REPORT FOR

GOAT YOGHURT DISTRIBUTION TO

NYANDIRA PRIMARY SCHOOL, MGETA

2012

Morogoro, March 2013

Table of Contents

1.Background

2.Yoghurt Distribution to Nyandira Primary School 2012

3.Goat Milk Day in Mgeta

4.Vision for 2013

5.Appendices

5.1.Consumption of yoghurt by students at Nyandira Primary School, 2012

5.2.Records for yoghurt distribution to Nyandira primary school, 2013

1.Background

In the late 1980s a handful of Norwegian dairy goats were introduced in the Mgeta area, as part of a research project carried out jointly by Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.

Mgeta division lies in Mvomero District in Morogoro Region and is located on the western slopes of the Uluguru Mountains between 1100 and 1750 meters above sea level, about 40 km from Morogoro city. The main villages in Mgeta where the goats were introduced are Nyandira, Tchenzema, andMwarazi village, which had a total population of 7181 in 2009. The climate is fairly cool, with temperatures ranging between 11 and 23°C, and with sporadic rains throughout most of the year, the dry season only lasting approximately four months, from June to September.

The goats were adapting well to the conditions of Mgeta, and what had started as only five goats quickly grew, now having reached a number of well over 1500 dairy goats. As a way of assisting each other as new goat farmers, a cooperative of dairy goat farmers were established, under the name Twawose. Also they have grown in number ever since and are now 56 members. In 2010 they registered as a formal cooperative and established a goat milk collection and processing centre in Nyandira village. Here farmers from neighbouring villages deliver milk every day. Given the high number of dairy goats and subsequent high amount of milk in the area, Twawose, with the assistance of SUA, started processing the milk, giving the product a longer lifespan and an added value. The yoghurt is then sold at the local market twice a week. Approximately 15-20 litres of yoghurt are sold each market day.

But a number of challenges persisted, one of them creating a demand side that coincided with the supply side, because even though the area produces a lot of milk there still is not a high tradition of drinking goat milk or yoghurt. This is particularly an issue from the months of March onwards, where the money flow is less in the village since sale of vegetables (the main cash crops in Mgeta) decreases from then onwards.As a way of creating a more stable and additional market, the primary school in Nyandira was approached, and since July 2012 yoghurt has been delivered to the school children, bringing both nutritional benefits, educational benefits for the children and an added income for Twawose. In addition, the lack of electricity and poor roads makes it difficult to store the milk for long in a cool place and makes both the collection- and distribution of the milk/yoghurt more challenging.

2.Yoghurt Distribution to Nyandira Primary School 2012

On the 16th of July 2012 distributing goat yoghurt to Nyandira primary school officially started, and many children got a cup or bottle of yoghurt for the first time. The project started with much interest and for the following three weeks between 450 and 550 children received 125 ml of yoghurt once a week. To get these 125 ml of yoghurt once a week four times the parents had to pay 500 Tsh. This cost represents 50% of the actual cost of the yoghurt, the remaining 50% instead being covered by private donors in Norway. Although being given a subsidized price, after the three weeks when collecting the payments from all the parents this became a great challenge. What was decided was that from then on parents would have to pay for one month in advance, after which their child/children would receive yoghurt for the following four weeks. Now having to pay first to get the service the number of children getting yoghurt drastically dropped. But as can be seen below, the number slowly increased showing an increasing interest in the yoghurt by the children.For an overview in graph form see Appendix 1.

Table 1: Goat yoghurt Distribution to Nyandira Primary School, 2012

No. of weeks / Week / Liter / Students
1 / 16.07 - 22.07 / 57,25 / 458
2 / 23.07 - 29.07 / 55 / 442
3 / 30.07 - 05.08 / 68,5 / 544
4 / 10.09 - 16.09 / 13,25 / 106
5 / 17.09 - 23.09 / 13,125 / 105
6 / 24.09 - 30.09 / 12,875 / 103
7 / 01.10 - 07.10 / 12,375 / 99
8 / 08.10 - 14.10 / 15,625 / 125
9 / 15.10 - 21.10 / 15,125 / 121
10 / 22.10 - 28.10 / 14,625 / 117
11 / 29.10 - 04.11 / 13,375 / 107
12 / 05.11 - 11.11 / 32,375 / 162
13 / 12.11 - 18.11 / 30,625 / 155
14 / 19.11 - 25.11 / 26,5 / 133
15 / 26.11 - 02.12 / 23,375 / 116
16 / 03.12 - 09.12 / 15,625 / 66
17 / 10.12 - 16.12 / 13,75 / 56
Total / 433,375 / 3015

Some children, who perhaps did not manage to get the money at home, also bought yoghurt with their small pocket money on a time to time basis and paid directly to Twawose (for full price) to a member of Twawose when they came and delivered the yoghurt. Unfortunately those children were not recorded so getting an absolute number of distribution is difficult.

