Minister reads riot act over livestock branding exercise

From DAILY NEWS Reporter in Dodoma

LIVESTOCK and Fisheries Minister, Mr Luhaga Mpina, has issued a stern warning to some leaders in local government authorities countrywide, whom he accused of sabotaging the ongoing national livestock marking campaign.

According to him, some of the officials have been issuing false reports to indicate that a large number of livestock in respective areas have been branded and yet the situation on the ground is different.“My ministry will conduct inspections in all districts and assess the situation after the deadline of the exercise in March, this year,” Mr Mpina, flanked by his deputy, Mr Abdallah Ulega, explained.
Towards the end of last year, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa directed all district councils to brand livestock in the respective areas. The exercise is aimed at identifying, registering and monitoring livestock movement in the country. The livestock branding is being undertaken in accordance to Identification, Registration and Monitoring of Livestock Act Number 12 of 2010 and its regulations of 2011.
The branding exercise, which will be continuous, aims at enabling authorities to identify all livestock in Tanzania, controlling outbreak of livestock diseases and curbing cattle rustling and illegal movement of livestock from neighbouring countries.
“After the assessment of the branding exercise at the expiry of the deadline, stern legal and disciplinary actions await any official in the local authorities who will be found to have cheated by issuing false statistics of branded livestock,” Mr Mpina warned.
The Minister issued the instructions during a visit he made with his deputy and officials from the ministry at Kizota cattle auction, where he was assessing implementation of the branding exercise. He went on and directed regional and district commissioners to oversee implementation of the marking campaign in their areas, stressing that there wouldn’t be any room for excuses after the deadline.
As of March 11, this year, Mr Mpina said 16,744,355 out of 17,390,090 cattle in the country; representing 96.3 per cent have been marked countrywide. During the exercise - 51,494 donkeys were also branded. “Last time I visited Pugu livestock auction in Dar es Salaam and when I checked on branded animals they were less than five per cent. The situation is the same at Kizota, where hardly two per cent of the cattle were branded.
“The two scenarios prove that there is massive cheating on the statistics by district councils since Pugu and Kizota are the largest livestock auctions in the country,” he observed. Preliminary reports indicate that between December 2017 and March 11, this year, 85 district councils had accomplished the exercise by 100 per cent, while 86 others had executed the exercise at between 50 and 100 and four councils were under 50 per cent.
The Minister mentioned the four districts as Kasulu, Madaba, Arusha and Meru, all of which have high numbers of dairy cattle which will be ear tagged. Initially, the marking exercise was scheduled to end on January 31, this year, but it was extended to March 31, this year, to enable districts to implement the branding.
Mr Mpina explained that the extension of the campaign enabled 14 district councils to execute the branding by 100 per cent, while the number of districts with between 50 and 100 per cent reduced from eight to four.