Second Cooperative Dairy Union is established in Afghanistan

Kabul, January 15, 2007 (FAO): The Kunduz Dairy Union which is the second dairy union in the country established on 11th November 2006 by joint efforts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Ministry of Agriculture and dairy farmers. The union has four milk producers’ cooperative societies with 208 members and has been registered under the Agricultural Cooperative Department of Ministry of Agriculture on 13th January 2007.

The purpose of the establishment of union is to sustain and build the capability of dairy cooperative society’s members on how to operate the business under the cooperative ownership. It is expected that by the end of this project, the dairy cooperative society’s members would be trained and prepared to take over the processing facilities set up under FAO’s Trust Fund assistance. The project is funded by the Government of Germany. Soon, Kunduz Dairy will be upgraded with modern milk processing facilities, to produce pasteurised milk, yoghurt, ice-cream and other indigenous products.

Thus, the overall FAO Dairy Project impacts can be summarised as below:

• Increased access to regular and dependable raw milk market for the farmers;
• Increased women participation in the livestock production;
• Increased household income from livestock production;
• Increased level of employment at grassroots level; and
• Contribution in part import substitution, and increased level of food security.

The first dairy union in Afghanistan was Kabul Dairy Union which was established on 30th November 2006 and has seven cooperative societies with 416 members. Similarly, dairy union formation and registration is in process in Balkh (Mazar).