Anecdote
Before I like to start talking about PLANNING I like to share my own experience about the livestock project in Tanga I worked in from 2084 till 2088.
When I signed my contract with the Ministry of Development Cooperation in the Netherlands to work in a dairy training institute, I had no previous experience with dairy husbandry in Tanzania. But of course, no worries, I had a Master in Tropical Livestock Production …. What a mistake that was!
On my arrival at the Institute, I found a very large shed equipped to hold 500 dairy cattle with holding pens and a machine milking parlour. I was told that the shed was intended to train workers from the large sisal estates that had been transformed to dairy farms. Sisal had become uneconomical. Spare parts were ordered in the Netherlands and that process was not without serious problems. The rubbers for the milking machines for example got cracked by the long and hot transport in the containers making the milk sour once fitted at the milking machines caused by bacteria nesting in the cracks.
We decided, despite some resistance from Headquarters, to bend our policy towards smallholder dairy farms. We built 3 example smallholder Units at the institute where each farmer (yes, we allocated a farmer as manager of each Unit) took care for 3 dairy cows. We experimented with Napiergras (Elephant Gras) for zero grazing and even made silage. An ox-trainer was recruited and we ‘introduced’ ox-ploughing. Of course, the curriculum was adjusted, and we started recruiting interested farmers from the villages. They left very satisfied, and the training became very popular. Even the Dutch Embassy heard about the success and came with visitors to show them around.
Not long after the initial successes of the revolutionary shift in approach some ex-participants came to visit us at the institute. They asked us whether they could buy some calves. Of course, that was impossible as we were a Government Institute. But something was triggered inside us and the thinking had started. We took off and visited quite some farmers who had received their training at our institute, and we found that only very few had dairy cattle. We got shocked, but also realized that that was not our responsibility … We were in charge of training, actually. However, the pressure became larger and larger and finally a couple of years later, a new project was initiated elsewhere in the region with the help of the Dutch Government to breed dairy cattle and provide young stock to farmers. Problem solved.
But the complaints kept on reaching us. The market for dairy milk was bad, transport a problem, milk containers and other equipment not available, water in short supply, veterinary services absent, expensive medicines, no grass or concentrates, etc., etc., etc. It appeared endless and a bottomless pit … and none of those requirements were our responsibility ….
Finally we learnt that 87% of the African population seems to be lactose intolerant ….