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Govt to modernise animal husbandry in Shinyanga
2006-03-10 14:51:06
By Anceth Nyahore, PST, Shinyanga
The Ministry of Livestock Development has tailored a special programme to train farmers on modern techniques in animal husbandry in Shinyanga Region.
Speaking at different occasions, the Deputy Minister for Livestock Development, Dr Charles Mlingwa, said the third phase government was determined to fundamentally reform livestock keeping.
He noted that it is high time farmers abandoned pastoralism for modern sedentary animal farming with high returns.
The minister regretted that pastoralism had turned livestock keepers into slaves of their herds.
Dr Mlingwa, who is also the MP for Shinyanga Urban made the remarks while addressing Kizumbi, Ibinzamata, Mjini and Ngikolo wards residents during a thanks-giving visit.
He said livestock keeping had tremendously contributed to environmental degradation in the country, and a source of land conflict between them and the peasants.
The deputy minister said under the new programme, livestock keeping would be strictly tailored for profit making.
He regretted that at the moment, because of the traditional pastoralism, livestock keepers in the country were benefiting nothing from animal rearing , a fact he attributed to outdated techniques in animal husbandry.
In the envisaged scheme, the minister said, the government is to establish small-scale milk processing plants in the region, which will be buying milk from the farmers and processing it for sell.
This, he noted, would in the first place provide a consistent market for the farmers besides increasing income for them.
Dr Mlingwa said the government was conducting a survey to establish the viability of and scouting for an investor to complete the Old Shinyanga meat processing and packaging factory whose construction stalled way back in the 1970s.
Dr Mlingwa urged Tanzanians develop a culture of consuming milk, saying the figure of locals doing so was dismal compared to Uganda and Kenya.
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