KAGERA Regional Commissioner (RC) Major Gen Charles Mbuge has appealed to the residents to regularly drink milk as well as breastfeeding mothers to breastfeed their babies constantly to improve their health.
“People should change their attitude and drink more milk and also put more focus on breestfeed the babies. Those aged five years and below require milk as a complete diet and for their brains to fully develop,” he pointed out.
However, the RC cautioned against random taking of milk in the streets, but instead they should purchase it from authorized milk processing plants to avoid contracting contagious diseases.
He explained that a national survey carried out last year showed that Kagera region was amongst the top ten areas in the Mainland Tanzania, standing at 41.7, with cases of malnutrition.
He cited other region as Kigoma, Mwanza, Dodoma, Mbeya, Dar es Salaam, Tabora, Geita, Ruvuma and Lindi.
“Parents especially mothers should be educated on the importance of early breastfeeding on their babies in tender age. There is an urgent need to reduce prevalence of malnutrition in the region especially in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. This is the time his/her brain develops rapidly and lays his/her future cognitive and social ability, “he added.
Major Gen Mbuge said that while the national milk consumption stands at 47 litres per person per year in average, the regional intake per resident is 16 litres per year in average against the global average of 200 litres per person each year.
However, he pointed out that milk production increased from 43,915,266 litres during 2018 to 46,858,481 litres last year despite the region having a total of 21,438 dairy cattle.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), recommends that a person should consume at least 200 litres of milk annually.
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