Storing dairy fodder for the dry season to increase income

| July 19, 2021

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Dairy farming is an important agricultural enterprise in Kenya. It provides milk for consumption, hence improving nutrition, and earns farmers’ income from selling milk and calves. Dairy farming also offers employment in support services, for example, transportation of milk, provision of artificial insemination services, fabrication of dairy equipment, fodder production and trade, and financial services.

This script describes how to store high quality fodder for dairy cattle by making hay and silage during the wet season. During the rains, farmers often have more fodder than they need, and fodder is often wasted or kept in farms until the quality deteriorates. By cutting and conserving fodder, farmers can plant and harvest a second time or put the land to other uses.

This script is based on actual interviews. You could use it as inspiration to research and write a script on a similar topic in your area. Or you might choose to produce this script on your station, using voice actors to represent the speakers. If so, please make sure to tell your audience at the beginning of the program that the voices are those of actors, not the original people involved in the interviews.

You could also use the script as research material or as inspiration for creating your own programming on the benefits of storing fodder. Talk to dairy farmers, agricultural officers, and other experts. You might ask them:

  • What is the history of dairy farming in the area?
  • What challenges do small-scale dairy farmers face?
  • What solutions have they found to address these challenges?
  • What added benefit do farmers get by adopting these solutions?

Apart from speaking directly to farmers and other experts, you could use these questions as

the basis for a phone-in or text-in program.

The estimated running time for this item, with signature tune, intro, and extro, is 25 minutes.

Access the resource here.