Livestock: The Undermined Investment Opportunity in Tanzania

 Being one of countries with the most fertile lands in sub Saharan Africa, Tanzania is believed to be home to abundant natural resources.  One of these natural resources is enough fertile land which is yet to be explored to the advantage of its natives. Although the policy makers and researches have repeatedly insisted that Agriculture could be the main gate out of poverty, little has been done to boost livestock investment in Tanzania.

Shocking and contradicting statistics on Livestock
According to the latest statistics, Tanzania ranks 11^th in the world’s cattle population and 3^rd in Africa after Ethiopia and Sudan. Experts believe that cattle population could be even higher if serious intervention is done.
Despite ranking the 3^rd in Africa Tanzania is yet to realize the full benefits of having high number of livestock. According to latest calculation made on data from ITC and UN COMTRADE Tanzania raked 20^th in Africa’s value of meat exported. These statistics are contrary to what could be expected from the population of cattle Tanzania has.

Some possible explanations

Although there could be other reasons for poor performance of the livestock investments  in Tanzania, lack of favorable policies seem to be the most obstacle to investors in the live stock.
For example, a study (Urassa; 2013 accessed on http://www.best-dialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/TAMPA_VAT_BASELINE_STUDY_09_2013.pdf?x82837 ) shows how it is difficult to comply with requirements for investing in milk processing in Tanzania. For instance the study shows that, it will require an investor to comply with more than 17 regulators before starting a milk processing factory. The study further shows that in diary sector alone:

·         The country has lost 9,601 jobs per annum as a result of decline in the capacity of the dairy sector.

·         The country also loses the income tax amounting TZS 12.91 billion per annum due to declining performance of the sector.

·         About 76,577 jobs and the income tax amounting 103 billion are lost due to failure to process at least 50% of the milk produced in the country.

·         The cost of compliance would be over TZS 3.3 billion if the industry is restored to its previous capacity

What should be done then?

It is time now for researchers, policy makers, non state actors and the government to join hands in creating favorable environment that could attract investors (local and foreign) in livestock subsector.