USAID Promotes Competitiveness among Cattle Ranchers of the Southwest

USAID Promotes Competitiveness among Cattle Ranchers of the Southwest
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, 05/23/2011

With the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), cattle ranchers in San Juan and Elías Piña built a dairy factory with the goal of achieving added value to the excess milk produced in the region. The factory will serve to strengthen the chain of production and commercialization among the area’s small cattle ranchers, which will help them increase their levels of production, competitiveness, income and quality of life for their families.

The initiative is being carried out thanks to a shared investment from USAID through its Rural Economic Diversification Project and the Association of Ranchers of Las Matas de Farfán (ASOGAFAR), which groups together 146 ranchers from the provinces of Elías Piña and San Juan, according the USAID sources.

“Improving the competitiveness of the ranchers from San Juan and Elías Piña by strengthening production and marketing of regional and innovative dairy products,”…

The project “Improving the competitiveness of the ranchers from San Juan and Elías Piña by strengthening production and marketing of regional and innovative dairy products,” focused on building the new dairy products factory. To fulfill this goal, human resources were strengthened among producers with regard to the importance and advantage of working in a cooperative way. This is especially true now as their experience proves that mutual collaboration among individuals can achieve competitiveness and reduce the costs of agricultural consumables such as fertilizers and services needed for production. The factory was a joint effort among members of the cooperative who are part of ASOGAFAR. They agreed to support the effort with their own earnings taken from one day’s worth of milk sales, every 15 days. They began that process on June 29, 2010 and will continue until the construction work is finished.

By the end of the project activities, a 360-square-meter dairy processing plant was built and adequately equipped for making and conserving dairy products. In addition to meeting all the standard sanitary codes, they also have a team of trained workers as they now look to export their product to select market niches in the DR and the United States. Likewise, the association was strengthened and a cooperative was created through which common purchases among members can be made, saving them money.

The initiative benefitted 146 ranchers from the municipalities of Las Matas de Farfán and its surrounding areas including El Llano and Comendador in Elías Piña province. The total cost of the project was 5 million Dominican pesos, of which the USAID contributed 2.1 million pesos.

The MEGALECHE program, part of the Directorate of Ranchers of the Ministry of Agriculture, made a significant technical contribution to this project through its technicians who specialize in quality control for milk and its livestock extensions. They also offered courses and workshops to producers and employees who will work in the factory.

Dutty Greene, Economic Policy Advisor for the USAID, stressed that “the cattle ranchers of the Southwest will have, from now on, an adequate infrastructure which, along with higher levels of product association, will have a positive impact on increasing their production, competitiveness, income of small ranchers and in general will improve the quality of life for them and their families.”

In addition to the activities undertaken on this project, there were other benefits including the training and understanding of all issues having to do with the bovine sector in the country. They also benefitted from the improvement of the genetic base and nutrition system of the cattle, the modernization of cattle-raising systems, development of industrialization and marketing strategies as well as the establishment of a policy and regulatory system governing the raising of dairy cattle.

USAID

USAID, through grants provided under the Rural Economic Diversification Project, supports small, collective investments of up to 2.5 million Dominican pesos to clusters and organizations of producers with the aim of stimulating rural economic diversification. Fifty-one grants have been made through this mechanism to organizations or producer associations for a total of 100.4 million Dominican pesos. For their part, the beneficiary groups have contributed 144.5 million Dominican pesos in cash or goods for a total investment of 244.9 million Dominican pesos.

The Association of Cattle Ranchers of Las Matas de Farfán (ASOGAFAR) is made up of 127 ranchers from the provinces of San Juan and Elías Piña.