A way to help reduce famine and poverty
As part of its drive to enhance the value of local dairy products the UMPL/B – the National Union of mini-dairies and local milk producers - recently organised a 3day/72 hour event around ”The role and the contribution of mini-dairies in the social and economic development of its workers”. This was the first in its kind and the opening ceremony, presided over by the Minister for animal resources, took place on Saturday February 14 2015 in Ouagadougou.
The article below was published by the daily paper ”L’Observateur Paalga” on February 16th 2015.
Before proceeding to the article a few words of explanation to readers who, having received no further issues after newsletter n° 492 were wondering if we had ceased its publication. You may rest assured. There are several reasons for a temporary stop. The main one is the fact that we are in the process of making a thorough change in the layout of our web site. This work should be completed in the next few days. We hope that you will appreciate its new shape. The regular despatch of abcBurkina will start again with the present newsletter.
In order to introduce local dairy products into the food habits of the Burkinabe, 1.8 million litres of milk were processed in 2012, 2.9 million in 2013 and 3.9 million in 2014. To go along with this gradual move towards increased processing, the people in the dairy sector have started to promote the full value of their products. That is how the Three day event came about.
On this occasion, the minister for animal resources, Jean-Paul Rouamba said that the event was “ a way to publicise our capacity to produce, process and sell milk”. Beyond the three days it will be important, the minister continued, that technical services and parties involved join their energies to inject further momentum to the production and processing of milk in Burkina.” Mr Rouambas personal view was that “the dairy sector remains an important instrument in the fight against hunger and poverty”.
If the dairy sector could be made to produce at full value, a good part of the ten billion CFA francs that Burkina Faso injects every year into imports of milk and dairy products could instead bring benefits to thousands of its citizens. That is at any rate the opinion of the UMPL/B president, Mr Adama Ibrahim Diallo.
The UMPL/B was created on July 13th 2007. At present it has 39 affiliated mini-dairies which have been set up or supplied by local groups of milk producers. More than 1 700 people work in the sector and 90% are women. The union assists in the organisation, equipment and technical training of its members, as well as in finding markets for their products.
Fulbert Paré
Forwarded on March 22nd 2015
by the Director of SEDELAN
Maurice Oudet
