Ufugaji

Livestock keeping is becoming the most important economic activity in the district. Small scale livestock keeping in the district is done both as a source of food and supplementary income. According to Table below, livestock kept are cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, and poultry. Poultry with 70.7 percent of total livestock in the district was the most populated livestock, followed by Cattle (22.6 percent), goats (4.5 percent), sheep (2.2 percent) and donkeys (0.04 percent) was the least populated livestock. Further to that the table also shows that Mohoro division constituted largest number of all livestock (25.1 percent).

Grazing area
By definition the grazing area is the land available for rearing livestock. Rufiji district has plenty water and pastures for livestock. Fifteen villages has land for livestock with a total of 4872.56 Ha, two hekta are enough for one cattle per year for grazing. Previously the land was heavily infested with tsetseflies caused a lot of abortions and motalities in cattle which accounts up to 80%. Constraction of dip tank and use of trypanocidol drugs has contributed to decline of cattle abortions and mortalities to 10%. Majority of the livestock keepers are concentrated in low land near water source.

The distribution of livestock infrastructure is one of the key issues with regards to livestock development. Table 3.16 displays accessibility of dips, slaughter slab and Primary market in the district. Nevertheless, out of 8 dips available in the district, 4 dips (50%) are working and 4 dips (50%) are not working. There are 5 Slaughter slab in the district but only 3 slaughter (60%) are working and one (40%) not working. There are two primary market and all are working.

According to District min Census Report conducted in 2010 shows the total number of cattle in the district was 143,874. Poultry were the dominant livestock type in the district, followed by Cattle, goats, sheep, and donkey.

Poultry Population
The poultry sector in Rufiji district was dominated by Local chicken production and according to Table 3.13 in 2010, poultry population was the dominant livestock followed by cattle.  The district had 450,548 poultry which was equivalent to 70.7 percent of the total livestock in the district.

Goat Population
Goat population in Rufiji district ranked third after poultry and Cattle. In July 2010, the district had 28,453 goats of which Mohoroi division with 16,943 goats (59.55 percent of the total goats in the district) was the leading division in number of goats.

Sheep Population
 In 2010 the district composed by 13,765 sheep population which was equivalent to 2.2 percent of the total livestock population in the district, and   ranked fourth in terms of population. The table further shows that most of the sheep population were concentrated in Mohoro division by having 8,935 sheep (64.91 percent).

Donkey Population
Donkey rearing is not very common in Rufiji district. The whole periods of 2010 donkey population were 286 which constituted about 0.05 percent of the total livestock in the district. Nevertheless, donkey population ranked in firth position when compared to other livestock population.Mohoro division with 286 donkeys (43.71 percent) led other divisions.