The recent announcement by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) that the world is now facing extinction of indigenous livestock breeds is a warning to countries with huge animal populations such as Tanzania.
Actually, the country has the third highest population of livestock in Africa after Sudan and Ethiopia. A report by the Tanzania Investment Centre titled Tanzania Ultimate in Diversity Report 2005/2006 substantiates this by disclosing that in 2002 the country was estimated to have 17.7 million cattle, 12.5 million goats, 3.5 million sheep, 47 million poultry and 8.8 million pigs.
Most probably with the passage of time these numbers might have increased by far today. FAO says that all these livestock breeds are now facing extinction due to a number of factors the leading being the increase in temperature on the Earth`s surface (global warming).
In a report; State of the World?s Animal Genetic Resources (2007), FAO reveals that at least one livestock breed has become extinct every month over the past seven years. According to FAO, this is alarming as it means that the genetic characteristics of the disappeared livestock breed have also been lost forever.
"Around 20 percent of the world`s breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry are currently at risk of extinction," the report, which is the first global assessment of livestock biodiversity and of capacity of countries to manage their animal genetic resources, reads in part adding:
"The options that these resources offer for maintaining and improving animal production will be of enormous significance in the coming decade. Climate change and the emergence of new and virulent livestock diseases highlight the importance of retaining the capacity to adopt our agricultural production systems."
Many breeds at risk have unique characteristics that are useful in confronting these and other challenges in future and traits such as resistance to diseases or adaptation to climatic extremes could prove fundamental to the food security of coming generations, FAO says.
The report was compiled by FAO with additional contributions from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and other international research groups.
"In this situation, the world cannot simply take a business-as-usual and wait-and-see attitude. Wise management of the world's animal genetic resources is of ever greater importance," FAO Assistant Director General, Alexander Muller, said early this week at the report?s inauguration in Interlaken, Switzerland.
Muller also mentioned poorly regulated economic and social changes, increasing reliance on a small number of high-output breeds, animal diseases, poverty, and socio-economic instability areas richest in animal genetic resources as other threats to animal breeds.
He therefore called for an urgent action to improve opportunities, through appropriate policies and technologies, for the better utilization of animal genetic diversity.
"Although animal genetic resources are important for everyone, they are particularly important for many livelihoods in developing countries, often of the very poorest. Governments should assist poor livestock keepers, who are the custodians of a large proportion of animal genetic diversity," said Muller.
Among the livestock breeds that have been mentioned in the report as facing extinction are the famous indigenous Ankole cattle that are found in north-western Tanzania and neighbouring country of Uganda.
The report says that the cattle, which are famous for their graceful and gigantic horns, could disappear in two decades from now, because they are being rapidly supplanted by new exotic (foreign) breeds such as Holstein-Friesians, which produce more milk.
The scientists who compiled the report say that during a recent drought, some farmers who had kept their indigenous herds were able to walk them through long distances in search for water sources while those who had traded the Ankole breeds for imported ones lost their entire livestock.
The researchers surveyed farm animals in 169 countries including Tanzania. The report warns that over-reliance on a few breeds of farm animal species, such as high milk-yielding Holstein-Friesian cows, egg-laying white leghorn chicken, and fast-growing large white pigs, is causing the loss of an average of one livestock breed every month.
It is important to note that about 70 percent of the entire world's remaining unique livestock breeds are found in developing countries such as Tanzania.
"Africa is one of the regions with the richest remaining diversity and is likely to be a hotspot of breed losses in this century," says the ILRI Director General, Carlos Sere.
It is sad to note that despite the dangers posed by the introduction of alien (exotic) species, many smallholder farmers, including those in Tanzania, have abandoned their traditional animals in favour of higher-yielding stocks imported from Europe and the United States.
Sere says that the exotic animal breeds cannot cope with unpredictable fluctuations in the environment or disease outbreaks when introduced into more demanding environments in the developing world and hence loss to farmers.
The above case of the Ankole cattle proves this right. But the question which arises is how prepared Tanzania is in the wake of all these challenging changes? This is because such threats also put the country`s rich in biological diversity into jeopardy.
According to the country's national report on the implementation of the international Convention on the Conservation of Biological Diversity (CCBD), Tanzania is rich in biological diversity due to diverse ecosystems, topography, climate and animal breed varieties.
"The diverse ecosystems, species richness and endemism make Tanzania one of the fourteen biological hot spot countries in the world," the 2001 report, which was prepared by the Division of Environment in the Vice President?s office, says.
The richness in biological diversity also includes a wide range of domesticated animal species. These include cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, horses, donkeys and birds, such as chicken, ducks, geese, turkey and guinea fowls.
There are also a lot of domesticated pets such as dogs and cats. As a result the country ranks high in Africa in terms of livestock numbers more than 90 percent of which are the traditional (indigenous) species.
Though information on genetic diversity in the country is still scanty, the available records show that there are varieties of livestock breeds, with cattle having more unique breeds, two of which face extinction i.e. the Chagga and Mpwapwa cattle, says the report.
The FAO report adds the Ankole cattle to the list of the endangered animal species in the country.
It is true that in recognition of the need to conserve and exploit biological resources sustainably, Tanzania has made several efforts to realize this after signing the International Convention on the Conservation of Biological Diversity on June 12, 1992, and ratifying it on March 1, 1996.
However, the continued introduction of exotic animal species in the country leaves a lot of questions as to the future of the indigenous species which are regarded as less productive and slow in terms of growth.
The report by the Vice President's Environment Division also admits that alien animal species such as water buffaloes, camels and others, have recently been introduced in the country.
Cross-breeding is also very common countrywide whereby the indigenous species are cross-bred with the exotic species with the aim of increasing production and disease resistance.
But this interferes with the animal genetic diversity and thus threatens the future of the original indigenous species, something that FAO raises an alarm against as such species could be lost forever.
Yes, Tanzania should modernise her livestock keeping methods but local animal breeds need be improved without introducing the foreign species which could increase production in the short run but eventually fail to adapt to local conditions as it has been the case with the Ankole cattle.
Tanzania should strive to conserve her richness in bio-diversity by preserving genetic resources for both present and future generations.
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