Milking cows in Herat, Afghanistan

In Herat, Afghanistan, milking cows are housed in a family's home - inside a separate stable that keeps them protected from the weather. Previously, they roamed the house, creating unhygenic conditions for both the household and the cows.

In addition, farmer now work together to sell their milk instead of selling it independently at the market. Some 585 farmer households participate in seven dairy clusters that collect, store and deliver milk. At the Nawin Sufleh Village Collection Center (VCC), boys and men were seen bringing the morning’s milk to be tested and then collected in a steel storage container. Milk buckets were covered, as required, and the VCC was in a cool and clean plastered mud room on a small side street. The log book of milk collection and payments were up-to-date, testing equipment was working, and VCC board members—all volunteers—supervised the operation. The milk collector’s salary is paid from the milk sales.

Cows are kept in the stables of a nearby homes participating in the dairy cluster. Animals were separated into small stables and a woman washes her hands, washing the cow’s udder, and maintains the cleanliness of the milk bucket. A female team leader, who had completed tenth grade schooling, held bi-monthly meetings for women and monitored the stables.

Men reported that the greatest benefits of the miking program were that they now received about 30 percent more money for their milk, since it was hygienic, and they had more time to work in the fields, since they did not have to travel to the city independently to try to sell their milk - it's all sold collectively through the VCC. They also began to improve the hygiene of their families as they noticed that their cows benefited from more hygienic living conditions—living in stables cleaned regularly as opposed to co-existing with the family in the compound. It was reported that the concept of separate stables for livestock has now been copied by other farmers who noticed that animals in stables are better able to survive a harsh winter and improved hygiene improved incomes and health.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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