Calving detector, new dairy technological method to monitor calving in cows. The government is set to put up a dairy embryo-transplant plant to help farmers up their milk production. Photo courtesy.

The government through the Ministry of Agriculture is set to put up a dairy embryo-transplant plant worth Sh100m to help farmers increase milk production in the country.

The Liquid Nitrogen Plant which will be built at Marimba livestock farm in Imenti South will see the production of quality dairy cattle semen and embryo transplants.

“We target to increase milk production and ultimately formal milk intake by an average of 100 million litres per annum for the next four years,” said Mwangi Kiunjuri, Agriculture and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary during the fifth Annual Meru Dairy Farmers Field Day last week.

According to the CS, currently the dairy sector is thriving with an estimated 4.2 million dairy cattle producing approximately 3.9 billion liters of milk per year.

“This contributes an estimated Sh300 billion per year to the national GDP and is source of livelihood to an estimated 1.8 million smallholder farmers and provides employment to an estimated 750,000 direct jobs and 500,000 indirect jobs."

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Meru Central Dairy Cooperative Union, CEO Kenneth Gitonga asked the government to check on the quality of feeds and the farm inputs manufactured in the country.

All these comes at a time when Kenyan farming economy expands at fastest pace in two years.

According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics report released last week on Friday, agricultural output climbed 5.6 per cent after expanding 5.2 per cent in the first quarter.