A persisting critique of the project was that the amount given per children were too small for the children, and it was suggested by many to increase the amount to 250 ml. This option was introduced to the children in beginning of November, and after a short time all the children preferred and payed for 250 ml. As a result the average students and litres of yoghurt delivered every month are as follows:

Table 2: Average students and litres per month of distribution to Nyandira, 2012

Average students per month / Average liter per month
July / 481 / 60,25
September / 104 / 13,00
October / 115 / 14,43
November / 139 / 25,71
December / 79 / 17,58

In total 433,375 litres was delivered in 2012, and 3015 cups/bottles of goat yoghurt have been distributed. For Twawose this has meant an added 866,750 Tsh income, 433,375 Tsh covered by the parents and 433,375 Tsh by Norwegian donors. Unfortunately, incomplete record keeping from the school and Twawose both resulted in some un-clarity of how much should be paid as the two parties did not have the same amount of students and litres. In fact, according to Twawoses´ records they had some 50 litres unaccounted for, that had not been covered. It is now, however, dealt with and a common agreement and understanding has been reached.

3.Goat Milk Day in Mgeta

On the 13th of December a “Goat milk day” was arranged for in Nyandira village, Mgeta. The event was aimed at raising the awareness of goat yoghurt, the nutritional benefits of it, and to introduce the product to the audience. The day was a great success and many people participated during the day. We, staff from SUA, were accompanied by district and regional representatives, a representative from TAMPA, all of which made interesting and educational speeches to everyone. The school children at Nyandira primary school were responsible for the entertainment and sang, danced and even performed a play about how the Norwegian dairy goats had arrived in their village and how they started getting goat yoghurt at their school. The day ended with a special milk drinking competition and with a public showing of a newly produced documentary about the dairy project in Mgeta. In addition, to cover the event a couple of news reporters were present. Feedback from the day has been very positive and those attending seemed really to like it. Some commented that they were given information about goat dairy products that they were not aware of while others tried the yoghurt for the first time. During the day it was both given out for free and sold at, the yoghurt coming in three different flavours: sugar, vanilla, strawberry. Many also commented that they really liked the sachets they came in, which were borrowed from SUA.

4.Vision for 2013

One main focus for 2013 has been to improve the record keeping system, both for the teachers and Twawose. Therefore a new system of record keeping has been put in place, where after every delivery to the school both the teacher responsible and Twawose has to sign off that they agree to the amount written. Also Twawose has their own form to fill out which needs a signature after every time (see appendix 2). The yoghurt distribution started back up again in February and so far the record keeping is going very well.

Unfortunately the numbers of students is at an all-time low, but much effort is now being put into increasing this number, and already we can see an increase. Also linked to this we want to identify who it is who is getting the milk and who are not. If the main reason for students not getting any yoghurt is economical reasons, which we hypothesize, then we are hoping to come to an agreement with all the parents to reduce the price even further for a selected group of extra vulnerable children, andhave them pay 25% of the cost while Norwegian donors cover the remaining 75%.

A third focus is to improve the production and distribution of the yoghurt. This is very much in collaboration with SUA and the on-going dairy goat project they have in Mgeta with Twawose and all the dairy goat farmers. Already a solar cell fridge and freezer has been installed, enabling Twawose to store the milk/yoghurt for a few days extra. Work is also done on introducing plastic bag sachets which the milk can be stored in and sold directly. This will greatly benefit the distribution to the school and both making the distribution more efficient and exact, as there is no room for wrong calculations, compared to now where all is measured in cups at the school.

Lastly there have been discussions within Twawose to consider starting up distribution of yoghurt to an additional school, such as Tchenzema secondary school. Arguments in favour of this is that a smaller collection centre is present in Tchenzema, where also yoghurt can be produced and delivered from, and it can make for an even more stable market since the economy in Tchenzema is a bit better and since they have expressed much interest in the project. However, as things are today, we have decided to further work with Nyandira primary school only to make it stronger and better before we start focusing on anywhere else. Then as 2013 moves onwards we will see how we stand.

5.Appendices

5.1.Consumption of yoghurt by students at Nyandira Primary School, 2012

5.2.Records for yoghurt distribution to Nyandira primary school, 2013

FIRST ROUND

NYANDIRAPRIMARY SCHOOL

PROJECT FOR YOUGHURT DISTRIBUTION TO PRIMARY SCHOOL

CLASS......

Price in Litres= 1000 TZH

S/N / NAME OF STUDENT / 14.02-17.02 / 18.02-24.02 / 25.02- 03.03 / 04.03-10.03 / TOTAL LITRES / AMOUNT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
TOTAL / LITRES / AMOUNT

BEI KWA LITA = 2000 TZH

S/N / JINA LA MWANAFUNZI / 14.02-17.02 / 18.02-24.02 / 25.02- 03.03 / 04.03-10.03 / TOTAL LITRES / TOTAL AMOUNT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
LITRES / AMOUNT
TOTAL

A1 mwl……………….2mwl………………………3mwl………………4mwl…………..

B1mjume………………2mjumbe………………….3mjumbe…………4mjumbe…………

MZUNGUKO WA KWANZA

SHULE YA MSINGI NYANDIRA

MRADI WA UGAWAJI WA MAZIWA YA YOUGHOT

BEI KWA LITA = 1000 TZH (malipo ya Twawose yatafanika mwisho wa mzunguko)
TAREHE / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / Jumla / Tsh
DARASA LA
CHEKECHEA
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
LITA / PESA
Total
BEI KWA LITA = 2000 TZH (malipo ya Twawose yatafanika kila siku)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / Jumla / Tsh
LITA / PESA
Total

A1 mwl……………….2mwl………………………3mwl………………4mwl…………..

B1mjume………………2mjumbe………………….3mjumbe…………4mjumbe…………