Norwegian Dairy Goats in Tanzania

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A project has now been initiated to develop the transfer of Norwegian dairy goat semen to Tanzania. The project aims to help avoid unbalanced diets by increasing the share of animal protein in the daily diets of local Tanzanians.

Tanzania is one of the main partner countries for Norwegian foreign aid. The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) cooperates closely and successfully with Sokoine Agricultural University, and livestock research is one of the main areas of focus.

For Tanzanian children, it is important to provide enough and better food. Many people have unbalanced diets, and it is therefore important to increase the access to animal protein (meat and milk). There are 14 million goats in the country, and goat meat is considered a delicacy. However, if these goats had produced milk in addition, protein yields would increase substantially. For example, families keeping dairy goats have a protein intake of 20 g per day, while similar families keeping the local meat goats only obtain 1 g of animal protein per day from their goats. The Norwegian dairy goat is the most popular breed in the country. Since their introduction in 1982, the number of Norwegian dairy goats has increased considerably, and live animal prices are high. A Tanzanian worker would have to spend a year’s pay to buy a purebred Norwegian dairy goat or buck.

In a country with small goat flocks and no livestock recording scheme, it is difficult to operate a worthwhile breeding programme. We therefore initiated a new project to link breeding efforts in Norway with those in Tanzania. Goat flocks with registered goats shall be established in Tanzania. These goats will be inseminated with semen from Norway at regular intervals. Male kids from these flocks will then be distributed across all of Tanzania, to be bred with local goats and to renew the genetic material of previously imported dairy goats.

We believe that this model for cooperation is appropriate and will help to lay the foundation for sustainable dairy goat husbandry in Tanzania.

Published: 13.03.06
Updated: 14.05.09
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