FAO.org

“Total annual milk production in Tanzania is about 2 billion litres of which 90% is consumed domestically or goes wasted, meaning that this huge percentage do not contribute to the economic development of the country“, explained Nelson Kilongozi from the Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB), the Board which co-chaired the final FAO INVESTA national stakeholder workshop on 18^th July 2017 at the FAO office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The workshop was organized within the framework of the INVESTA (Investing in Energy Sustainable Technologies in the Agrifood Sector) project, a two-year FAO project launched in 2015 to support the development of clean energy solutions in the agrifood sector in countries that lack access to reliable, affordable and clean energy. The project developed a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) methodology applicable to energy technologies in food value chains, which has been applied to specific energy interventions in the milk, vegetable and rice value chains in four pilot countries: Kenya, the Philippines, Tanzania and Tunisia.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and validate the preliminary results of the CBA for milk and vegetable technologies at country level, discussing and analyzing the still-existing barriers which prevent the uptake of such technologies, support interventions, and delivery models. It gathered stakeholders from the public, private and financial sector. They underlined the relevance of cold storage technologies to avoid post-harvest losses and discussed the possibility of follow-up activities to facilitate the adoption of renewable technologies for milk cold storage.

According to Alessandro Flammini, Natural Resources Officer at FAO, post-harvest losses are between 30% to 40% in Tanzania due to poor access to markets, poor milk handling practices and a lack of access to modern energy to cool and preserve milk. Often, the ‘evening milk’, which can be over 1/3 of the total milk milked during the day, is spoiled due to lack of chilling facilities at household level.

The demand for milk and milk products is estimated to more than double by 2020. FAO is working closely with Tanzanian Dairy Board to promote clean energy solutions for the improvement of the Tanzanian milk value chain.

The findings of the workshop will lead to recommendations which might be adopted by financing institutions or governments when supporting the introduction of sustainable energy interventions in the agrifood chain. This will be discussed further at the INVESTA international workshop at FAO Headquarters in November.