Campaign to Increase Milk Consumption in Tanzania Begins

milk

The Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) has said that it is implementing a plan to increase milk consumption from the current 47 litres per person annually to 60 litres in 2018 and 100 litre by2025.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation recommends that a person consume at least 200 litres of milk annually.

TDB registrar Nelson Kilongozi told BusinessWeek that Tanzania's dairy sector faces a lot of challenges.

According to him, Tanzania has only 780,000 dairy cattle compared with Kenya's 4.2 million. Seventy per cent of milk is produced by indigenous cattle and 30 per cent by improved animals. "There is a huge deficit of milk because the number of dairy cattle is low."Tanzania produces only 2.1 billion litres. He said investment in dairy sector was low because it was difficult to get bank loans.

He noted that infrastructure was another big challenge especially as the country lacked collection sectors for selling milk.

In another development, he said education and technologies were urgently needed to enable livestock keepers to improve production.

TDB plans to increase milk consumption by raising the number of dairy cattle from 780,000 to 3 million by 2025, and ensuring sustainable supply of animal feeds.

"Farmers need to develop a system to grow maize and hay at the same time to ensure cattle have enough food even during dry spells." TDB is also in a process of increasing dairy farms. New projects are being implemented in Mbeya, Iringa, Njombe and Songwe.

Another project, to be implemented by International Fund for Agricultural Development, will start July next year in Southern Highlands. It will be incorporated in the government system to train herders on how to look for markets.

Mr Kilongozi noted that a process has also started to form a Dairy Development Forum where TDB will coordinate the platform.

"The platform's main functions will include looking for dairy solutions as well as bringing together stakeholders to find solutions collectively."

According to him, TDB is also implementing a livestock mirror project that will be a platform for discussing dairy products and looking for way forward.

Meanwhile, Tanga Fresh technical manager Adam Gamba said the government needed to formalise the sector and ensure adequate milk supply the year round. He said during the rainy season Tanzania normally experiences a milk glut. 

But the supply to dairy factories becomes inadequate during the dry season with the public buying directly from dairy farmers at high prices. "Currently, milk supply is extremely low."