Rehabilitate all cattle dips, minister orders

Coast. At least 55 per cent of all cattle dips across the country are out of service, the minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Luhaga Mpina, has said, ordering district councils to rehabilitate them.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says until October 2015, Tanzania was home to 25.8 million cattle, 19 million goats, 5.5 million sheep and 1.7 million pigs.

The number of cattle rose to 30.5 million during the 2016/17 financial year, the NBS director general, Dr Albina Chuwa, said in May this year.

But Mr Mpina said here yesterday that the country could be failing to make the most out of its abundant livestock due to absence of dipping facilities closer to where livestock keepers are.

The country has a total of 2,211 dipping facilities for cattle, but out of the number, it is only 1,006 that are currently functioning.

The minister said some of the dipping facilities are owned by the district councils and others are operated by individuals.

In view of that, Mr Mpina issued a four-month ultimatum for district councils to ensure that all cattle dips are rehabilitate and start offering dipping service under their supervision.

“Some district councils do not allocate a budget for rehabilitating the facilities in their areas, but they never stop collecting tax from livestock…This should not be tolerated. If they cannot renovate them, there is no need for them to continue collecting tax from livestock products,” he said shortly after launching a national strategy to control livestock diseases and improve delivery of vaccination and insecticides during an event, which was held at Chamakweza in Coast region.

Apart from launching the project, Mr Mpina also took part in an exercise to dip over 5,000 cattle owned by villagers at Chamakweza.

The pesticides expenses were covered by the ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development.

Mr Mpina said the launched strategy lays the foundation for review of various laws and regulations governing livestock with a view to putting in place procedures that will ensure that medicines, insecticide and vaccination services are made available to farmers. It also seeks to strengthen the Kibaha-based Tanzania Vaccination Institute.