Welcoming the Nigerian Mission at his office, the Permanent Secretary said the Tanzania’s Livestock Master plan focuses on six areas
DODOMA. A delegation from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Livestock Development arrived in the country to learn from Tanzania’s Livestock Master Plan (LMP) as the West African state eyes to boost productivity in its sector.
The delegation, led by the Ministry’s national director Dr Ishiyaku Mohamed Musa, visited the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in Dodoma on Tuesday and was welcomed by the docket’s Permanent Secretary Prof Riziki Shemdoe before conducting a field visit on the outskirts of the city.
Welcoming the Nigerian Mission at his office, the Permanent Secretary said the Tanzania’s Livestock Master plan focuses on six areas including breed improvement, pastures/water and animal health which throws weight behind the national vaccination programme.
To counter a total of 13 diseases, he stated, the government has set aside approximately 28bn/- for execution of the national wide vaccination programme thanks to the President Samia Suluhu Hassan endorsement.
“Under the Livestock Transformation Plan, we are determined to improve extension services by equipping extension officers with working gears including motorcycles to reach out livestock keepers and ICT equipment to enhance collection of key information,” Prof Shemdoe stated.
He also stated that the plan also highlights value addition in the sector and improvement of the business environment.
Following the improvement of the country’s business environment, Prof Shemdoe stated meat export has increased for the past three years from 1,700 tonnes only to 15,000 tonnes per year.
With improved business environment and proper execution of the transformation plan, he added, the Government of Tanzania target is to increase meat exports to 50,000 tonnes annually.
On his part, Dr Musa thanked Tanzania’s Ministry of Livestock for welcoming the Nigerian delegation to learn from the country as the West African state is in the preparation of developing their plan to transform its livestock sector.
Apart from how Tanzania faced challenges in transforming the livestock sector, the Nigerian official stated that the visit also aimed to share their experience to improve the livestock sector in both countries as well as the continent at large.
“We hope that we will learn a lot and we appreciate the warm welcome,” he said.
On the other hand, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) regional representative for Eastern and Southern Africa, Amos Omore thanked the government for supporting the sector.
The ILRI rep said that with improved extension services will benefit young men and women because they will be reached for exploitation of opportunities available in the subsector.
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