As part of the development of a new CGIAR research program on Livestock, ILRI and partners held a face to face event with stakeholders and partners in Tanzania on 23 February 2016 to discuss, validate and improve elements of the draft proposal. The format was informal, with group discussion of questions following a general introductory presentation. The rough points and notes from the discussions are posted below.

About 35 livestock experts and representatives from the private sector, civil society, researchers, livestock keepers and government participated following the launch of the Tanzania Livestock Master Plan Kick-start meeting on 23 February 2016 at Blue Pearl Hotel in Dar es Salaam.

Following a general plenary discussion, each participant was asked to respond to at least one question in each of the four clusters covering:  1. “Why livestock”,  2. “Challenges (diversity and complexity)”,  3.“Research that delivers development outcomes and impacts/ integration of solutions, multiple balances and trade-offs”,  and 4. “Imperatives for delivery”.  Below are verbatim responses to from the participants:

Cluster 1: Why livestock:  with respect to Tanzania…

1. How could the assessment of livestock related opportunities to address development challenges be strengthened?

• Strengthening could be done through: Multi-stakeholder involvement and giving priority to action research (research should come from the beneficiaries, not donor driven agenda).
• Deploy multi-stakeholder process effectively
• The missing thing is most smallholders are engaged in dairy rather than fattening
• Research has to be coupled with adoption studies
• Assessment of livestock related opportunities to address development challenges could be strengthened through: Involvement of stakeholders in various activities/many options within the value chains, producers, processors, traders/input suppliers and product traders/sellers, consumers, policy makers/politicians, academia/research institutions/scientists and mobilizing resources required for implementation, monitoring and evaluation and upscaling of successful interventions.

2. Does the focus on smallholders make sense? (Yes/No). Is anything crucial missing?

• The smallholder makes sense because they are the majority and if capacitated can make an impact. They could form groups for collective bulking of their produce.
• Yes if they get: Finance, education by livestock officers and ready market for their products.
• About 98% of the livestock producers are smallholder so it is necessary to focus on them to drive commercialization.
• In Tanzania focusing on smallholders makes sense because they are the majority (more than 75%) dealing in livestock/agricultural activities, so transformation should start with them.
• Focus on smallholders makes sense because majority livestock keepers own a maximum of 6 cattle *the missing item is using formal record keeping at household level. This will help to monitor their herds and externally by stakeholders (researchers, consultants, policy makers).
• Focus on smallholders makes sense but they should be facilitated/educated/sensitized to change into medium/large scale.
• Yes, because they are the key players in livestock production in Tanzania.
• Smallholder makes sense but also focus on medium and large scale
• Yes, the focus on smallholder makes sense but the crucial thing is how to organize them into collective action to access business development services
• However a smallholder should be taken as a farmer with producers beyond subsistence, should produce for the market.
• Critical issues missing: How does the smallholder farmer influence the research agenda and how best can the results from the research agenda trickle back to the smallholder farmer in the absence of strong ‘farmer-research-extension linkage? What ought to be done better than is the case today.
• Yes: Use farmer organizations for easy research interventions at grassroots to national level and problem identification.
• Focus on education on husbandry practices and change of mindset (keeping livestock for market value)
• Yes because their total adds to the larger national herd
• It makes sense, most livestock farmers are smallholder farmers but what is missing is the link producers in some areas are few and only produce for subsistence not for business. Lack of value chain where there are producers but no market. In the case of meat, we will need to export as this will have a pull effect. Surplus milk need to be collected, processed and sold.
• Yes, because the majority of livestock keepers are smallholders who keep less than 6 dairy cattle but you have to include the indigenous livestock keepers in the definition.
• Supporting smallholder production makes sense, but medium and large scale commercial production (dairy ranches, cattle fattening, poultry etc.) should also be supported by creating favorable policy and business environment.
• Socio-economic research is important to develop contract farming in livestock, that is medium or large scale commercial farms work with smallholders through provision of technology, extension service, and product processing and value addition.
• Yes more capacity building is required that ensure commercialization of the dairy sub-sector
• Lack of strong dairy cattle keepers’ institutions that are built from the bottom upwards.

