Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has unveiled plans to overhaul how Kenya’s dairy farmers get paid, announcing a move away from the longstanding volume-based pricing model toward one that rewards the quality of milk produced. The announcement came during a dairy cooperative meeting held in Nyeri County, signalling a major shift in how the government intends to support the sector going forward.
Under the new arrangement, farmers will be compensated based on the composition of their milk — specifically its protein and butterfat content — rather than simply on how many litres they deliver. This approach is designed to encourage the production of higher-grade milk that is better suited for processing into value-added products such as cheese and yogurt, categories that have seen growing demand both locally and across the region.
“Moving forward, milk pricing will reward quality because that is what will drive value addition and better returns for our farmers,” Kagwe stated, making clear that the government views this transition as central to unlocking greater economic benefit from the dairy industry.
However, the change will not happen overnight. Kagwe acknowledged that the full rollout of quality-based pricing faces a logistical hurdle — milk-testing equipment is not yet installed at all collection centres across the country. The CS urged farmers to be patient but proactive, strongly encouraging them to join or remain active within cooperatives. Membership, he noted, gives farmers stronger collective bargaining power and better access to formal markets — advantages that will be critical as the new pricing structure gradually takes hold.
Kenya’s dairy industry is no small matter. The country produces roughly 5.4 billion litres of milk every year, making it the largest milk-producing nation on the African continent. The sector is a lifeline for many smallholder farmers, where dairy farming underpins rural livelihoods and contributes directly to household food security.
Despite this scale, many individual farmers — particularly those who sell milk outside cooperative structures — regularly fall prey to middlemen and brokers offering unpredictable and often exploitative prices. The shift to a quality-driven payment model, paired with stronger cooperative membership, is being positioned by the government as a way to shield farmers from such exploitation while simultaneously aligning Kenya’s dairy output with the demands of a more sophisticated processing industry.
For farmers willing to invest in improving their herds and feeding practices, the new model promises a genuine opportunity to earn more — not simply by milking more cows, but by milking better ones.
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