Tanzania: Government to Revive Milk Programme in Schools

By Daily News Reporter in Dodoma

TANZANIA today joins other countries in the world in celebrating the 13th World School Milk Day (WSMD) Anniversary, where four ministries will attend in Kilimanjaro Region.

The ministries to be involved are Education, Science and Technology, Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children and the Ministry of State in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) and will officially declare revival of school milk feeding program in the country.

During the celebration, several pupils from all primary schools within Moshi District Council will celebrate the day at Mashujaa Grounds going with the theme-One glass of milk per day for better health and education.

According to Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) acting Registrar, Noely Byamungu, the day will help in raising awareness in the pupils' population and the general public on the importance of drinking milk on daily basis.

He said while the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends milk for better health, an individual is supposed to consume at least 200liters of milk in a year, seeing a Tanzanian consumption currently at 54 litters annually being low.

He added that the TDB purpose of deciding to revive the school milk feeding programme is a bid to improve milk consumption culture in Tanzania.

"Revival and improvement of school milk feeding programme will automatically push a fresh 'Milk Generation'," Byamungu said.

While observing the day, he said the dairy board has already started distributing free milk sachets to pupils in all primary schools in Kilimanjaro region.

As per the planned logistics, the event will be graced by the host Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner, Anna Mghwira, who will organize a special demonstration on milk drinking and awareness speeches, as well as free distribution of bottles of milk to the participants.

The Registrar further noted that TDB was working around the clock to ensure that milk production in the country improves and consumption is also increased.

Currently, milk production per day in Tanzania is 265,000 littles that is low and doesn't keep pace with the actual demand.

Statistically in 2017/18, Tanzania imported 20,920,537.58LME's Kg, valued at 30,290,485,222/- and 2018/19 the country imported LME's Kg 617,769 worth at 27, 961,44 due to low production of milk within the country