3. Are there particular aspects that should be considered?

• Yes: Water, good breed, quality feed and a ready market.
• Consider major resource issues such as land and water to motivate acceptance of livestock mainstream research findings on genetics, feed resources and market.
• Focus on local institutional strengthening e.g. extension system is normally ignored which is fundamental
• The aspects to be considered are quality e.g. capacity building on hygienic milk handling and availability of milk equipment.
• Improve extension services-change the old model methodologies.
• Public health related threats in relation to food safety and hygiene standards
• To make sure we educate our people about using end products and also by reducing the manufacturing costs to make them affordable and available.
• Control importation of counterfeit medicine that discourages farmers as they use their money without getting the desired results.
• The government should advance loans and clearance on imported farm equipment
• Policy changes to ensure farmers get their returns on time in order to pay their bills on time.

Cluster 2: Challenges with respect to Tanzania…

Complexity

4. Does the organization of research for development priorities around trajectories of change miss anything?

• R4D organizations should embark on research on environmental degradation and impact shown to the beneficiaries
• It is missing focus and commitment. Researchers do research to secure income not to deliver.
• Political vs research agenda: does the political will drive on research guided by professional synthesis or research priorities based on data? How do the two merge and harmonize based on evidence-based policy analysis?
• Consider R4D on livestock-crop integration both as enterprises and delivery of integrated extension service provision.
• Modernizing/transforming pastoralist’s production system through value system and participatory approach, business development that suits the pastoral production system.
• Top issues driving research on sustainable intensification of livestock based systems include: Attaining goals-increasing productivity, shelf life and enhancing and sustaining achievements realized after interventions.

5. What are the top issues driving research on sustainable intensification of livestock-based systems?

• Growing demand
• Science and technology advancement
• Decreasing labour force in agriculture and livestock systems in some ecological zones
• Endangered species
• Breed improvement
• Seasonality of feed resources
• Infrastructure for products collection, processing and trading
• Animal health management and disease control
• Inputs and services provision.
• Issues come from the stakeholders that affect the majority such as climate issues, feed, land conflict between livestock keepers and farmers

6. What are the top issues driving research on enhanced resilience for livestock-based livelihoods?

• Building capacity of smallholder farmers/strengthen towards mitigation of climate change

Diversity

7. Which criteria should drive decisions on which value chains or animal species to work on?

• Criteria to drive decisions should come from the beneficiaries and its potential contribution to their income
• Feed resource availability, genetic resources, resistance to diseases and affordability
• The important criteria should be value chain transparency and governance.
• Criteria: Employment, food/nutrition security, environment conservation
• Economic contribution towards stakeholders and the nation at large
• Social value
• Availability/presence of animals in a given population
• Possibility for sustainability of the chosen value chains.
• The value chain that benefits marginalized groups and transforms them with less investments
• Criteria should be on the impact of the value chain in income of the partner
• Criteria: Ecological zone (climatic condition). Dairying in areas with good rain throughout the year, meat production in arid and semiarid zone (ranching of sheep and goat meat). Income: Local chicken for rural poor and commercial poultry production in urban and peri-urban settlements. Gender: Women and children.
• Improved zebu, local chicken and dairy goats. These species are kept by the majority rural people. However other imported species which are affordable to farmers in terms of management cost and resilient to local environment to help boost rural livelihoods.
• Generation gap: Development of ideas generation, analysis, problem solving tactics and uptake to better the situation needs more engagement from both DPs and researcher. Is the message reaching the right people who drive or will drive the economy?
• Women empowerment: Gender inclusion systems in all levels particularly technologies which reduce time and burden of work because in most cases women, who are main producers have multiple roles.
• The criteria should be return on investment- which makes it to be attractive to dairy and beef cattle keepers.
• Criteria that should drive decisions on which value chains species to work on: sustainability in agro-ecological environment, participation and readiness of target farmers and duration/time to take during implementation of interventions.

