Tuesday 9 May, 2011
SUPPORTING THE PROMOTERS OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION
kilimokwanza@guardian.co.tz
DIGITAL SOIL MAP FOR AFRICA
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 9 May, 2011
EDITORIAL
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Illicit brews threaten productivity
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oil is the production base of all agricultural systems. However knowledge of the world soil resources is fragmented and dated. At the moment there is no comprehensive digital map of the world’s soils. There is one global soil map at a scale of 1:5 million that was produced between 1971 and 1981 by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Based on soil surveys conducted between the 1930s and the 1970s, these class maps show the distribution of soil types using FAO terminology. The survey coverage varies in detail and quality around the world and many poorer countries have insufficient information for even rudimentary land planning and management. Most soil maps are polygon maps showing the characteristics of soil types. These maps have a long history of being useful for generalized landuse planning and management. However, they have some major drawbacks including that they are static and inflexible for quantitative studies. Such studies (e.g. food production, erosion hazard, carbon balance) generally require information on the functional properties of a soil (e.g. available water capacity, permeability, nutrient supply) rather than a soil name. For example a polygon labeled “Kikuyu red loam” tells very little about how much nitrogen it can supply to a maize crop for the following season. Also the information is often presented at a scale that is seldom useful for the particular question. Experts also note that the information behind the map is uneven and little-to-no information was available from several important regions. The FAO-UNESCO maps were digitized in vector format in 1984. In the mid 1990s, a 9-km raster version was produced by FAO, but with no improvement in the content. Furthermore a digitized map does not constitute a digital map. This lack of easy-to-use information results in inappropriate or ineffective policies at the district, national
Artwork
& Design: KN Mayunga
and continental levels that affect food production and result in unnecessary land degradation and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Organizations involved in research at the global scale need accurate and geo-referenced soil information to assess and predict the environmental impact of different land-use scenarios. The Digital Soil Map for Africa and the larger Global Soil Map (GlobalSoilMap.net) are being developed to provide primary soil data in a form that will meet the demands of a broad range of users, including governments, natural resource managers, educational institutions, planners, researchers and agriculturalists. There is a need for accurate, up-to-date and spatially referenced soil information as frequently expressed by the farmers and land users, policy and decision makers and the scientific modeling community. This need coincides with an enormous leap in technologies that allow for accurately collecting and predicting soil properties. The online system will provide access to the best available soil and land resource information in a consistent format across the globe – the level of detail and reliability will depend on the survey coverage and field data available in each region. A digital fine-resolution global soil map would enable climatologists, hydrologists, crop modelers, foresters and agricultural scientists, among others, to better predict the effects of climate change or new technologies on food production.
COVER STORY
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SUA gearing to enter products market
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Sign Nile Agreement Egypt, Sudan & Congo DRC Urged
Wallace Mauggo Editor
8 To have your organisation promoted in Kilimo Kwanza, Call: 0787 571308, 0655 571308 0754 571308
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Digital soil map for Africa
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Digital soil map to revolutionize agriculture
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 9 May, 2011
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By Makuna Chirimi
anzanian farmers and those across the Sub Saharan region will soon have ready access crucial data on the soil properties in their farms sent directly to their mobile phones. This information will enable them to accurately plan on the types and quantities of fertilizer to use, and which crops to plant in order to boost agricultural productivity. Now partially available online, the Digital Soil Map for Africa provides upto-date information on the health and properties of soil, helping farmers and policymakers to improve degraded soils and increase crop production. The project is also looking into sending information to mobile phones, which means that farmers in region will soon have this information at their fingertips. Once complete, the development will be highly crucial in spurring gains achieved from the ongoing Kilimo Kwanza (agriculture first) initiative. "Let there be no mistake about the significance of this wonderful project,"
the President of Agra, Kofi Annan said about the Digital Soil map for Africa project that aims to map the soils in most parts in Sub-Sahara Africa and make all Sub-Saharan Africa data available online at the click of a button. Once it is complete, the map will divide the continent into squares that measure 90 metres x 90 metres — giving 100-times greater resolution than the best current maps of African soils, say scientists working on the project. Developed courtesy of a $18million grant obtained from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in November 2008, the digital soil map for Africa covers 42 countries South of the Sahara. The initial grant for the project also included funds for coordinating global efforts and for the establishment of a global consortium with several institutions assuming leading roles in the effort, making substantial financial and in-kind contributions. Poor knowledge of soil conditions has hampered efforts to improve African soils, which are some of the most depleted on Earth, Alfred Hartemink, a soil scientist at ISRIC —
