Quality of milk produced by some selected small-scale farmers around Lusaka

Abstract

The objective of this research was to establish whether small scale farmers produce milk of high quality or milk of low quality. And if they produce low quality milk establish the causes of this and make recommendations on how they can achieve high quality milk.

To achieve the objective the quality of milk produced by small scale farmers around Lusaka area was studied in relation to butterfat, solids not fat, percentage of water added to milk and the bacterial count in milk. This was done by studying records available at Parmalat of 27 small scale farmers for a period of 12 months i.e. from January 2002 to December 2002. The Percentages of Butterfat, solids not fat and water in the milk supplied by the 27 small scale farmers as well as bacterial count was compared with the minimum requirement of the Law in Zambia.

This study showed that milk composition was satisfactory i.e. was above the minimum requirement of the law, percentage of water added was 0.62 for the year 2002. Bacterial count was found to be of Grade B. This was particularly due to poor hygiene and lack of cooling facilities.