The District Veterinary Officers (DVO) have been tasked to accentuate quality animal production. This has been conveyed during a two-day meeting for DVOs at the Ministry of Agriculture,Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) headquarters in Entebbe.
During the same engagement, the district veterinary officers were provided with veterinary kits that consisted of equipment like inspection stamps that will be used to verify animal products to be put on the market, filling machines, inspection knives, aprons, belts, inspection hucks among others to simplify there work in the fight of quality animal products management.
Speaking at the closing ceremony as he was also handing over the ventinary kits, Maj. Gen (Rtd) David Kasura-Kyomukama the Permanent Secretary of MAAIF said that the only way to secure the country’s export market is by maintaining high-quality animal production.
“Dealing with agricultural products, the people who are going to export them have to examine the whole production system therefore we have to maintain the quality of all products in order to secure the world market,” he added.
He also noted that the country’s milk production is about 3.2 billion litres and the current export is around 2.4 billion litres, then if the Algerian market is added on it means exports will increase to about 4.9 billion litres of milk per year which indicates the need of double milk production.
Kasura-Kyomukama therefore tasked the veterinary officers to properly utilize the provided kits and skills acquired so that the country secures the international market by maintaining the agricultural production standards.
Dr. Ann Rose Ademun the Commissioner for Animal Health and Chief Veterinary Officer at MAAIF remarked that the two days of training aimed at enhancing knowledge and skills of animal production management to meet international standards.
She urged the participants to use the newly acquired knowledge and equipment to empower their colleagues and farmers all over the country to sustain and maintain the favourable animal production management.
Dr Andrew Akashaba the president of the Uganda Veterinary Association (UVA) on behalf of the DVOs appreciated the ministry for equipping them with more skills as well as veterinary kits which he said it’s a great measure in animal production management because all the products to put on the market will now be fully certified to meet the international standards.
The Annual dairy performance report for the year 2021/2022 released by DDA in April shows that the country’s milk production rose significantly to 3.22 billion litres in 2021/2022 from 2.8 billion litres in the financial year 2020/2021. At least Shs382.2 billion was generated from dairy exports compared to Shs344.2b in FY2020/2021.
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