University of Education Winneba identifies mentors for DAIRYCHAIN project
A mentoring programme is to be
instituted in DAIRYCHAIN project. The programme is structured in a way thatstudents are attached to mentors in the dairy sector for a specific period of time. The objective is to encourage employment-related qualification and further strengthen the link between the dairy sector and university, thereby enhancing university teaching and research with community outreach.
Under the programme, alumni working in the dairy sectors are to be won as mentors for current students. The coordination desk will organize a meeting of mentors and mentees before the mentoring activities begin. This will strengthen the link between the universities and their alumni.
The Coordinator DairyChain project in the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Ghana, Professor S.Y. Annor, visited the Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions in August 2014 to select mentors for the project. This was done in collaboration with the Animal Production Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Thirty one mentors have been selected.
During the visit the Coordinator was surprised to learn that Jersey and Holtein Friesian cattle and their crosses were performing perfectly well in the Greater and Eastern regions of Ghana under zero grazing conditions. Cows were producing up to 25-35 litres of milk per cow per day. Usually, exotic cows on pasture sucumb to streptothricosis (dermatophilosis); a skin disease that results from tick bites. This disease has been associated with high mortalities and very poor performance, especially poor milk production in the affected herds. Animals under Zero grazing are protected from tick bites and hardly suffer from the disease.
The farmers owning these units were supported by Heifer International, a non-governmental organization about five years ago through a project. Although the project is no more, farmers are sustaining the units and their animals because of the profitability ofthe venture. The DairyChain project stands to benefit from these farmers. Apart from using them as mentors, we will also buy breeding stock from them.These farms also give the inspiration that the zero grazing units we are establishing in Ashanti shall be successful.