World Soil Information Hartemink said. Existing soil maps are incomplete and date from the 1960 and 1970s. Farmers in Tanzania are no strangers to the complexities and losses posed by inability to know the correct types and fertilizers to use on their farms. For example, a recent ground breaking project that was supposed to be one of the final keys that would not only unlock the agriculture potential in the country, but also revive operations of the then stalled Minjingu phosphate fertilizer mine, is now on the rocks. Farmers across Tanzania cheered when the announcement was made that the locally mined Minjingu phosphate fertilizer would be offered alongside seeds, agrochemicals and other inputs to farmers made available through the voucher system. It was hoped that the move would not only revolutionize agriculture but would also create new job opportunities, spurring much needed economic growth However a few planting seasons later and whispers of complaints emerged, eventually threatening to bury the success stories. Some farmers
claimed that their crops were taking too long to respond to the new fertilizer, others claimed that the fertilizer had reversed whatever gains they had made using conventional farming methods, still others dismissed the fertilizer altogether. What had gone wrong? Agricultural productivity hinges on the three prime factors of soil fertility, water availability and the quality of seeds. Conventional selective breeding and genetic science has led to huge advances in seed quality. Modern water management and irrigation techniques including the introduction of high yielding drought resistant strains of crops have also offered a further boost to modern agriculture. However it is an open secret that different regions have different types of soil and as such have different levels of fertility and are suitable for different types of crops. For years though, the task of unlocking the hidden secrets of the different soil types found in different regions with a view of determining soil fertility and matching these to fertilizer needs and the correct crops has remained the most elusive and most
difficult of tasks. Until now that is. The digital soil map is made from satellite measurements of soil nutrients, moisture and organic matter. These data will be combined with samples taken at 60 randomly chosen sites across sub-Saharan Africa, where researchers on the ground are measuring the soil's chemical and physical properties and its organic content. The project will develop a decision framework that will build on past experimental data (i.e., fertilizer response trials, integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) field trials) and new ISFM experimental trials in selected sentinel sites. Legacy data from field trials throughout Africa will initially be used to identify the key factors that determine crop responses to various soil management practices and systems. New experimental trials will be established in selected sentinel sites in four countries – Tanzania, Malawi, Mali, and Nigeria. In Kenya the researchers will use existing ongoing trials to test and to document responses to locally adapted soil management recommendations. Using this information, scientists can predict soil properties at places they have not sampled, checking their models by comparing predicted soil properties against actual measurements. The map also incorporates existing soil maps and information on geology and climate. This information will assist farmers and agricultural planners to correctly match existing soil types to the correct crops and fertilizer types and quantities. "This project will benefit farming families in Africa by showing how they can reverse declining soil fertility, a major reason for slow growth in the region's agricultural productivity during recent decades," Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa said. There is no comprehensive digital map of the world’s soils. This lack of easy-to-use information results in inappropriate or ineffective policies at the district, national and continental levels that affect food production and result in unnecessary land degradation and increased greenhouse gas emissions. The African initiative is the first phase of a bigger project to develop a global soil map, called GlobalSoilMap.net.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Tuesday 9 May, 2011
KILIMO NEWS ROUNDUP
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 9 May, 2011
POLICY
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Illicit brews threaten productivity
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By Nicholaus Fundikira, ADP Gorowa
llicit traditional brews are threatening agricultural productivity in the newly formed Boay village that serves as the headquarters of Gorowa ward in Babati District. Villagers of all ages and genders in the location have taken to brewing and drinking the concoction popularly known as mangure, with the resulting drunkenness adversely affecting farm work and other gainful activities. Brewing and drinking happens at all times of the day, with the drunken youth often indiscriminately using foul language that often lead to uncontrolled fist fights, injuries and destruction of property. As a result, the ward office has issued a notice to all brewers and sellers of the alcoholic mangure to sell the brew between 2 pm and 6pm daily. A monthly ward tax of TSH 20,000/- will also now be charged to all operators of the mushrooming drinking dens in the area. However the imbibers who are mostly youth have protested against the move, claiming that the brew is an important part of their culture inherited from past generations. Drinkers of the brew also claim that it gives them extra strength to undertake hard farm work and say that it is also plays an essential role in socialization within the village. The brew has many negative side effects including sapping the energy of its drinkers and causing symptoms akin to premature ageing among its drinkers.
