Fresh milk: A catalyst for change in Burundi
Fresh milk creates new markets for cooperatives, boosts incomes for farmers, and promotes better health, nutrition and learning for school children.
By Joella Bigirimana
The Shirukumwete milk collection centre in the Bubanza Province of northwestern Burundi is bustling with activity as dairy farmers arrive on bicycles carrying their milk cans full to the brim.
“The milk is consumed by the children at school in the morning and so we hurry to get it on time to the milk collection center,” says Anastase, President of the Shirukumwete Cooperative, which represents dairy farmers and manages the milk collection centre.
Here, the milk is pasturised and transported to local schools within a five-kilometre radius where children are served with fresh milk during their morning break. This improves the health and nutrition of the children and helps them to learn better.
“Milk is consumed after the morning break when the children have spent a lot of energy,” says Donatien, Director of Kiziba elementary school. “We notice the children are able to concentrate and keep up with their lessons,” he says.
For children from low-income families, school is often the only place where they can consume fresh milk. And the benefits don’t stop there, the inclusion of fresh milk in the school feeding programme is also creating new markets for cooperatives and the opportunity to sell their milk at more profitable prices.
“We used to have trouble selling all our milk,” says Anastase. “Sometimes we would collect between 1,400 and 1,500 litres of milk every day but could sell as little as 800 litres. This led to heavy losses for the cooperative and its members.”
“Today, the local market buys a litre of milk for 1300 FBu, while the schools buy it for 1500 FBu,” she says (US$0.45 and US$0.5 respectively).
In Burundi, around ninety per cent of people depend on subsistence farming and livestock breeding for survival. Cow breeders are often forced to sell all their milk to pay for their family’s basic needs. This can mean their own children go without milk.
For Felix, another member of the Shirukumwete cooperative, supplying milk to schools is about more than just making money.
“I benefit twice because my children get the milk at school and I produce enough to be able to save some for my youngest child,” he says.
The pasturisation and distribution of fresh milk to 3,000 school children in Burundi is a pilot initiative implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP) with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Governments of Burundi and the Netherlands.
