By ADAM IHUCHA-- The East African region may be newly rich in oil and natural gas reserves, but the regional assembly, sees livestock as critical to improving the lives of the average citizen.

As such, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) last week agreed to develop a regional livestock bill to govern and unlock the economic potential of the industry.

Once enacted, the legislation will spearhead harmonization of livestock national laws, control livestock trans-boundary diseases and ensure sufficient budget allocation for the industry.

Idea is to have harmonized regional veterinary regulations for the registration of immunologicals (vaccines) and to allow mutual recognition of approvals of veterinary vaccines assessed by one regulatory agency.

Bobi Odiko, EALA Senior Communication Officer says that the idea was emanated from the report of Oversight Study Mission, which assessed policy and production constraints affecting the livestock sector in the region.

The proposal in the report tabled at the just ended EALA session in Kampala, by the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chairperson, Isabelle Ndahayo, was endorsed by majority of MPs.

In terms of the findings, the report indicates that currently out of the budgetary allocation of 10 percent allocated to agriculture and livestock, less than 3 percent is often availed in most of the cases.

“Poor control of trans-boundary animal diseases at EAC border posts is also a major threat to livestock in the region” reads the EALA brief report.

For instance, more recently, Tanzania become a victim of trans-boundary animal disease, where African swine fever claimed over 4000 pigs worth Tsh 1.4 billion ($875,000) between mid-January and April 2013.

The Committee thus urges the EAC Partner States to take advantage of the research undertaken by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to benefit the national livestock development programmes. 

The Secretariat is also tasked to fast track the finalization and operationalization of the Livestock Protocols.

Livestock Industry

The study further reports that there is limited knowledge about the potential for livestock production in the Partner States. 

Indeed, the EAC region has enormous livestock that could contribute substantially to the economies and livelihoods of particularly rural poor who form a large share of the regional population.

EAC latest statistics shows that currently the regional livestock population is estimated at 278 million, placing the trading bloc as one of the richest in livestock resources on the continent.

Breakdown indicates that the EAC is home to 53.7 million cattle, 63 million goats, 27.7 million sheep, 6.5 million pigs, 124 million poultry and 3.1 million camels.

EAC Senior Livestock and Fisheries officer, Timothy Wesonga says that livestock in the EAC region, to a great extent, utilizes marginal rangelands that cannot be utilized for crop production, though there is a small, but well developed intensive livestock production system for dairy, poultry and wool and pig.

However, the region’s livestock potential is not fully exploited and a lot needs to be done to improve the per capita consumption and also increase the export earnings.

The EAC available data shows that on average the livestock sector contributes 15 percent to the GDP of the region.

It produces 869,100 metric tones of meat, 4,619 metric tones of milk, 4,724,902 pieces of hides and 8,947,357 pieces of sheep and goatskins.

The regional average per capita consumption of meat and milk products is estimated at 9 Kg and 35 Kg respectively, which represents 19 percent of the per capita consumption of both commodities as recommended by the FAO.

Official data shows that livestock sales in Tanzania amounted to Tsh775 billion ($496.79 million) in the 2011/12 financial year, up from Tsh423.9 billion ($271.73 million) collected a year before -- being a 45 per cent increase.

The increase resulted from higher animal service and meat demand, whereby cattle, goat and sheep were sold widely in the country in the period under review.

Immediate former Minister of Livestock development and Fishery, Dr. Mathayo David Mathayo says that the livestock export value, mostly sold to Comoro, Zambia and the DRC soared from Tsh965.4 million ($618846) in 2010/11 to Tsh3.81 billion ($2.44million) 2011/2012.

Kenya, for instance, with 14 million cattle produces 320,000 tonnes of beef annually worth $895 million accounting for half of EAC’s production.

Deputy Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Thomas Dulu says on average, Kenya also produces a total of 84, 000 tonnes of mutton and goat meat worth $235 million.

Again, Kenya processes 1.2 million liters of milk per day compared to 150,000 liters for Tanzania and 450,000 liters for Uganda.

Kenya’s per capita milk consumption stands at 100 liters per year compared to 50 liters and 36 liters respectively for Uganda and Tanzania.

EALA therefore wants the Partner States to rope in on the best practices and replicate the same in their respective countries. 

“The EAC Secretariat is also needs to equip its Livestock section adequately to enable it efficiently play its co-ordination role” says EALA member Ms Ndahayo.