Brookside Dairy increases farmer rewards to US$2.3M

KENYA – Brookside dairy, a dairy processing company, has disbursed US$2.3 million (KSh 303 million) boost to its farmer rewards program.

This increase, marking a 32–40% rise from the previous year’s payout, underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to strengthening its supply chain and empowering rural communities.

Brookside, General Manager for Milk Procurement, Emmanuel Kabaki, said the amount will benefit dairy groups and individual farmers across Kenya who signed up for the programme and have been supplying raw milk to Brookside in the six-month period between 1st December 2024 to 31st May, this year.

“The beneficiary farmer groups and individual suppliers signed up for our reward scheme and were given raw milk supply targets, for both quality and quantity. We are rewarding these farmers as a recognition of their toil over the six-month period,” Kabaki said.

The farmer reward scheme, pioneered by Brookside six years ago, aims to recognise the crucial role raw milk suppliers play in the upstream phase of the dairy value chain. The payout has been appreciating over the years, as the processor’s base of contracted farmers continues to expand.

“The reward remains a statement of our excellent working relationship with all our 160,000 raw milk suppliers across the country. It has boosted the supply of high-quality milk, thus enabling us to continue supplying the market with high-quality products,” Kabaki added.

Additionally, Brookside has been conducting capacity-building programmes for its farmers across key raw milk production sheds, as it seeks to further increase the volumes supplied to it.

This year alone, more than 4,500 dairy farmers have benefited from Brookside’s extension services, which include field day trainings and the use of demonstration farms to showcase best practices in the dairy enterprise.

Kabaki noted that the company was actively enhancing the dairy value chain by embracing environmentally sustainable practices.

He explained that one of the key strategies involved tackling the issue of seasonality is by constructing water pans—rainwater harvesting structures designed to provide farming communities with reliable access to water. These pans would not only support livestock and domestic use but also play a role in controlling soil erosion.

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