Contribution of Dairy Goats to Poverty Reduction in Rural Tanzania: The Case of the Uluguru Mountains

Abstract

Like other developing countries, poverty in Tanzania tends to be worse in rural areas where majority of the          people live. Since rural people depend on diverse sources of income, analysing the contribution of the different sources of income is central for identifying important income generating activities for support. This paper examines the contribution of dairy goat production to household income, food security/nutrition and poverty reduction on the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. Data used for the study were collected using a structured questionnaire administered to 42 randomly selected households who kept dairy goats. The results of the study indicate that dairy goats have the potential of reducing   rural poverty

through their contribution to household income, food security and nutrition. The income from dairy goats accounted for only 23% of the     poverty line (a dollar per day), suggesting that the dairy goat enterprise alone cannot reduce poverty. Diverse sources of income are important for rural poverty reduction. However, dairy goats deserve particular attention in rural poverty reduction programs due to the fact that goats have low initial cost of establishment and can therefore be easily adopted by resource poor farmers compared with large animals like cattle. Therefore development partners can effectively assist in rural poverty reduction by increasing funding for dairy goat development projects rather than directing most of the resources to intensive dairy cattle development as it has  been the case for most dairy development projects in Tanzania