Brief history
Akofang Makaota Dairy Farmers Association is an umbrella association was formed in December 2009. It started with 4 member associations from the district of Mafeteng namely:

  • Thusanang Mathula dairy farmers associations at Matelile Ha Seeiso Resource Centre.
  • Phallang dairy farmers association at Kolo Resource Centre.
  • Jang Lebese dairy farmers association at Kolo Resource Centre.
  • Likhoele dairy farmers associations at Ramokoatsi Resource Centre.

Vision
Our vision is to network all the Mafeteng dairy farmers’ association.

Objectives

  • To assist our member associations to build their own Milk Market centres.
  • To access regular training by our member associations, (e.g. Animal Husbandry, Milk Hygiene, Fodder Production etc).

Current situation

  • Members are not neither increasing nor decreasing.
  • The average milk production has decreased from 832 to 423 litres per day.
  • Milk production decreased because of the collapse of the Milk market in the country.
  • There is a wide-spread and a devastating climate change.
  • Only 20% of the total milk production is sold to the MCC while 80% is sold to the community.
  • The milk payments were made after the farmers sold the milk by themselves.
  • With the total number of cows, our average estimations show that each gives 12 litres per day.
  • There are also a number of farmers and non-association farmers who are frequently visited by extension workers all through the year.

Pasture Management
Pasture seeds were given to the farmers by both government and NGO’s. The hay made from the pastures is of a prestige quality. The silage production has not yet been initiated.

Achievements
Farmers have grown to a level of formulating their own feed through the help of RSDA, Smallholder Agricultural Development Project and Global Environment Facility.

We have produced Erogrostic teff on our 13.2 acre field located at Likhoele, Ha-Khalala. This field is under the supervision of one member of ours, Mr Adam Khalala.

We have also an Animal feed processing plant in the area of Tebang.

Throughout the Mafeteng district we have one voice united in the Akofang Umbrella body. This is the only mother body throughout the entire of country of Lesotho also being the sole pioneer of this kind in the country. Nobody can stop us

Immediately after the establishment of our association we were requested to draw a 5 year strategy plan that started from 2011/2012. The following were outlined in the strategic plan: a short term plan, Medium term plan, and Long term plan.

We have set milestones together with implementation plans.

We are determined to generate income through fund-raising and T-shirt printing.

We accessed funds from the following donors:

SADP M219 000.00

GEF M250 000.00

TOTAL: M469 000.00

We have had a support from the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) with a 4 Tonne half truck and a hummer mill.

We managed to purchase three hummer mills, 4 weighing scales, stitching machine and 5000 labelling bags with our logo printed on them.

With the GEF fund we managed to construct our animal processing plant at Tebang.

We also managed to purchase different fodder seeds.

Future
We hope to have seven affiliate members from all district resource centres to be represented in the umbrella body of associations. We are aiming to have at least 7 MCCs in the Mafeteng district. We also plan to have one or more mini-dairy plants within the Mafeteng District. This will enable us to avoid all kinds of monopolies that may arise. We are going to implement our strategic plan. We are willing to assist our colleagues from other districts who are willing to form their mother-body.