Tanzania Touts for Livestock Sector Transformation

By Xinhua 

September 9, 2023

Tanzania’s Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Abdallah Ulega on Friday announced steps the government was taking to transform the livestock sector.

In a presentation to the Africa Food Systems Forum 2023 in Dar es Salaam, the commercial hub of Tanzania, Ulega said the steps included reviewing the Livestock Policy of 2006 that aims to restrict uncontrolled movement of livestock. He said another step involved enhancing the implementation of grazing land and animal feed resource laws which enable grazing land inspectors to notify livestock keepers to harvest excess livestock in specified areas.

Ulega noted that the government was also promoting the involvement of youth and women along the livestock value chain of milk, meat, pasture, hides and skins.

He said the government was taking various measures to transform nomadic pastoralism into productive and commercial livestock farming to increase the contribution of the livestock sector to food security in the country and across Africa.

Some of the steps being taken by the government included establishing demonstration pasture farms in various districts to educate pastoralists in pasture production and preservation, and educating pastoralists on the importance of individual land ownership for grazing and discouraging nomadic pastoralism.

“The focus is to ensure that livestock are raised according to the carrying capacity of the grazing lands while adhering to the proper timing of livestock harvesting,” he said.

About 95 percent of livestock in Tanzania are indigenous breeds that are raised under the communal grazing system, while the remaining 5 percent are raised in ranches and private lands, according to Ulega.

The communal grazing land has been gradually shrinking and losing its quality due to various factors, including the increasing human and livestock population, he said.