The government in Tanzania is establishing an electronic system that keep records of cattle in a bid to improve quality of meat in the country. This was announced by the country’s Director of Research, Education and Extension Services from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Dr Hurbert Lyimo.
According to Lyimo, the system which is new in Tanzania will also enable a number of things including identifying livestock according to regions and tracing the animals. He said this when a team of officials from the ministry paid a visit to a family owned exemplary and demonstration livestock ranch called Lushu Ranch located in Mafizi , Kisarawe district in Coast Region.
Dr Lyimo said special gadgets will be fitted to the animals, that will have special identification numbers for regions, districts, village and farm where the animal is kept, which will make it possible to show all details of the animals in Tanzania including medical ones which are important when accessing international meat markets.
The Director of Livestock Production and Marketing, Mrs Anuciate Njombe, acknowledged that there is a challenge of quality of meant in the livestock keeping industry in Tanzania. She said there is a need for the public to pay for good quality meat instead of the current situation where livestock keepers with high quality cattle are forced to get same prices with those with low quality cattle.
Lushu Ranch, headed by Mr Mabula Charles, the director and Chairman, in 2014 scooped the first prize at the Nanenane Agricultural shows with the best and high quality cattle category, this year the ranch came second in the same.
Mr Charles detailed the number of challenging the Ranch is facing including accessing markets within and outside the country due to lack of high quality Slaughter house in Dar es Salaam and a proper system that can enable keep records of animals which is important when selling to International Hotels within the country and the outside market.
