AfricaPress-Tanzania: LIVESTOCK stakeholders will implement a special five-year programme (2021-2025) to push for animal-based industries across the country.
The strategy, among other things, will incorporate market-oriented researches to ensure there are enough raw materials for all livestock-based industries.
Primarily, the animal-based raw materials are hides, milk, meat and hoofs, just to mention a few.
According to Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (Taliri) Acting Director-General, Dr Jonas Kizima, preliminary studies have discovered that most industries in the livestock products category are underperforming due to poor production and supply of raw materials.
“The programme seeks to enable stakeholders in the beef and dairy cattle chain in all regions to improve their performance by adopting better technologies and practices so that they may stand a chance of feeding relevant industries,” he briefed.
He informed that the envisaged programme would introduce and help livestock keepers from across the country to embrace hybrid animals, best animal health services, animal compounded and feeds, animal husbandry infrastructure, milk handling, grazing systems and good dairy animal genetics.
“For instance,” he added, “most of the livestock keepers encounter the technical challenge of inbreeding, which denies their cattle to grow healthier.” He added there would also campaign to impart knowledge and skills to livestock keepers.
“If all goes well, we plan to establish centres of excellence for varied livestock facets in different zones to meet raw material demand for industries in each zone,” he said.
For his part, Acting Director of Livestock Institute Training Authority (Lita) Balija Luyombya said the state-owned authority was also finalising plans to start training the youth in best animal keeping practices.
He said the programme focused on different training programmes of livestock keepers from across the country.
Development includes making efforts to comply with President John Magufuli’s directives to revive and promote animal-based industries in Tanzania for the coming five years.
In his remarks during the inauguration of the 12nd Parliament in Dodoma in November last year, President Magufuli said, in five years, the government would construct seven major abattoirs in different regions with the capacity to slaughter at least 6,700 cattle and 11,000 goats per day.
He said the construction of the abattoirs was purposeful for enabling the country to improve performance and quality of meat as well as hides.
Dr Magufuli said at least 90 per cent of hides produced in Tanzania were of low quality due to poor slaughtering methodologies.
He added that the government was determined to motivate investors from within and outside the country to invest in meat industries, but also in the leather sector and other animal products, especially hoofs.