Activists Fault Kilimo Kwanza
Activists drawn from the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP) and other civil society organizations have faulted the Kilimo Kwanza green revolution as a strategy favouring large scale producers at the expense of small scale peasants who are the lifeline of the country’s agriculture. This comes barely a month after legislators also poked holes through the green strategy during the reading of a preliminary government budget 2011/12 in parliament recently. Speaking at an forum held in Dar es Salaam, the activists warned that the agriculture first strategy is doomed to fail if rapid steps are not taken to address the needs of the now marginalized small scale producers. They claimed among other things, that the strategy was an effort by large scale agri-producers to lobby the government for tax exemptions, credit and preferential treatment. Particular issues at the forefront of the arguments included the dissemination of information and understanding of the strategy in which small scale farmers have not been fully involved and the distribution of equipment which is perceived to be marred by corruption. Others critiqued the use of
Some residents of Gorowa ward sit inside one of the drinking dens in the village that sell the “mangure” brew.
Minjingu Mines Surviving on Agriculture to Fertilizer be revived in Exports secondary Tractor Usage schools? Drops in Zanzibar modified seeds as an environmentally unfriendly attempt to lock producers into high cost capital intensive production. The activists further dismissed the green revolution as an deepening of capitalist agriculture with accompanying dispossession and marginalization of the majority poor. of the ,
The use of tractors and tractor ploughs has reduced in Zanzibar in the five year period 2002/03 to 2007/08/, with a corresponding increase in use of ox ploughs. As a result, the total land area under crop production has reduced from 78,276 hectares to 52,547 hectares. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS 2007/08) preliminary report, maize production has per hectare has however doubled in the same period, with overall maize production in Zanzibar increasing by 179 percent in the same period. Rice paddy production tripled to over 32,000 tonnes in the same period, with the yield per hectare increasing from 05 tonnes to 1.2 tonnes.
ity to 150,000 tonnes of fertilizer per year.
Following the government’s failure to honor debts owed to the local Minjingu fertilizer company, the firm is now surviving on fertilizer exports to neighboring states. Meanwhile Tanzania continues to import fertilizer to meet some of its agricultural needs. “After the plant resumed operations five years ago, a deal was struck whereby the government was supposed to buy fertilizer from us and supply it to farmers across the country. However the government has so far failed to pay us the TSH 9 billion owed for fertilizer supplied in the past two seasons, forcing us to find alternative means of survival,” the managing director Tosky Hans said. In a desperate bid to sustain operations and jobs, the company is now targeting foreign markets of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo DRC and Zambia. The once state run company is also looking to expand its production capac-
There are early indications that the teaching of agriculture as a subject may be revived in secondary schools following a Ministry of Education and Vocational Training resolve to conduct a study assessing the challenges facing secondary schools that had originally been designated to offer agriculture subjects. The assessment is slotted to begin in July of this year and will among other things check on the number and current qualifications and training of agriculture subject teachers in the secondary schools. Six secondary schools were originally fingered to offer agriculture science, namely Machame in Kilimanjaro region, Bihawana in Dodoma region, Karatu in Manyara region, Kibiti and Kibaha both in Coast region and Galanosi in Tanga region. Following a reversal that led to the
scrapping of agriculture science as a compulsory subject in schools in 2005, most of the schools that had been earmarked to offer agriculture as a science subject either abandoned the teaching of the subject altogether or relegated it to the optional categories.
