Browsing by Author "Mwakalobo, A. B."

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    Animal health constraints perceived to be important in Kilosa and Gairo Districts, Morogoro, Tanzania: Implications on disease prevention and control
    (2013) Karimuribo, E. D.; Kimbita, E. N.; Silayo, R. S.; Mgongo, F. O. K.; Mpanduji, D. G.; Wambura, R. M.; Batamuzi, E. K.; Matiko, M. K.; Massawe, L. B.; Sendalo, D.; Mwakalobo, A. B.; Rich, K.
    A study was carried out in Kilosa and Gairo districts to identify and characterize animal health constraints as perceived by stakeholders in the beef and milk value chains. A combination of methods was used to collect data, namely, mapping of value chain actors and baseline survey. The baseline survey involved 220 households drawn from 33 villages and 22 wards. Using a structured questionnaire, households were visited to assess awareness and experience of livestock diseases based on observation of clinical cases prevalent in cattle herds. Prevalent diseases as reported by the respondents were East Coast fever (ECF; 88.1%), anaplasmosis (78.0%), heartwater (75.8%) and babesiosis (64.0%). Other animal health problems reported were contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP; 92.6%), calf diarrhoeas (79.9%), trypanosomosis (66.7%), brucellosis (65.3%) and mastitis (60.1%). Further inquiry revealed that health problems perceived to be the most important, in declining order, were: ECF, trypanosomosis, anaplasmosis, heartwater, calf diarrhoea, brucellosis and babesiosis. With regard to routine disease control activities, all respondents reported to apply acaricides to control ticks while 90% reported deworming their animals regularly. Although acaricide application was reported to be carried out, tick-borne diseases (TBDs) were still prevalent in the study area. These finding suggest that the current control measures against infectious diseases are ineffective. There is, therefore, a need to have in-depth evaluation of existing disease prevention and control options so that corrective measures can be applied to reverse the situation, which will ensure reduction of morbidities and mortalities associated with infectious diseases. This will contribute to improved livelihoods of pastoral and agro-pastoral farmers predominant in Kilosa and Gairo districts.
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    The beef value chain in Kilosa and Gairo districts: Features and weak links.
    (Tanzania Veterinary Association and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2013) Batamuzi, E. K.; Karimuribo, E. D.; Wambura, R. M.; Kimbita, E. N.; Silayo, R. S.; Matiko, M. K.; Rich, K.; Mpanduji, D. G.; Massawe, L. B.; Sendalo, D.; Mwakalobo, A. B.; Mgongo, F. O. K.; Mutabazi, K.
    A value chain analysis of beef sub-sector was carried out in Kilosa and Gairo Districts in order to address weak-links in the chain. Stakeholder mapping and analysis, baseline data collection and stakeholders’ workshop were conducted. Results indicate that the beef value chain has various actors among them: pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, service providers, small, medium and large livestock traders and live animal transporters. Others are market masters, slaughterhouse operators, meat transporters, meat shop operators and consumers. Mobile phone service was noted to effectively link various actors along the value chain. The producers in Kilosa and Gairo are feeding into within the district, region, Dar es Salaam; and the export market. There are relatively few female actors along the beef value chain, mostly in processing and retail offal business, input supply and one case in Dar es Salaam where three women are operating a slaughter slab. Feeds and water availability particularly during the dry season; and animal diseases were reported as major production constraints impacting on quantity and quality of beef produced. Analysis of value chain governance revealed that retailing butcher shops are receiving relatively a larger share (30%) of the overall price compared to the rest of actors in the strand. Furthermore, findings show that the supply chain is characterized by low value addition among the pastoralist and high value addition among the feedlot operators and large scale processors. Weak links that require immediate attention include: animal diseases and non-use of standard weight measures during selling of live cattle.
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    Making ICTs work for agro-pastoral livelihood: Using the telecentre as learning tool for agro-pastoralists communities in Tanzania
    (Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2015) Ngowi, Edwin; Mwakalobo, A. B.; Mwamfupe, Davis
    Traditional agricultural extension services intended to serve agro-pastoralists in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa at large have failed to make significant impacts, due partly to the lack of knowledge-sharing practices to disseminate timely agricultural and livestock-keeping information. A key problem has been inadequate access to information due to weak linkages and interactions between agricultural and livestock research institutions; including, the lack of knowledge and information articulating best practices; and deficiency of relevant research information presented in easy to understand ways and localized to the needs of agro-pastoralists. However, in recent years, there has been growing attention devoted to the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture and livestock-keeping development. The growing ubiquity of mobile phones presents an excellent opportunity to put timely agricultural and livestock-keeping information into the hands of agro-pastoralists through direct linkages with the telecentres services in rural areas. The evidence has linked ICTs to an increase in gross domestic product; it has prompted dedication to the research of the socio-economic benefits and policy implications of ICTs consumption in Africa. Consisting of field case studies and implementation frameworks for telecentres, this paper provides a Tanzanian rural perspective and understanding of the developments in ICTs services for sustainable agro-pastoral livelihood. Therefore, the field results indicates that, the extent of the interaction between the telecentre services and agro-pastoralists in terms of ICTs access as a learning tool shows that more than half, 43.7% (178) and 23.6% (96) out of 407 respondents were interacting; whereby agro-pastoralists access the services provided by the telecentres to improve agro-pastoral livelihood. We conclude that the interaction between the telecentre services and agro-pastoralists has to be transformed; since the potential of ICTs services in rural areas as yet remains untapped and urgent measures are required to derive maximum benefits for sustainable agro-pastoral livelihood
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    Revenue generation capacity in developing countries: Implications for physical and human capital development in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
    (African Journal of Economic Review, 2015) Mwakalobo, A. B.
    This paper is an attempt to investigate the effects of tax revenue generation capacity on public spending in Sub-Saharan Africa drawing empirical lessons from three East African countries-Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It employs the co-integration and error-correction modeling framework to analyze the effects of erratic and inadequate revenue generation on physical and human capital development in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda using time-series data over the period 1970-2005.The results unambiguously demonstrate that changes in tax revenue have strong impacts on physical and human capital development spending in the three countries. The policy lessons that can be drawn from the findings of this paper is that the three countries should strike a balance of the composition of government expenditure; reprioritize public expenditure into productive spending and strive to generate sufficient tax revenue to finance budget expenditures on physical and human capital development in order to reduce poverty and promote long-run economic development.