1. Amos Omore1, Michael Waithaka2 Miriam Kyotalimye2
Improving dairy policy environment in eastern Africa: lessons to date 1st ASARECA General Assembly Dec ember 2011
Amos Omore1, Michael Waithaka2 Miriam Kyotalimye2
1International Livestock Research Institute, P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi, Kenya;
2 Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa, P.O. Box 765, Entebbe, Uganda
Examples of issues addressed:
Introduction
ASARECA’s involvement in the rationalization and harmonization of dairy policies, laws, regulations and procedures in ECA dates back to Following national studies, individual countries agreed priority issues requiring rationalisation and harmonisation across borders in ECA in order to improve the dairy policy environment. Significant progress has been made in the region since then.
Issue
Output/Outcome
Unfavourable policies and regulations towards (informal or non-pasteurised) milk marketing
New Dairy Board in Rwanda (2010); New Dairy Act (2004) and regulatory board in Tanzania (2005); change in subsidiary legislation (2004) and draft Dairy Bill in Kenya
Policy barriers against traditional markets and difficulties in establishing viable formal markets
New institutional mechanisms to improve informal milk markets (Fig 1);
Agreement on a common strategy involving a training and certification BDS scheme with appropriate incentives by East Africa Dairy Regulatory Authorities Council (EADRAC) members
Under-utilisation of installed dairy processing capacities in the region
Analysis and documentation; rationalised taxation
Lack of training materials on milk quality assurance
Regionalisation of available training guides from Kenya and translations of the guides into other languages
Lack of harmonised dairy standards
Contribution to common standards adopted by EAC and under consideration by COMESA
Lack of risk information and capacity in risk analysis
Collaboration and dissemination of risk information generated by partners and other ASARECA programmes
Various non-tariff barriers to trade (NTBs)
EADRAC created to address the NTBs
The high but unexploited potential for growth in intra-regional trade in dairy (doubled to 11% in 5 yrs)
Impacts of changing tariff and non-tariff barriers on dairy trade in EA analysed and shared with EADRAC (Fig 2)
Unknown impacts dairy policy rationalisation and harmonisation
Analysis and documentation
Why focus on dairy policies?
Dairy presents the most important opportunity for improving agriculture dependent rural livelihoods in the region in terms of potential GDP gains in the medium term
Policy barriers identified and being addressed relate to
Customs and import controls and regulations
Product quality and safety standards
Sanitary requirements
Policies and strategies for integrating the informal milk trade to the formal milk value chains, given dominance of raw milk sales that comprise over 90% of market volumes
Figure 1: New institutional mechanism for commercialised delivery of milk quality assurance services involving training and certification aimed at integrating informal milk market actors into the formal value chain
Figure 2. Aggregate welfare effects of removing dairy tariff barriers (TBs) and non tariff barriers (NTBs) in East Africa
Source: Gelan and Omore (2011)
What is EADRAC?
Rationalization and harmonization of policies and regulations require active participation of key stakeholders. Since 2006, leaders of statutory dairy regulatory authorities in EA have been meeting regularly under EADRAC. Through EADRAC they share lessons on ways to rationalize and harmonize dairy policies and standards in the dairy industry in the region and promote, inter-alia, free trade in milk across borders in EA. EADRAC is an ideal forum to pursue policy dialogue, besides the bureaus of standards that also meet regularly to review and harmonize dairy standards. ASARECA and ILRI usually participate as observers and to provide evidence and seek feedback on dairy policy analyses conducted.
Key Lessons to date
Reliance on robust evidence generated through collaborative work in Kenya and validated in the rest of East Africa under was a successful strategy
The engagement of EADRAC to facilitate the learning of lessons among peers quickly led to desire to pilot the new institutional approaches incorporating BDS
Development of widely validated training guidelines endorsed by respective dairy boards filled a major gap in appropriate training
Impact assessments provide a sound basis for consolidating current gains and venturing into new areas of dairy policy rationalization and harmonization
Looking into the future
development of appropriate information system for identification, recording for breed improvement and traceability of trade related diseases
rationalization of roles in regulation and breeding services delivery through optimal public private partnerships (PPP)
institution of legal frameworks for exchange of genetics materials and breeding technologies in the region
operationalization of instruments for full implementation of existing animal feeds standards
development of appropriate standards for milk safety and incentive-based approaches for improved compliance
Acknowledgements:
This work was made possible by a consortium of organizations led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with public organizations in EAC countries mandated to regulate and promote the dairy industry; private sector business service providers; and producers. The funding for this initiative was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID – EA)