COLLECTION CENTRES WILL BOLSTER MILK INDUSTRY

In 2020, the Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) revealed that it was working on a strategy to increase milk collection centres (MCCs), especially in rural Tanzania. The primary objective of the strategy, the Board said in the national capital Dodoma on October 16, 2020, was to “heighten the country’s milk collection capacity, which would almost automatically see milk processing factories increase, thus raising the output of milk and other dairy products”.

Official statistics showed that there were at least 99 milk processing factories across the country, with a combined capacity to process 865,600 litres per day.

But, basically due to low production of milk by dairy farmers, compounded by related adversities, the industries were operating at a measly 23.52 percent of their installed capacity – processing ,as they do, only 203,600 litres a day.

Also, direct delivery of fresh/raw milk by farmers to usually far-off processing plants is hampered by poor transport infrastructure, compounded by the lack of proper handling/preserving facilities, including refrigeration.

According to TADB, the proposed MCC system would provide an appropriate platform for fast and equitable marketing transactions between farmers and processors.

Most unfortunately, however, the proposed collection centres are yet to become a reality on the ground, an issue that was raised during the Question-and-Answer session of the ongoing parliamentary sitting in Dodoma.

In response, the Deputy Minister for Industries and Trade, Mr Exaud Kigahe, said consultations with private sector operators were still ongoing regarding how best to operationalise the system.

Fair enough, we say… But, there’s no doubt that a functional MCC platform, as well as the right education and support for all stakeholders – including small milk producers and pastoral communities across the land – would go a long way in boosting the dairy industry’s value chain, and the economy at all levels.

So, we wish the government success in implementing the MCC project in the best interests of the country and its people.

TIME FOR DEEP REFLECTION

By the Will of Mother Nature, sick people are our lot – and, as such, Pope John Paul II (October 16, 1978–April 2, 2005) did well to establish Word Day of the Sick.

For, it was on May 13, 1992 that the Pope “instituted February 11 as World Day of the Sick as a day for prayer and sharing; of offering one’s suffering for the good of the (Catholic) Church, and of reminding everyone to see in their sick brother or sister the face of Christ”.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of World Day of the Sick, and the message from the Holy See in the Vatican expresses gratitude for the “many advances made over the years... Yet, there is still a long way to go in ensuring that all the sick – and also those living in places and situations of great poverty and marginalisation – receive the health-care they need”…

So, let the world join together on this day to express gratitude for the progress made in therapeutic technologies that benefit our sick today and well into the future.

This is more so the case in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic whose mutating coronavirus continues to take its toll on humanity as well as national and global economies.