Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Abdallah Ulega made the remarks here when speaking at a forum which brought together religious organisations, pastoralists and farmers to discuss various issues related to improvement of social services. The event was held at Kambala village in Mvomero district.

He said the fifth phase government has been working to end the farmers/pastoralists conflicts with the purpose of enhancing productivity of livestock products. He said the conflicts were contributing into poor performance of the sector thus affecting its contribution to the national income.

Data from the ministry indicates that Tanzania is rich in livestock resources with 32.2 million cattle. The country is endowed with 20 million goats, 5.5 sheep, 2 million pigs and 636,997 donkeys. He said there are also 79.1 million chickens of which 38.5 million are traditional chicken breeds and 40.6 million broilers.

According to data from Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) the livestock sector contributes 7.4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) whereby 30 percent of it is from the dairy industry.

“The sectors’ 7.4 percent contribution to the GDP is small, the trend was partly contributed with the existing conflicts. The agriculture sub-sector should contribute more since our country is among the leading African countries with a big number of domestic animals,” said the Deputy Minister adding the government is now constructing ponds and cattle dipping facilities at different regions.

He added: “We are also establishing milk collection centers in milk producing regions to ensure all the milk is taken to processing factories”, said Ulega calling upon livestock keepers to utilize the available market in major cities such as Dar es Salaam.