‘Milk drinking’ drive launched
The campaign was launched recently during the annual National Milk Promotion Week in Musoma, Mara Region.PHOTO|FILE
What you need to know:
EADD country programme manager Mark Tsoxo said through campaigns such as the recently launched one, milk consumption could be raised.
Dar es Salaam. A campaign to promote the habit of drinking milk among Tanzanians has been launched.
The aim is to make consumers healthy and develop dairy farming.
The drive has been initiated by the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) programme through Heifer International Tanzania
The campaign was launched recently during the annual National Milk Promotion Week in Musoma, Mara Region.
Tanzania has 22.8 million head of cattle, but milk consumption is relatively low. According to the Tanzania Dairy Board chairman, Prof Lusato Kurwijila, Tanzania produces about 28 million litres of milk a day, but only 10 per cent of it is tapped into the formal and informal markets. The remaining 90 per cent of the produced milk is domestically consumed and in some cases economically wasted, therefore insignificantly contributing to dairy development.Tanzania ranks third in East Africa in milk drinking, with per capita consumption of 45 litres per person annually against 130 litres and 80 litres for Kenya and Uganda respectively.
This is because of low awareness on the nutritional importance of milk to the health of human beings, according to Prof Kurwijila.
EADD country programme manager Mark Tsoxo said through campaigns such as the recently launched one, milk consumption could be raised.
“One of the goals of the EADD II programme is to increase dairy production and improve net income for farmers. We believe that as more Tanzanian families take milk, demand for it will increase and raise farmers’ incomes as well,” he said in Musoma recently in a statement.
