in Uganda is raised under different production systems, namely: pastoral (semi-nomadic) production, agro-pastoral (communal grazing) systems, beef ranching, dairy ranching, crop livestock mixed farming, semi-intensive dairying and intensive dairying, with various specialized features. Between the extensive and intensive management systems, there are a number of discrete systems that vary in objective, management strategies, attitude, feed and capital investment and level of productivity. Higher levels of investment in dairying are generally located near major urban or consumption centers that are associated with higher milk prices and stable demand for dairy products.
The injustice in milk production is also divided across the regions of Uganda. In Uganda most of the cattle are found in the cattle corridor and milk is produced from cattle and goats (Matthewman, 1993). Dairy production systems in Uganda have been classified into three groups; pastoral, small-scale crop and livestock farms and specialized dairy farms (Okwenye, 1994). This classification is based on number of stock, feeding and grazing management and breeds reared.
Different regions of Uganda have different opportunities when it comes to accessing the market for the farmers this therefore has a negative influence on the farmers. Most farmers especially in the north east region do not have market for their milk since they are ignored and neglected this therefore has posed a serious challenge to them.
Milk production and supply in Uganda
Uganda’s annual milk production was estimated at 1.5billion litres in 2010 representing an increment of 3% from 2009, of the 1.5 billion litres produced annually 30% is retained at the farms and only 1.05bn litres is commercially traded and of which 90% is marketed unprocessed as raw milk (Kahuta, G. (2013). Yearly milk consumption has improved in Uganda up to 50lt per person, providing the 1.5 billion liter milk industry with new market heights (DDA, 2011). However, the milk produced only meets approximately 20% of the population’s nutritional requirements and as such, methods need to be sought to increase milk production in the region and also accessibility. (DDA, 2011) further notes that poor infrastructures of the country are one of the main challenges to the country in terms of ensuring that it is able to supply the market that is produced to farmers.
Ugandan milk farmers are faced with several challenges especially poor roads in some of the rural communities and also on top of the poor roads there is also lack of good transportation facilities this therefore compromises on the ability of the farmers to be able to transport themselves.
This is because the most places are inaccessible and this affects the ability of the farmers to get down to the buyers of milk.
From this analysis therefore it is fair to say that the milk farmers in Uganda are faced with the kind of injustice that compromises their needs to live a better life.
Total milk production in Uganda
In Uganda there are a total of 11 unions and 378 dairy cooperatives in the five milk sheds increasing market access for smallholder and commercial dairy farmers (DDA, 2011). Milk coolers (628) with a total capacity of about 1,183,761 litres per day have been installed for milk bulking and milk retailing across the country (DDA, 2011). Raw milk is transported by insulated milk road tankers from the bulking centers to processing plants and other urban milk retailing outlets to ensure that the cold chain is maintained (DDA, 2009).
The small scale farm also face a challenge in that they are not able to transport their milk to the market in appropriate way this therefore has a big challenge to the fact they that small scale farmers milk is spoilt before even they reach at the market this therefore is an injustice to the Ugandan farmers.
Uganda’s dairy production is largely dominated by small-scale farmers, who own over 90% of the national cattle population. These small-scale farmers are In rural areas, where 96% of the poor Ugandan live, about 60% of households keep mostly indigenous cattle, as seen in the ‘cattle corridor’ zone. National milk production stood at 1.8 billion in July 2012, according to the Dairy Development Authority (DDA).
Though the small scale farmers are the majority and have the largest number of cattle they also face a challenge in of market accessibility and this has left them very poor and as such they are one of the poorest.
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