1. Posted on Monday 30 April 2012 - 12:12

   ---

   angelnavuri

   

   • Profile
   • 28 messages

   ---

   Angel Navuri,AfricaNews reporter in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

   A closer look at the development of the dairy sector in the country calls for more coherent and focused interventions. Development interventions should be aimed at addressing both technological gaps and marketing problems, especially at the farm level, reveals Tanzania Milk Producers' Association (TAMPA) Chief Executive Officer Edmund Mariki.

   

   “If appropriate producer price incentives are in place and input markets are allowed to operate freely, dairy production may respond positively,” Mariki says. He explains that a long-term solution calls for practical involvement of the government in terms of new governance and policy support. Stakeholders, associations, donors, farmers, and the private sector should combine their efforts to address challenges facing this sector.
   
   Speaking on the challenges, he says that among key challenges include organising the collection of safe and good quality milk and supplying constantly good quality milk and milk products to meet market demands. At the same time, the market demand for value added products for a range of income levels should be met.
   
   “Tanzania has untapped, but time requiring market, that’s its population. Local consumption needs to be improved and supplied be made at affordable prices. With consumers’ education, consumption stimulation as well as offering milk and by products at affordable prices, the market is tremendous and overwhelming in the years to come,” he notes.
   
   Mariki notes that opportunities for entrepreneurship and investment are wide; listing the pre-requisites for the production of value added dairy products, i.e., product diversification and development, as improved animal feed supply and animal health services.
   
   The TAMPA chief mentioned other pre-requisites, as animal breeding/heifer production, artificial insemination services, organising milk collection services and manufacturing of improved packaging materials.
   
   According to him, Tanzanian dairy producers and processors already have the passion to reinvest in their operations and develop new and innovative products for customers in the country and the neighbouring countries to enjoy. He says these initiatives, to be supported by the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) projects, will provide assistance to compete successfully and build upon a strong market recognition and identity.
   
   TAMPA views that private sector must become a key player by providing simple and sustainable technologies that will enable communities to create jobs, raise incomes and reduce poverty by seeking new ways of working together with national partners pooling their resources (raw materials and human resources) and channeling their energies to achieve shared objectives by actively involving themselves in creating businesses that benefit both parties like the EADD projects wish to address.
   
   The CEO further says that dairying is reckoned to be an instrument of social and economic change (Gopalakrishnan & Lal 2000). However, many challenges facing farmers, traders and processors in this era of liberalisation pose major obstacles in developing an economically oriented dairy enterprise in the country.
   
   He explains that the dairy industry is still young, but developing. Current development strategies, such as the EADD 2, aim to modernise and commercialise the industry with a view to making it competitive. Production of milk is mainly from indigenous cattle followed by improved dairy cattle, the production is mostly for the domestic market, which prefers it supplied raw. Only a little amount s processed before sale.
   
   According to TAMPA’s Mariki, the development of the dairy sector in the country is driven by thee key characteristics. The first one is fragmented and unorganised small-scale subsistence dairy farming.
   
   Under this, limited milk handling techniques are used and there is little dairy management knowledge, lack of financial capital and poor access to dairy markets. Most dairy farmers are living in rural areas that are hard to reach due to lack of infrastructure (roads, electricity, and cooling facility).
   
   The second characteristic is seasonal volatility in milk production by small-scale milk producers. Peak production is only during the rainy season, between December and July; and low or lean production is during the dry season between August and November, where milk production is low due to shortage of foliage and water.
   
   The third characteristic is lack of competitiveness in the industry due to deficiency in existing dairy value chain. The value chains of formal and informal markets are fragmented with a large number of players at each stage. This creates conflict that a profit in one part is often made at the expense of the other parts of the value chain. To develop a sustainable high performing dairy sector, it is necessary to address the whole value chain from milk production to consumption.
   
   Owing to poor infrastructure, seasonal fluctuation of demand for fresh milk, collection problems and perishability of milk, development and promotion of small-scale processing technologies is critical to increasing smallholder producers’ participation in the dairy market. Smallholder producers are also facing many constraints blamed for low production and productivity.
   
   Mariki said lack of profitability of dairy farming enterprises for example shortage of land for cattle keeping, high cost inputs, lack of capital and access to improved technologies and the generally poor management standards. Low quality and seasonal unavailability of feed, especially during dry season, likewise remain major constraints to livestock production in the country. There is a need for policies that facilitates sustainable increase of productivity in smallholder dairy farms.
   
   On the new initiative for the dairy sector, EADD regional director Moses Nyabila says the project is a ten-year initiative. Phase One of the project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a USD43 million grant, kicked off in 2008 and is expected to end this year. So far, it has impacted directly on the lives of more than 170,000 small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, exceeding its objective of doubling their dairy incomes.
   
   He adds that in Phase Two, which will begin next year, the EADD plans to expand to include Tanzania and Ethiopia. Moses explains that the Foundation has expressed interest in supporting the dairy industry in the country under the EADD2.
   
   Tanzania Dairy Board chief executive officer Charles Mutagwaba explains the major difference between the two phases is that, in Phase Two of the EADD, a wide range of partners, including farmers, processors, the government and development partners, are expected to invest alongside the Foundation to enable the desired changes to happen.
   
   A central feature of the EADD approach is creation of farmer-owned and managed hubs. These act as milk collection centres and a link to processors, as well as a link to providers of feed, health, breeding, finance, advice as well as goods, services and information, which are paid for through a check-off system from the monthly milk payments.
   
   Another important feature is national and local level multi-stakeholder platforms where representatives of different stakeholder meetings regularly and jointly diagnose problems to develop mutually beneficial solutions.
   
   In 2010/11 Tanzania produced 1.65 billion litres of milk, of which just 110,000 litres per day, were processed - less than 3 per cent of the total. There is around one-fifth the number of dairy cows in Tanzania compared to Kenya. Per capita consumption of milk is low by global and regional standards, and installed capacity of milk processors is low. Large seasonal variations in amount of milk produced, large size of the country and inadequate roads and power supplies are also issues that were highlighted at the workshop.
   
   The EADD is a regional industry development program implemented by the Heifer International and a consortium of partners, including TechnoServe, ILRI, The World Agro forestry Center (ICRAF) and ABS TCM. The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of an agricultural development grant designed to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Africa and other parts of the developing world so they can lift themselves and their families out of hunger and poverty.

   ---

   ---

Reactions

1. Posted on Sunday 04 November 2012 23:02

   ---

   toky3

   

   
   3 berichten
   Lid sinds October 2012

   ---

   I am writing a term paper on this topic and came across your post which was very helpful. Do you know where I can find more information about this? house of radiators

   ---

   ---