About us

Introduction

The Pearl dairy Farmers Community (PDFC) is an initiative by the (PDFL) Pearl Dairy Farms Limited (a leading Dairy manufacturing company based in Mbarara, Uganda) and IFC (International Finance Corporation). Since PDFLs’ inception in 2013, the company has been procuring its raw material, milk, from farmers and cooperatives around the manufacturing facility in Mbarara. Before its operations, the wastage of milk in the region was over 50% of the produce and due to its proximity to the farming community, the company has been instrumental in reducing the wastage of milk.

In its ongoing effort to improve the range and quality of products, PDFL realized the need to reinforce and strengthen its biggest strength, its farmers.

The idea of supporting the farmers was always impregnated into the company's DNA and the PDFC initiative was just that venue through which the company planned to support and give back to the society.

Activities

The PDFC initiative began in mid-2017 and has been steadily growing in its offerings and platforms to benefit the farming community in the local region. From May 2018, the PDFC has been fully involved in its Dairy Extension activities through its Dairy Development Program (DDP). The DDP includes the selection and training of 50 Dairy Development Executives (DDEs) and to provide hands-on advice to 1,000 commercial dairy farmers in the South Western Region of Uganda. Moreover, training and support are provided to the staff of Pearl Dairy, milk supplying cooperatives and its member farmers.

Associations

For the implementation of this huge Dairy Development Program, Pearl Dairy sought the cooperation and support of the IFC (International Finance Cooperation) World Bank Group. The IFC has contracted the Netherlands based company Bles Dairies, through its consultancy company The Friesian in cooperation with the company VetEffect to implement this DDP.

Bles Dairies is using a local Practical Dairy Training farm that has been developed by a Dutch NGO i.e. SNV with support from Bles Dairies experts as its training grounds and for several other operational activities.