Solar-powered milk cooling to reduce fuel expenses for dairy farmers

Chilling milk is one of the value-adding steps that dairy farmers must practice daily to protect milk from spoilage.

Although some farmers have access to reliable electricity, most use diesel or petrol generators to cool their milk, spending around £300,000 a day running the generators.

However, to ensure sustainable development of the sector, it is necessary to reduce operating costs every day such as fuel purchases for and for serving generators.

This is a challenge that Heifer International, in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy, wants to address by providing solar energy to approximately 197 dairy cooperatives whose generators depend on diesel fuel.

(L-R) Johnson Kesiganabo, President of Dwaniro Dairy and Livestock Farmers Cooperative, William Matovu, Country Director of Heifer International, Ruth Nakanbirwa, Minister of Energy and Mineral Development and Mariam Seguya RDC Kiboga at the solar launch.

This was revealed by Heifer International country director William Matovu while offering solar technologies to dairy farmers in Kiboga district on May 24, 2024.

Matovu explained that over the last 12 years, the non-profit organization had supported over 87 dairy farmer organizations across Uganda and had over 244 milk collection centers across the country.

“However, over 197 milk collection points use only diesel engines as their energy source. They rely on generators and spend as much as 40% of their total operating costs on fuel and generator maintenance.

With the increase in fuel prices, operating costs have increased by more than 50%, drastically reducing profit margins,” Matovu said.

He added that due to unreliable energy sources, producer organizations lose 5 to 10% of their revenues due to power outages, leading to poor quality milk that has to be sold at low prices.

This investment in dairy farmers is supported by Solar for Sustainable Income in Diary (SSID) through the Powering Renewable Energy Opportunities (PREO) program, co-funded by the IKEA Foundation and UK Aid through the Transforming Energy Access platform.

“As part of the project, photovoltaic systems were installed in Kiboga and Sembabule districts to operate milk cold storage facilities. Today we are commissioning photovoltaic systems for our dairy farmers in Kiboga,” he added.

He gave the example of Dwaniro Dairy and Livestock Farmers Cooperative Limited, which, in his opinion, reduced milk losses at the Migina Milk Collection Center to zero.

197,321 liters of milk worth $49,682, or approximately $191,275,700, are now refrigerated each month, and the cooperative has reduced energy costs from $36,450, or approximately $139,415,300, to $18,170, approximately $69,954,500 annually. This enabled farmers to save up to 46% of their income from milk sales.

Matovu hopes that the introduction of innovation will result in an increase in purchasing volumes and higher quality of milk for milk processors, increased revenues for processors, producer organizations and farmers thanks to higher volumes, and reduced operating costs of cooperatives by 30 percent and a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from generators by 90 percent.