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The Tanzania Association of Pig Farmers (Tapifa) has said the East African nation imports 52,000 tonnes of pork annually and called for steps for promoting piggery in the country to reduce the imports, which acts as a drain on its foreign exchange resources.
The Tanzania Association of Pig Farmers (Tapifa) has said the East African nation imports 52,000 tonnes of pork annually and called for steps for promoting piggery in the country to reduce the imports, which acts as a drain on its foreign exchange resources.
Tapifa, an apex private sector organisation that advocates for the growth and competitiveness of the pig farming industry in the country, said that Tanzania was only producing 27,000 tonnes of pork annually, which is too short to meet its burgeoning demand.
Tapifa secretary Collins Ritenga in a meeting between pig farmers and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recently held in the Mbeya region in Tanzania’s southern highlands, said that piggery was an important occupation of people in the highlands and a way of living for many small farmers.
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Pig farming is carried out by smallholder farmers, involving over 500,000 rural households. They represent about 22.4% of agricultural households. Most pigs are kept in high-altitude areas, where the human population density is high and the land is of high agricultural potential. Piggery also sustains 1,436 enterprise units. There are approximately two million pigs distributed throughout the country, 82% of which are owned by smallholders.