50,000 T Grain to Check Rising Food Prices
The government has released 50,000 tonnes of grain as a strategic intervention to contain a looming food crisis. Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Deputy Minister, Christopher Chiza said the grain would be distributed to markets in 32 district councils that currently face food shortages. During a visit to the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), the President, Jakaya Kikwete directed the agency to make occasional strategic interventions by distributing reserve food to the markets whenever demands exist. The President also urged the agency to be more proactive in addressing the growing food needs other than merely acting as an organ for recording fluctuations in food prices.
EU Head of Delegation in Tanzania, Ambassador Tim Clarke (c) at a recent tree planting event
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By Kilimo Kwanza reporter s the rising food prices continue to bite in the East African region, the European Union delegation has reaffirmed its readiness to continue assisting Tanzania enhance the food security of its people. Speaking to The Guardian’s Kilimo Kwanza last week, the Head of Delegation in the country, Ambassador Tim Clarke said that apart from the Euro555million support earmarked for the country programme, the EU continues to provide separate funding both to government private sector projects for promoting food security. The EU’s 70 million Euros aid for Agriculture in Tanzania covers Trade and Agriculture Support Programmes (Euro 25m), the sugar sector (Euro 13m), and Food Facility Grants (Euro 32m). Government collected the lion’s share of the extra Euro32million provided for increasing food security, bagging Euro20 million of it that went into the treasury, on the understanding that it is used as rapid response for mit-
EU committed to Tanzania
igating rising food prices through provision of agricultural inputs, rehabilitation of seed farms, promotion of agricultural mechanization, rural agro-processing and household food storage. The Euro12 million scooped by the private sector and NGO operators went broadly to 8 recipient groups, with two and a half million Euros going to Mbeya and Rukwa regions through Farmers Groups Networks of Tanzania (MWIWATA) for the development of food crops wholesale market premises and building the local market stakeholders’ capabilities to use the refurbished structures efficiently. Over a million Euro has been given
to Babati district through Food and Agriculture Marketing Research Management (FarmAfrica) where 46 farmers groups are to benefit from an improved marketing model for sesame. Another one million Euros was given to Pride Tanzania for improving microfinance services provision in Iringa, Morogoro, Arusha, Manyara Tanga and Singida. The Tanzania Agricultural Partnership with the Agricultural Council of Tanzania bagged over one and a half million Euro to enhance food price stability in 13 districts of Songea Namutumbo, Mbarali, Mbeya, Kyela,
Mbozi, Iringa Mufindi, Njombe, Kilombero Morogoro, Meru and Monduli. The organisations were expected to particularly develop the Warehouse Receipt System for those districts. The giant British charity Oxfam, was given a million Euros to improve irrigation and market access infrastructure in Shinyanga, while Oikos East Africa got one and a half million Euros for boosting household food security, nutrition and cash crop productivity in selected Maasai areas of Meru district. The Misindo training centre for sustainable agriculture and animal
husbandry got a shot in the arm from the Euro 1.125m given to Cefa Onlus to combat food insecurity and improve provision of agricultural services in Kilolo and Namtumbo districts. Two million Euros was picked by Concern Worldwide which has for long been at work in rural Tanzania for mitigating the negative impacts of volatile food prices in poor households. While outlining these and other interventions the EU has made, Ambassador Clarke did not rule out providing further funding to new projects in Tanzania agriculture outside the existing programme. Giving a general assessment of the performance of the agriculture sector however, he observed that it has not been so good over the past decade. This he mostly attribute to insufficient investment in sector support by government in the areas of policy setting, research and extension services. But he is encouraged by the signs of increased budgetary allocation for agriculture, the Kilimo Kwanza initiative, the development of agriculture growth corridors and some successes by small holder farmers in the sugar sector.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
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Tuesday 9 May, 2011
POLICY
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 9 May, 2011
MARKET
World Veterinary Day Marked T
