07 January 2024
Teagasc in Tanzania
Paul Maher & Padraig French discuss an agricultural development project, titled ‘Maziwa Faida’ funded by Irish Aid in collaboration with partners in Tanzania, aimed at enhancing dairy production research & extension capabilities in the Tanga region to benefit small dairy farming households.
Teagasc staff have been working on an agricultural development project in collaboration with partners in Tanzania over the last two years. Tanzania is a vast country that is more than 10 times the size of Ireland with an estimated population of 66m people and an estimated cattle herd of 28m. The project title “Maziwa Faida” which translates from Swahili to English as “Successful Dairying”. The project is funded through Irish Aid / Embassy of Ireland, Tanzania and is based around the Tanga region in North East Tanzania.
The project funds a two-way collaboration between Teagasc (led by Dr Padraig French, Teagasc Moorepark) and TALIRI, a government funded agricultural research centre focused on dairy production in Tanga (led by Dr Zabron Nziku).
The overall objective of the project is to help to TALIRI to build capacity and capabilities in dairy production research and extension to benefit the many small dairy farming households. The project has funded some new activities in the TALIRI Tanga research centre, to improve the quality of forage production and conservation, improve data for management and breeding as well as supporting innovation on farm through demonstration and education.
The majority of dairy production in the region comes from pastoral systems and small 1-4 cow herds. The pictures below give a sense of the change in the region during the dry and rainy seasons.
Cows at TALIRI out grazing on a new area of improved forage funded through the project.
Mixed dairy cow breeds sheltering under trees during a period of heat drought and fodder scarcity in the TALIRI Tanga Research Centre.
On family farms, many of the dairy herds are “housed” full time to protect animals from heat and predators. The system is laborious with forages “cut and carried” to feed the cows. It can also be difficult to manage forage quantity and quality in this type of system and this is a key focus of the outreach activity on the project.
The lady in centre right of picture has two cows in a pen behind her with forage “cut and carried” to feed the cows.
The project has enabled a two way movement of agricultural knowledge and expertise between Ireland and Tanzania which has improved the understanding of the collective challenge to develop climate smart systems of food production.
Tanzanian group discuss forage breeding with Dr Pat Conaghan Teagasc Oak Park.
So far the project team have made some excellent progress on quality forage production and conservation as demonstrated by the pictures below. There will be increased activity on the Outreach part of the project in the next three years.
Feeding out some of the high quality conserved forages developed as part of the project.