Poster prepared by Florence Mutua, Silvia Alonso and Delia Grace for the Maziwa Zaidi Agribusiness Forum, Moshi, Tanzania, 17 October 2019

1. Maziwa Zaidi (More Milk) in Tanzania: Best-bet
Technologies and Innovations
Using Mazzicans for safer milk
Florence Mutua, Silvia Alonso, Delia Grace
Key messages and solutions
• Mazzicans are used to assess health in milking animals
(e.g. mastitis), in direct milking of cows, in on-farm milk
storage, to transport milk to market, and to estimate
amounts produced and sold. They have a sieve and are
also durable and easy to clean.
• Mazzicans can help early detection and management of
mastitis cases (thus restore production), ensure sale of
safe and quality milk, reduce wastage along the value
chain, and offer nutrition and livelihoods support to local
communities.
Opportunities and benefits
• Mastitis reduces yield and income of farmers. Consuming milk
from sick cows can cause serious human infections. Mazzicans
can be used to test for mastitis prior to milking. This would allow
for early treatment of sick cows and appropriate disposal of milk
that is not fit for human consumption.
• Delivery of safe and quality milk can be an incentive for farmers,
vendors and other actors in the milk chain, to grow their
businesses, and meet the rising demand.
• Agrovet dealers are best suited to deliver the innovation
Suitability
• Farmers, milk traders and processors should be made aware of
the food safety benefits of mazzican use
• Appropriate incentives for their use are needed.
• Regulators need to recognize and support the use of the
containers in the value chain.
Evidence
• A study in Mvomero District (Lusato et al 2016) found the
containers to be acceptable and efficacious.
• Switching from traditional jerricans to mazzicans resulted
to 76% reduction in bacterial contamination
(https://hdl.handle.net/10568/80203).
• Mazzicans have been used in several countries in the
region including Ethiopia where a modified product is in
use (http://www.snv.org/update/mazzican-commercial-
solution-hygienic-milking-and-transportation)
• ILRI study (preliminary data) has found farmers in urban
and peri-urban areas of Kenya to be satisfied with its use
(mastitis testing, storage, transport).
• Sustainability is assured as it is locally-produced
(www.mazzican.com)
• There is a limit on the amount that can be handled with
one container (10 liters).
This document has a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. October 2019
March 2017
Problem statement
• Containers used to carry raw milk in the country are not
made of food-grade materials.
• They are also not designed to handle milk and may be
difficult to clean and maintain.
• Quality and safety of milk handled with these containers
is therefore compromised.
• Unsafe milk has public health and economic implications.
Postharvest losses impact on the income of actors
involved and may result to food insecurity.
• Mazzicans offer an affordable option to address quality
and safety issues in smallholder milk systems.
Maziwa Zaidi thanks all donors and organizations which globally support the work of ILRI and its partners through their contributions to the CGIAR system
Resource requirements (low to high, between 1 and 5)
Land
Water
Labour
Cash
Access to inputs
Knowledge and skills
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Impact areas (low to high, between 1 and 5)
Food security
Nutrition and food safety
Youth empowerment
Women empowerment
Livelihoods
Market access and linkages
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Outcome difficulty (low to high, between 1 and 5)
Business profitability
Environmental sustainability
Youth empowerment
Women empowerment
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