Fresh impetus for BBT initiative

THE much touted Building a Better Tomorrow (BBT) initiative, has received a fresh impetus after a local firm expressed its intent of supporting the new agricultural development initiative.

Silverlands Tanzania, a local company producing quality chicks and feed for local farmers, yesterday said it was ready to support the government’s initiative, particularly on the poultry farming component.

The move, according to Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Abdallah Ulega will not only guarantee enough jobs for women and youth in the country, but also improve nutrition in Tanzania.

“The government is very much grateful to the company for supporting BBT in the area of livestock and fisheries,” explained MrUlega, shortly before inaugurating Silverlands’ Hatchery Unit at Usa River area yesterday.

The Minister said the decision by the local producer of chicks will cushion women against the pangs of what he described as ‘blood draining loan schemes’.

Mr Ulega was quick to point out how such schemes had dealt women huge blows, in their quests of making ends meet.

“This is a low hanging fruit for a women and youth,” he said.

The BBT seeks to promote Tanzanian youth’s engagement in agribusiness for sustainable and improved livelihoods.

The government decided to establish the scheme as a response to the challenge of a lack of access to land and agricultural financing for youth.

The $46million hatchery which is perched on the part of the otherwise posh Dolly Estate in Arusha has a capacity of producing 280,000 chicks in a week, meeting the ever growing demand of eggs and chicken in the region.

In the same vein, the Minister directed livestock experts to monitor the proliferation of hatcheries in Tanzania.

“Short of this, we will end up compromising quality of our products,” he cautioned.

Mr Ulega also called on stakeholders in the Poultry subsector to provide the government with useful information and tips on how best to formulize and streamline it.

In his remarks, the firm’s Board Chairperson Dr Ben Moshi said the launch of the hatchery signaled the transformation in the livestock sector.

He equally urged the government to tame smugglers of chicken hatchlings, saying the practice was curtailing the growth of local producers.

The Poultry Subsector in Tanzania consists of approximately 72 million chickens, emerging steadily both in indigenous and exotic chicken.

With changing eating habits in urban areas and a growing economy the domestic market for exotic chicken and eggs is likely to keep expanding.

Nonetheless, the subsector is still grappling with a number of challenges including illegal breeding of grandparent stocks, higher poultry feed prices, a glut of frozen chicken meat imported from other countries, and a lack of coordination among the ministries of agriculture and that of livestock and fisheries.