annual World he Veterinary Day has been marked in Tanzania. The theme for this year’s event was “Raise awareness about rabies prevention and control. Get involved in the World Veterinary Day.” Tanzania, which celebrated the event two days earlier than the rest of the world, did so with the launching of an anti-rabies campaign by the Tanzania Veterinary Association. Under the rallying call “Make rabies history” the Ministry of Livestock aims to vaccinate 70% over 400,000 cats and dogs in the five regions of Dar es Salaam, Coast, Morogoro, Lindi and Mtwara. This program aims to reach 70% of the canine populace in the aforementioned regions over five years. In his address, the Minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries, Hon David Mathayo, said that veterinary work aims to attain the agreed three goals of; One world – one health concept, animal welfare and public health. He added that research indicates that up to 75% of all human diseases arise from animals, and thus healthy animals lead to healthy human beings. 60% of all animal diseases can also infect humans. This underlines the importance of veterinary work and poses a challenge for the field. Tanzania has 640 registered veterinarians, 60% of whom offer services in the private sector. There is an estimated 325 veterinary centres across the land although 27 district councils still lack veterinary doctors. The minister said that there are currently 6 institutions in the country offering animal health and husbandry degrees and diplomas located in Mpwapwa, Tengeru, Madaba, Temeke. Morogoro and Buhuri. Since 2009, the institutions have generated an average of 1250 professionals in animal husbandry. Three years ago, the government also adopted new policy that allows it to employ both degree and diploma level animal husbandry and veterinary experts. The government has also allowed the private sector to get involved in training of experts in the field. This move is a bid to address the current shortfall of 13,469 livestock and fisheries experts in the village and ward levels, and also to fill the existing gap of district councils that lack veterinary doctors. The government is also implementing policy and activities aimed at halting trans-boundary animal diseases like foot and mouth disease. The Tanzania Veterinary Board was lauched in 2003 to implement policy, regulate and manage all veterinary related activities in the country. The World Veterinary Association was launched in Hamburg, Germany in 1863.
Rtd President Ali Hassan Mwinyi admires quality mangoes at a recent mango festival in Dar es Salaam. Tonnes of the fruit go to waste in Tanzania every year due to insufficient agro-processing facilities for highly perishable produce.
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SUA gearing to enter products market
he Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) is getting set to launch processed agricultural products into the larger commercial market. Speaking to Kilimo Kwanza at a higher learning institutions symposium held in Dar es Salaam recently, the institution’s Principal public Relations Officer, Kassim Msagati said that in the past, the university engaged primarily in production aimed at giving the students practical skills in their specific areas of studies. The institution is now looking to conquer the larger external market.
“We will soon engage in market production of dried fruit and other value added agricultural products,” he said. The university is currently undertaking market analysis and conducting tests to ascertain nutritional value and other quality aspects of the products before product launch which is expected in the latter half of the year. Already the university has undertaken research into improving production and usage of sorghum and millet. Farmers and other groups have benefitted from this project, a case in point being the Nzasa Women’s Groups in Mbagala area of Temeke District in
Dar es Salaam. The group is conducting a value addition project that involves the supply of millet and sorghum flour, cakes, samosas, biscuits, porridge and other delicacies to the city and other towns across the country. “We are now pursuing Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) certification that will enable us to have better access to the mainstream market as well as export our products outside the country,” Saadah Nachungu, a member of the women’s group noted. She however decried current high expenses in getting quality packaging as a major hurdle impeding the growth of their
business. Another hurdle faced by the women’s group is the prevailing market attitude towards the products, with low levels of knowledge and sometimes negative attitudes posing a challenge. “We call for the introduction of these traditional crops and products to students in primary and secondary schools so that they can gain familiarity with indigenous crops,” said Somoe Islam, another member of the Nzasa group. Somoe’s take is that modernity and the proliferation of processed products are to blame for the knowledge gaps experienced. She urged the government to introduce traditional meals cooked from such grains and other re-
