SPECIAL REPORT : Why Tanzania doesn’t benefit from huge livestock potential

Tabora. Pastoralists should be educated on better animal husbandry, experts say.

By so doing, the herders will benefit from livestock rather than having large numbers of cattle, goats or sheep just to be seen as wealthy.

Tanzania is among top three countries with largest numbers of livestock in Africa.

But Tanzania has not benefited accordingly from livestock.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says until October 2015, Tanzania had 25.8 million cattle, 19 million goats, 5.5 million sheep and 1.7 million pigs.

However, NBS data shows the number of tanneries as well as dairy and meat plants is inadequate.

Even regions that have the highest numbers of livestock such as Tabora, Manyara, Mwanza, Mara and Shinyanga have no large plants.

A Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) lecturer, Dr Daniel Mushi, says problems lie in policies and their implementation.

He gave the example of Ethiopia which has banned importation of milk, meat and hides.

“The government must also invest heavily to increase product quality and quantity. Previously, livestock services were subsidised. For example, government provided cattle dip insecticides. Now the subsidies are no longer there. It’s high time they were restored.”

Professionally, he says, an animal is supposed to be slaughtered at the age of two to two and a half but in Tanzania the same animal is slaughtered when it is aged seven to eight.

“We are supposed to improve the situation because you cannot invest in an industry if you are not sure of getting its raw materials.”

Moreover, pastoralists have failed to use modern methods of animal husbandry to improve meat quality.

NBS reports that 2.74 million cattle in Tabora are mainly reared traditionally. Tabora regional assistant administrative secretary Philip Mtiba says such kind of cattle rearing is uneconomic.

“The kinds of cattle found in Tanzania are which are shorter and have small body structures. A cow is supposed to produce an average of 250 kilos, but in Tanzania one gets around 138 kilos.”

He says 35 to 40 per cent of cows are milked and produce about 1.8 million litres of milk daily, particularly during the rainy season.

“During the dry season, milk production drops to 400,000 litres a day. This kind of production does not attract commercial investors,” says Mr Mtiba.

Besides lacking a mega factory for manufacturing livestock products, the region has only one abattoir with a capacity of slaughtering 50 cattle a day.

To address the challenges, the Agriculture Sector Development Programme brought Borani bulls from the Livestock Training Agency at Mabuki in Mwanza. It also introduced bottle transplant from Usa River Livestock Centre in Arusha.

“However, those bulls were not well kept as most of them died of ndigana. One bull had 900 kilos and was supposed to be fed with enough food. So, they were not well kept and the results were bad.”

He says since nitrogen was insufficient in bottles containing transplant sperms plans to improve cattle sperms failed. So, they are back to square one.

Having a large number of livestock, Tanzania was expected to produce a lot of quality hides. However, that is not the case. Potential buyers say quality of most hides is poor.

SAK International Ltd director Tauseef Mahmood says there is an acute shortage of quality hides to the extent that staff of the Arusha-based firm have been forced to travel to other regions in search of the raw material.

“We do not bank on only one region to get the hides for our factory. We purchase the raw material in Tabora, Dodoma, Singida and other regions.

“However, the market is not conducive and to make the things worse the government has imposed a tax,” laments Mr Mahmood.

As part of horizontal integration, SAK plans to establish a factory for manufacturing shoes for schoolchildren. Until December 2015, Arusha had three meat plants.

Some investors plan to expand their businesses.

Modern Arusha Meat Abattoir manager Fabian Kisinga says they are planning to establish a Sh3.5 billion plant.

The company is also involved in sausage production and meat mincing.

According to the NBS, Arusha Region is No.10 in having a big number of cattle.

Previously, Arusha Region had Tanganyika Packers that was located at Moshono, but it was closed down in 1993.

Arusha’s good meat quality is not accidental. There is a strong system of inspecting cattle before they are slaughtered. Pastoralists follow high standards of livestock keeping avoiding losses.

“We don’t rear cattle. We slaughter them after being brought by pastoralists as we pay Sh14,100 as a fee. They are brought here and kept for 24 hours. Experts inspect them and if any of them is infected it is isolated and if it’s a dangerous disease like anthrax it is burnt and the place is sprayed with insecticides,” says Mr Kisinga.

An average of 130 cattle is slaughtered daily.

He says slaughter is done professionally.

Mwanza has realised that traditional livestock keeping is disadvantageous as little milk is produced and meat quality is poor.

Mabuki Livestock Farm officer Issa Ali told The Citizen hybrid heifers mixed with Borani and Friesian cattle were being produced to have much milk. “We sell hybrid heifers at Sh900, 000 each. The cows produce eight to 10 litres of milk each day.”

Bulls are sold at Sh600,000 each and goats for milk at Sh120, 000.

“We also produce seeds for sale at Sh15, 000 per kilo for planting to have animal feeds. “

Livestock permanent secretary Mary Mashingo agrees that many pastoralists do not keep their livestock commercially. To increase productivity, we educate herders feed animals well to be healthy and get high prices,” says Dr Mashingo.

She says the private sector is encouraged to construct plants. “We have 84 dairy plants, 24 meat plants and nine tanneries.”