Preparations are underway for the 8th Program Planning and Management Committee (PPMC) and the 3rd Science and Partnership Advisory Committee (SPAC) meetings to be held in Tanzania, 10-12 December 2013.

With Tanzania as one the Livestock and Fish value chain countries, various project summaries have been prepared for the PPMC and SPAC members to understand the nature of the program’s work in Tanzania.

Some of the projects contributing to this value chain include:

What is killing my cow? Re-assessing diseases in smallholder dairying in Tanzania (May 2013 – April 2014)
The project aims to re-evaluate dairy diseases in Tanzania by broadening the range of diseases normally assessed in such research. The purpose of the project is to conduct this broader assessment, and understand the links between farm management practices and disease risk.

The project objectives are:

• To create an exhaustive inventory of pathogens found in a sample of dairy cattle from the projects research sites in Tanzania and assess the reliability of disease information collected through questionnaires and participatory epidemiology techniques
• To understand what farm management practices relate to risk of disease dissemination and zoonotic transmission
• To assess participant comprehension of informed consent, using different means of communication.
• To identify farmers’ preferred media and channels of communication for learning about dairy farming.
• To test a decision support tool for the identification of disease in cattle

The project field work is ongoing where to date 188 serum and blood samples have been collected from cattle in 20 villages in Morogoro Region (Mvomero and Kilosa Districts). It is expected that 200 further samples will be collected in 20 villages in Tanga Region (Handeni and Lushoto Districts). Upon completion of field work, various diagnostics will be carried out in the collected samples to detect the presence of different animal and zoonotic pathogens in cattle: Anaplasma, Babesia, Theileria, Mycoplasma, Toxoplasma, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), parainfluenza-3 virus (PI3), Foot and mouth disease (FMD), Leptospirosis, Q fever. The project is funded by GIZ and works in partnership with Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania and Landeslabor Berlin-Brandenburg (LLBB) Germany.

Integrating Dairy Goat and Root Crop Production for Increasing Food, Nutrition and Income Security of Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania (February 2011 – August 2014)
This project seeks to improve food security and human nutrition through an integrated program of dairy goat cross-breeding and goat milk production that is coupled with cassava and sweet potato production for food and feed. Working intensively with more than 120 households in two districts, these food security improvements are introduced through collaborative efforts with households, farmer groups, district extension officers, local non-government organizations and several national and international research agencies.

The general objective of the project is to improve household income, food security and well-being of poor and women-headed households in agro-pastoral communities through the introduction of a community-based crossbreeding program for dairy goats, and improved participatory farm trials for cassava and sweet potato varieties that will contribute to household consumption, animal feed rations, and cash-crops in local markets.

The specific objectives are:

• To improve the milk production potential of indigenous goats through crossbreeding, improved management and control of major diseases.
• To test and evaluate improved sweet potato and cassava varieties that have the dual purpose of improving food security and nutrition at household level and the development of locally available and cost effective rations for dairy goats.
• To investigate the livelihood strategies, production potential, and marketing possibilities of local goats and crops in the study areas.
• To analyse the impacts (productivity, environmental, gender and empowerment, food security and nutrition) of integrating improved goat breeds with sweet potatoes and cassava into and agro-pastoral farming system.

Preliminary findings show that the introduction of dairy goats combined with root crops has in most cases improved the access to milk -particularly for children- in the selected households. However, a root crop system needs to be well established before the introduction of goats to provide goat feed.

The project, in partnership with Sokoine University of Agriculture and the University of Alberta is been funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Safe food, fair food: from capacity building to implementation. Risk based approaches to improving food safety and market access in smallholder meat, milk and fish value chains in four African countries (March 2012 – February 2015)

The project represents the second phase of the Safe Food, Fair Food project, which started in 2008 with Tanzania as one of four target African countries. The overall goal of the project is to protect the health of poor consumers and safeguard livestock-based livelihoods of poor livestock keepers and other value chain actors. The purpose of the project is improved food safety and market access throughout smallholder and informal meat, milk and fish  value chains in sub-Saharan Africa through food safety stakeholders’ and value chain actors’ practical application of risk analysis and social and economic analyses.

Objectives:
•    To assess the contribution of the dairy value chain to the health and nutrition of poor households in Tanzania.
•    To identify steps along the value chain that contribute higher risks for health and nutrition
•    To propose and test interventions to mitigate and reduce those risks and improve health and nutrition in poor households.

Two main complementary activities have been completed to date in this second phase of the project: a rapid integrated assessment of nutrition and safety (RIA) using standardized tools developed by ILRI and its partners and a microbiological safety survey in milk in various points along the milk supply chain in the four district target of this project. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Tanzania project partners are the  Sokoine University of Agriculture and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Germany.

Illustrations credit: ILRI/Birgit Boogaard.