Hon. Sumaiye
Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development
Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I feel greatly honoured to have been invited to open this workshop on behalf of Hon. Jackson Makweta, the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, which will be dealing with three themes namely:
1. African forage plant genetic resources
2. Germplasm evaluation
3. Extensive livestock production.
The workshop bears special significance for Tanzania since livestock production plays an important role in the socio-economy of the country.
Thus, on behalf of the United Republic of Tanzania and, on my own behalf, I would like to thank PANESA for deciding to hold this workshop in Tanzania and the organisers for the successful preparation of the workshop. I am glad to note that the workshop has drawn participants from the Eastern and southern African countries and from outside Africa. This, I believe, will provide a unique opportunity for sharing experiences for the common goal of happiness and progress of mankind in Eastern and southern Africa. I would like, in this connection, to take this opportunity again to warmly welcome all the foreign colleagues to Tanzania. It is my sincere hope that you will find your stay comfortable and also that your programme will allow you some time to see and learn more about Tanzania.
Mr. Chairman, I believe I do not need to remind this audience of the seriousness of the food crisis facing Africa. Suffice it to say that our governments are concerned about the consistent decline in food production throughout the continent over the past two decades, a period in which there have been marked increases in food production in the other continents, including the Green Revolution in Asia. our governments are also worried about the upward trend in population growth in Africa, as contrasted with the downward population growth trends in all the other continents over the same period. The combination of these two scenarios has meant that our people, with each passing year, are becoming poorer, hungrier and less well nourished. It has also meant that our governments have, over the years, had to import increasing amounts of cereal grains and livestock products to make up for deficits in domestic food production. In short, the resulting situation has posed a real threat to the continent's political and socio-economic survival.
Can this threat be averted? Mr. Chairman, my answer is yes, even though, I know, the task will not be easy. For in the words of Dr. Carl Eicher, a prominent agricultural economist (Professor of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University, USA), "Africa's agricultural production must be doubled within the next 15 to 20 years to keep up with population growth rates of 3 to 4%". Mr. Chairman, it is my strong belief that solutions for Africa's agrarian crisis will have to be found within Africa, and not from outside Africa. Effective crop and livestock production strategies for the diverse ecological and farming systems in Africa cannot be prepared in Europe or America. Such strategies must emerge from Africa, prepared from results of intensive, long-term research on agricultural production constraints. For, while it is possible and useful to transfer or adapt some existing technology from elsewhere, much of the knowledge needed for agricultural production will be locale-specific, and will have to be generated locally. It is in this context that I think highly of the objectives and activities of your network which are:
1. To strengthen national pasture research capabilities primarily through training and data analytical facilities.2. To procure, disseminate and exchange pasture plant germplasm in the region and from international sources.
3. To evaluate promising pasture plant species/strains for adaptation and production in different ecological zones and agricultural production systems.
4. To develop appropriate pasture production technologies that can be integrated into the prevailing livestock production systems.
5. To collect, disseminate and exchange information.
Mr. Chairman, PANESA is a new network aiming, to use your own words, at improving effectiveness in pasture research in participating countries and expediting the application of improved technology by farmers and graziers at all levels of management. I hope you will keep the network new in its approach towards tackling Eastern and southern Africa's livestock and pasture problems. I hope you will learn from the experience of older professional networks and associations in Africa and avoid their mistakes. For example, due to financial constraints affecting most of our countries, the choice of research projects undertaken by many national research institutions and professional associations and networks has been inspired by donors. Such research does not, if at all, address the true and felt needs and constraints of the host countries and cannot therefore, generate technology that will help transform our agriculture.
Allow me to suggest, therefore, that PANESA should consider, as a matter of urgency, establishing livestock and pasture research priorities and plans within member countries and for the region as a whole. This will not prevent individual researchers from pursuing their own desires but it will, at least, provide guidelines for the allocation of scarce national resources and also for donors to respond to.
Another common weakness of our research systems has been that the results of research are often not accessible both to the end-users (livestock-keepers) and other researchers and scholars outside the boundaries of our countries or regions simply because they are reported in working papers and published in limited numbers of copies. It is my hope that PANESA will concern itself not only with the generation of improved livestock and pasture innovations but also with the adoption of such innovations by the livestock keeper in his environment.
Mr. Chairman, your network is meeting in Tanzania at a time when we are intensifying our efforts in agricultural development. One of our major concerns is to transform the livestock industry so that it can play a greater role in the socio-economy of the country. In particular, we would like the livestock industry to:
1. increase the per capita income of individuals engaged in livestock production, processing and marketing, with emphasis being placed on producers in the traditional sector;2. increase the volume and quality of livestock products to service local industries using livestock products as raw materials as well as generate exportable surpluses and reduce import requirements;
3. increase the production, processing, and marketing of animal protein to meet national nutritional requirements; and
4. increase the use of drought animals, thereby reducing both the use of imported energy on the farm and the human burden.
Ruminant livestock are an important component of the livestock industry in Tanzania. They number over 12 million head of cattle and 10 million head of sheep and goats, distributed over approximately 45,900 sq km of mainly natural grassland. Over 99% of all the cattle, sheep and goats are owned by livestock keepers in the traditional, largely subsistence, sector. Despite the diversity of production systems, this sector has several characteristic features:
1. Grazing resources are utilised communally.2. There is increasing encroachment on grazing land by arable farming which, combined with increasing livestock numbers over the years and periodic droughts, has led to serious land degradation.
3. Productivity of the livestock is low; with calving rates of less than 40%, calving intervals of about 2 years, calf mortality rates in the range of 25-40% and an offtake of less than 10%.
When we talk of transforming the livestock industry in Tanzania, we therefore, essentially mean a multiplicity of transformations in the traditional livestock sector:
- It means transforming the outlook of the livestock keeper from being a subsistence to a commercial producer.- It means serious attempts to preserve the natural rangeland and improve its water resources, and prevent bush fires which destroy the ecology, fauna and flora.
- It means evolving production systems that not only utilize but also conserve grazing resources.
- It means evolving production systems that integrate livestock production with crop production.
- It means developing better adapted, higher yielding and more nutritious forage species.
- It means developing a more productive animal than the one available at present.
- It means establishing more effective production - marketing linkages in the pastoral areas.
- It means evolving land tenure systems that are consistent with improved production systems.
All I am trying to say, Mr. Chairman, is that transformation of the livestock industry in Tanzania and, I believe in most of the PANESA member countries, requires the successful application of a set of technologies appropriate to the millions of small livestock keepers in the traditional sector. The generation and application of these technologies is, I believe, a major need that PANESA must try to meet.
Obviously, this will require execution of long-term, multidisciplinary research projects in which participants include not only research scientists, but also extension workers and livestock keepers as partners in a common endeavour. I am confident that this workshop, which has drawn livestock and pasture experts from within and outside Africa, will go a long way in formulating an agenda aimed at providing effective solutions to livestock and pastures in Eastern and southern Africa.
All that remains for me is to say how grateful I am to have been given this priceless opportunity to be with you this morning, and to wish the workshop all the success that it so rightly deserves.
I am very happy to declare the workshop open.
