Farm-Africa to launch 150 branded veterinary stores across Kenya

Access to quality-controlled medical products for livestock will improve animal healthcare and tackle poverty, says NGO

guardian.co.uk, Liz Ford, Friday 21 January 2011

Kenya's farmers are to have better access to standardised medical
products for animals. Photograph: Radu Sigheti/Reuters

More than 300,000 farmers in Kenya will have access to better animal healthcare with the nationwide launch ofa chain of veterinary stores offering standardised medical products for livestock.

Farm-Africa has received funding to establish a network of 150 stores throughout the country over the next four years. The franchise is believed to be the first focused on livestock services created by an NGO.

Over the last 30 years, animal healthcare services in Africa have been hit as funding for agriculture has been cut by donors, despite the vital role livestock play for smallholder farmers, providing meat and dairy products and helping with transport, as well as being sold to raise money.

During a panel discussion on maximising business opportunities in African agriculture on Monday, Lord Sainsbury, the former science minister, criticised policies imposed by the World Bank and the IMF for the reduction in agricultural extension services across the continent, which has left many countries with no services to support farmers. In Kenya, veterinary services were scaled back in the 1980s, which hit services in remote areas particularly hard.

The franchise stores, which will be overseen by Farm-Africa, will be run by local vets or livestock technicians (animal healthworkers who have received some medical training, and are more likely to work in rural communities), who will have undergone a tough selection process to assess their commitment to the communities in which they will be working and to ensure they can maintain high standards across the network.

Each store will provide a one-stop-shop offering diagnostic advice and information on disease outbreaks, as well as providing clinical services, animal feeds and branded drugs. A lack of regulation means Kenya has a thriving market in unqualified and illegal traders who supply and sell fake or out-of-date products to farmers. The franchise network will also provide a nationwide infrastructure for the delivery of vaccines developed by GALVmed, a global alliance of public, private and government partners that makes affordable livestock vaccines and medicines available to farmers. Farm-Africa is a GALVmed partner.

Word of the network is already beginning to spread around Kenya, and people have been "beating down the door" to join, said Christie Peacock, formerly chief executive of Farm-Africa, but now the chair of the new enterprise, which has yet to be named. "Essentially they will run their own business, but under a single brand," she says.

Farm-Africa has held talks with researchers, who see the project as a way to get their ideas tested in "all corners of Kenya", and with companies who may be able to offer affordable life and livestock insurance through the network.

"This new approach to delivering services in rural areas is sustainable and we anticipate it will be scalable across Africa," said Peacock.

"The huge potential of the country's livestock sector must be supported through modernisation, appropriate technology and improved access to high quality animal health services… The livestock sector provides impetus for economic development."

Esther Syengo, a farmer and buck-keeper from Nzeluni division in Migwani district, central Kenya, is optimistic about the new network. "A few years ago a rabid dog attacked one of my goats. It took 14 days to have the goat vaccinated. The delay was caused by difficulties in getting one rabies dose as the vaccine is packaged in several doses, and also [it is not] available to our village and neighbouring ones. From the look of things and going by what Farm-Africa has done in the past, this project should be able to bring a wide variety of drugs closer to us and at reasonable prices."

The franchise is being funded through a $5m grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.