Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has invited more investors to venture into dairy sector especially on milk processing factories, saying a lot of opportunities are yet to be utilized effectively.
This comes in a wake of the country’s annual average production of 3.4 billion litrers of milk, but only 75 million liters processed.
The statistics were issued by the Permanent Secretary in charge of livestock sector in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Prof Elisante Ole Gabriel, saying out of the 3.4billion liters of milk, 2.38billin are from free range cattle while the remaining 1.12billion litters are from cows being zero grazed.
Prof Ole Gabriel was speaking in Dar es Salaam during award giving event for winners of the AgResults Tanzania Diary Productivity Project that aims at increasing production of dairy products by encouraging private sector suppliers to deliver inputs to small holder farmers.
“There is a great potential that has to be tapped by stakeholders from within and outside the country,” said Prof Ole Gabriel, assuring that the government is creating the needed conducive environment to attract investors to the sector.
He also commended the organisers for coming up with such an idea that has helped in improving the health of cattle and guarantee productivity.
According to him, Tanzania’s dairy sector consists of primarily smallholder farmers who produce low volumes of milk for domestic consumption, saying production yields have continued to vary widely from five to over 40 litres per cow per day, depending heavily on the breed, animal husbandry, and feeding practices.
“However, limited knowledge among smallholder farmers, high costs, and lack of access to technologies have hindered the adoption of such practices,” he said, attributing the initiative by AG results in boosting productivity in the sector.
“There is no doubt that during the initial year of implementation, this project has shown remarkable results,” he added.
Giving out statistics of livestock, Prof Ole Gabriel said so far, Tanzania has a total of 33.9 million cows, 22 million goats, 6 million sheep, 4.5 million dogs, 2million cats and 3.2million pigs as well as 87.7 million chickens with 4.5billion eggs worth 900bn/-.
For her part, the AG results team leader Ms Neema Mrema said during the first year of implementation, participating input businesses engaged 2,776 smallholder farmers, and more than 17,000 cows received improved services.
During the challenge, competitors engaged 2,776 smallholder farmers who purchased 4,116 complete input bundles, contributing to productivity, breed improvement and animal health.
“The competitors managed to sell 4,116 complete input bundles, which corresponds directly to the cash prizes being awarded valued at 27,000 US dollars. These incentives will boost competitors’ businesses and increase the value of their investments,” she explained.
The team leader also acknowledged the efforts of Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) who tracked and verified all input sales in accordance with the competition rules.
The project was run under the Pay for Results Model that uses monetary prizes to reward competitions who earn prizes for selling different bundles of inputs to farmers.