Cluster 3: Research that delivers development outcomes and impacts / Integration of solutions, multiple balances and trade-offs with respect to Tanzania…

8. Do we have the right ingredients for stepwise, transformative changes leading to sustainable, resilient livestock systems?

• We don’t have the ingredients as most are counterfeits especially animal drugs.
• Yes, a lot of research information on dairy animals genetical improvements, appropriate breeds and cross breeds to use, feeds and feeding management, type of feed for smallholder dairy farmers remains unused in research centres such as TALIRI, ILRI,KARI,SUA and different dairy projects. Using this information and educating on modernization strategies such as using sexed semen can lead to sustainable resilient livestock systems.
• Some land systems are not understood by researchers due to the complex social cultural issues, which impact on economic development.
• Weakness in research delivery is that we stress on research/extension linkage and less on research/production linkage.
• There are no research funders eager to carry out research in a large scale from beginning to the end, so research is not given priority yet we need to have a sustainable source of funds to get transformative changes leading to sustainable resilient livestock systems.

9. Is there anything missing from the portfolio of integrative research?

• Yes: Use large commercial farms pastoralists and agro-pastoralists with large herds to produce cross breeds on contract basis e.g. using sexed semen. Purchase the female weaners at weaning, raise them in farms at puberty inseminate them sell the in calf cross breeds heifers to farmers; then more milk will be produced as a result.
• Missing: Involvement of smallholders/beneficiaries in the development of the research agenda as well as during the research
• The role of the private sector should be to provide inputs and markets, while the public sector provides knowledge and information.
• Issue of fertilizer, breeds
• Researchers in Tanzania are doing donor driven research for funds not to meet demand from the local livestock sector.
• Critical analysis of previous efforts and strategies or inclusiveness of previous and targeted interventions and ignoring local/indigenous knowledge and experiences

10. How best can we integrate capacity development, gender and communications?

•  The only way is to build abattoirs and fix them with cold rooms to protect meat, grade and package meat to add value
• In case 9 is achieved through a hub like the Tanga fresh the hub can purchase in calf heifers, distribute them to women and youth on check off system on their milk.
• Using focus group discussions and extensive services
• Capacity development: This area needs supported, well trained and equipped extension staff, which is the role of government through local government authorities which unfortunately have not showed interest to develop or support.
• Gender: This is not a physical being it involves training different groups to understand and believe in themselves. We need to set a fair ground and let them compete without doing it politically.
• Communication: This can be done by use of groups, focus groups and radio programmes
• Involve women in all activities along the value chain
• Use of extension so that the finding can reach out to large numbers of stakeholders.
• Focus on women/gender interventions on the value chains.
• Building capacity of youth involvement in livestock
• Mass campaigns to communicate and change mindsets/perceptions.
• Capacity development, gender integration and communication should be streamlined for each commodity value chain e.g. dairy milk, meat, poultry, fish etc.)
• Research for development on ICT platform to strengthen information sharing

Cluster 4: Imperatives for delivery: with respect to Tanzania….

11. What other assumptions about the game-changers in delivery – capacity, gender, youth…. are needed?

• Capacities, gender, youth are needed; investment in form of equipment and technologies are needed as game changers

12. What are key roles for private sector and public sector?

• Both private and private sector should be ready to contribute /make appropriate financial investment financial investment to derive more output and to finance commercialization of research results.

13. Are there any key categories of partners missing from the mix?

• Livestock producer communities are missing.
• Investors and financial service providers are not adequately integrated and are missing because they don’t have the right information on LPS
• It is important to include demonstration in research so that stakeholders can see and believe what is going on.
• Development partners in business and marketing capacities is not appearing in the list so we propose the partners to appear (i.e. Faida MaLi)