Pouring milk into the tank.

The Kazungula Smallholder Milk Collection Center Project began as a pilot effort to test the feasibility of introducing the concept of selling surplus milk by smallholder cattle producers, who by tradition had never engaged in milk trade even though they live in a cattle-rich region. The demand for fresh milk by milk processors is on the rise due to expanding markets locally and regionally, and also due to interest in substituting imported milk powder. The concept was to tap this ready market offered by milk processors and link it to smallholder-cattle producers, who would deliver their surplus milk to the collection center equipped with cooling facilities. The milk center then supplies chilled milk in bulk to the processors at a margin.

The Kazungula Milk Collection Center was established with financial support from the Embassy of Japan and in partnership with CARE Intl., IESC, the Kazungula Cooperative Society, and MACO. FINTA Danish Dairies, with a capacity to buy 40,000 liters of milk per day, serves as the "market." With this market linkage secured, about 360 farmers in and around Kazungula stand to benefit from this pilot effort adding valuable income in a drought-prone area. To date, this concept has succeeded as farmers are slowly but surely increasing their capability from the current 350 liters per day to 1000 liters by end of 2002. The Center has the capacity to hold about 2,400 to 6,000 liters of milk a day. Presently, the farmers are earning about $1.5 per day. Those participating in this pilot have the potential to earn about $2.5 per day. This kind of return to their labor and investment has encouraged farmers to obtain improved dairy breeds and employ artificial insemination technology to further expand the chances of increasing their income. Additionally, with technical assistance from ZATAC/DAI, the Center, owned and operated by the community cooperative of producers, is well on its way to becoming a self-sustaining and profit-making small agribusiness, utilizing sound business principles-per one farmer, "a dream made real, in my lifetime due to USAID!"

The success of this pilot has resulted in USAID funding another dedicated milk program called Zambia Dairy Enterprise Initiative (ZDEI) to ensure that the concept is replicated in at least 10 other cattle-raising areas by next year to help increase income. ZDEI is implemented by ZATAC ltd. in collaboration with Land O'Lakes. The goal is for all such centers to be a commercial success: self-sustaining, profitable, and market-driven businesses.