“When we found out the enormous work the women here were doing manually, albeit in the background, we engaged in this dairy farm project to bring them to the fore,” Ms Shang said.

Today the Mbororo women constitute 75 percent of the dairy farmers who supply the Tadu milk processing factory. The factory makes yoghurt, butter and cheese using modern equipment.

About 300 smallholder dairy farmers supply milk to the factory and over 30,000 families rely on dairy farming under the cooperative as their source of income. The cooperative collects 3,000 litres of milk daily. The success story of Tadu has secured it support from the government and other agencies with interest in the dairy value chain.

The smallholders Dairy Development Project (SDDP) has facilitated the assembling of critical pieces of dairy development equipment and infrastructure such as range management appliances, water supply networks, electrical power supply lines, adequate cattle crossbreeding stations as well as adapted milk collection and transformation facilities.

“Our farmers and dairy employees have been trained on improved hygiene during the milking and processing phases (thermal treatment, packaging and storage) and entire dairy production chain,” Ms Shang said.

Tadu works with the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry on quality aspects such as regular supply of natural nutrients, cleanliness, testing for alcohol and fat contents in the milk and checking for milk adulteration with water.

The project, however, faces some difficulties, including irregular electricity supply and bad roads that make transportation of raw materials to the production center and later the market challenging.

There is equally insufficient number of vans to deliver the finished products to consumers far and near. However, Tadu Dairy Cooperative officials say they are making inroads, expanding yoghurt, cheese and butter sales in Bui, Bamenda, Yaounde and beyond. Tadu dairy products are sold throughout Cameroon and some parts of Nigeria.

The per capita milk production in 2010 stood in Cameroon at 12.8 kg while per capita consumption was at 15.3 kg in 2010. But by 2021, milk production in the country had substantially increased from 48,000 tonnes to 204,000 tonnes, partly thanks to the contribution of agribusiness projects like Tadu.

However, the production is far from satisfying the local demand for milk and milk products, experts say. The project has triggered many other enterprises along the value chain, including feed retailing shops selling cotton seed cake, wheat bran, rice bran, soya bean cake, fish meal, palm kernel cake, bone ash, limestone meal and blood meal.

“Our vision is to expand dairy production growth and development in Africa through small and medium-sized enterprises,” said Ms Shang