13 Mar 2024

Development of the Dairy Industry Regulatory Authority Bill of 2023 is set to enable a conducive environment that will facilitate greater efficiency in the dairy industry, Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao has said.

Speaking at a consultative meeting with the stakeholders in Gaborone recently, Mr Molao said the Regulatory Authority Bill was expected to promote productivity, protect consumer health and facilitate fair trade practices, among others in the dairy industry.

Mr Molao said cattle rearing was one of the core sector of the economy while the dairy sub-sector, however, had not been equally successful in Botswana hence the need to come up with measures that would enable a conducive environment for its success.

“The development of the Dairy Industry Regulatory Authority Bill of 2023 is timely considering that the Dairy Strategy that was developed in 2013, was benchmarked from countries in the dairy farm industry and performed well,” he said.

He said some of the achievements after the implementation of the 2013 Dairy Strategy included, among others, introduction of the dairy sexed-semen in 2015, establishment of Pitsane and Serowe Milk collection centres as provision of appropriate dairy support infrastructure to small scale farmers and the revival of the milk importation committee in 2018.

Mr Molao said despite such achievements from the 2013 Dairy Strategy, there were some challenges including lack of dairy policy for guidance of the development of the sector, lack of appropriate infrastructure, shortage of quality feeds, low farm gate-prices and lack of adequate funding, among others, hence the need to level up.

“I am hopeful that this consultative meeting and its deliberations on the development of the Dairy Industry Regulatory Authority Bill of 2023 will deliver the right product for the future developments of the dairy industry,” he said. Ends