The highly successful East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is set to expand thanks to a grant of $25.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Themed, ‘Milk for Health and Wealth’, the project will now be able to assist more than 136,000 farm families in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The grant will enable Heifer International to build on successes and existing work in creating a robust dairy industry in the region where demand for fresh milk is close to outstripping supply. A greater number of smallholder farmers will be able to profitably participate in the growing dairy industry, improving nutrition and increasing incomes and access to markets.

The program began in 2008 in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and supports dairy farmers’ business associations to develop dairy hubs that provide most of the services required by small-scale dairy farmers to increase productivity and market access.

The World Agroforestry Centre has been a major partner in the project, helping to develop technologies for fodder shrubs that improve milk production and putting in place innovative extension services to deliver these technologies to farmers.

Through the second phase of the project, partners will help establish new technologies such as innovative approaches to fodder production and alternative energy sources.

For more information, visit: http://www.heifer.org/eadd/

See also: Fodder for a Better Future: How agroforestry is helping to transform the lives of small-scale dairy farmers in East Africa