NEW ACTORS IN THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR IN THE KILIMANJARO REGION

Abstract

This paper analyzes the challenges and potential of the livestock sector in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania using fi eld research conducted in Maua village, which is situated on the southern slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The Maua people keep every livestock in a hutch, which should suggest to policy makers the magnitude of the problems they and other pastoralists face with the shift from a grazing to a form of feedlot system. Indeed, smallholder livestock farmers face major problems related to feeding, marketing, and breeding. The Maua people cope with these problems in various ways. The residues of from squeezing boiled bananas to produce the local beer are used as concentrates to supplement grain fed to cattle, and they collect many kinds of roughage such as maize leaves and banana leaves to replace roughage from grazing. The high cost of transporting livestock from lower to higher land also represents a major issue. The Maua people face two options in marketing livestock; one is to sell to a local butcher, and the other is to sell to other farmers. The limited market constitutes the most severe problem and requires further examination. The introduction of a pig project operated by the women, referred to as KIWAKUKI, represents the most intriguing development in response to these problems. This project expanded widely in the studied area, and this paper discusses three effects the project had on those living in the village: supporting victims of HIV/AIDS, empowering women, and spreading the practice of pig keeping. This project placed women, who organized new groups for keeping another type of livestock and for providing mutual help, in new leadership roles. We can see the potential for alternative forms of organization in such new leadership arrangements.