Africa-Press – Tanzania. UNDERPERFORMING livestock and fishing sub-sectors are set for massive transformation to increase their contribution to the national economy.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in her maiden speech to the National Assembly, decried the minimal productivity of the livestock and fishing activities in the country, promising massive investments to improve the sub-sectors.
Despite the huge animal population, Tanzania produces over 700,000 tonnes of meat and three million litres of milk annually, contributing to 7.4 per cent of gross domestic product.
“We envisage having livestock keepers with few, but highly productive animals,” charged President Samia, decrying as peanut the productivity of three litres of milk per day and 150 kilogrammes of meat that Tanzanian cattle produce.
Through improved breeds and increased production of animal feeds to 8,000,000 tonnes from the current 900,000 tonnes, President Samia said the target to produce between 20 and 30 litres of milk daily and 600 kilogrammes of meat per cattle is feasible.
She said under the new strategy, the grazing land will be increased from the current 2.78 million to six million hectares.
President Samia however discouraged the famous nomadic animal husbandry, which she dismissed as environmental unfriendly and unbeneficial to the livestock keepers.
“Under nomadic livestock keeping, neither the animal nor the herder gets fat,” she quiped, quoting former President Jakaya Kikwete.
The president further said the government remains firm on maximal exploitation of the marine resources, reiterating the government’s commitment to buy eight fishing vessels to facilitate deep sea fishing.
The government will also construct special ports for the fishing vessels as well as establish industries to process fish and other oceanic products.
And, to make the strategy a great success, President Samia said integration of the agriculture and industrial sectors were of paramount important.