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lated indigenous crops into the ongoing school feeding programs. This, she hopes, will enable the future crop of adults to acquire a taste and familiarity with the local foods which are better and healthier than most industry manufactured alternatives. SUA is unique in that it is the only university in the country dedicated to offering agriculture programs in Tanzania. Presently the university has three core responsibilities, the first of which is to offer higher education in agriculture, livestock keeping, environmental studies and development matters in general. The second is to undertake research, a function that is mostly fulfilled by members of the academic staff. So far the institution has undertaken over 135 research projects which happen both in the laboratories and directly with the farmers to address practical problems in the field. These research projects have led to new strains of crops and new technologies. The institution is engaged in producing and supplying improved fruit seedlings to farmers, this including grafted varieties of mangoes, citrus fruit and avocado. SUA laboratories also produce improved strains of high yielding banana that is also resistant to tropical diseases. These test tube produced varieties of banana also reduce farmer reliance on planting suckers which are often limited in supply. An ongoing research into fruit flies that destroy hundreds of tones of fruit every year aims to equip farmers with techniques on addressing the fruit fly menace. At the moment farmers are advised to bury affected fruit in holes that are at least one metre deep as a way of disrupting the larvae stage in the reproductive cycles of the flies. There is also the application of an innovative fruit fly trap that utilizes pheromones of the female fly to trap the males of the species. “This trap not only reduces the number of male flies which disrupts reproduction, it also serves as a means by which farmers can estimate the fly population in their fields and use this to plan pesticide application to eliminate the flies,” a Senior Laboratory Technologist at SUA, Hellen Kanyage said. Extension services and consultancy is also offered by the institution, with the now infamous land mine sniffing rats perhaps being the most popular of the institution’s successes to date. The rats which have revolutionized de-mining activities in SubSaharan Africa are now being trained to detect tuberculosis (TB) which will offer a faster way of detecting and treating the TB menace that adversely affects the lives of millions every year. Commenting on the spate of SUA graduates working in fields other than agriculture, the institution’s public relations officer took this in positive stride noting, “The current job market in the country is very limited. The simple fact that SUA graduates are able to get jobs in other fields like banking which is different from their specific fields of training speaks volumes about their versatility and the high levels of training that they receive from SUA,” Msagati said. He urged the government and private sector to increase available work positions in agriculture, noting that some SUA graduates have set up agroprocessing ventures to address the shortfall.
The Guardian KILIMO KWANZA
Tuesday 9 May, 2011
POLICY
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KILIMO KWANZA DIRECTORY
WATER AND SANITATION
Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) – Tel: +255 22 276 0006
Dar es Salaam Water and Sewarage Corporation (DAWASCO) Tel: +255 22-2131191/4 Drilling and Dam Construction Agency (DDCA) Tel: +255 22 2410430/2410299 Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority Tel: +255 22 2123850, 22 2123853 Water and Environmental Sanitation Projects Maintenance Organization (WEPMO) Tel: +255 22 2410738, 716 099959 Ministry of Water Tel: +255 22 245 1448
INDUSTRY SUPPORT AND ASSOCIATIONS
Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) – Email: dg@sido.go.tz, info@sido.go.tz ANSAF - P.O. Box 6370, Dar es Salaam CNFA - info@cnfatanzania.org
Tractors Limited Cells: +255 784 421606, 786 150213
Consolidated Holdings Corporation (CHC) Tel: 255 (022) 2117988/9 Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) – Tel: +255 22 2863683/2863409 Export Processing Zones in Tanzania (EPZ) Tel: +255 22 2451827-9 Agricultural Economics Society of Tanzania (AGREST) – Tel. +255-23 260 3415
Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) Tel: +255 22 2122984-6 Tanzania Agriculture Partnership (TAP) Tel: +255 22 2124851
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Sign Nile Agreement - Egypt, Sudan & Congo DRC Urged
By Makuna Chirimi
gypt, Sudan and the Congo DRC have been urged to come on board and sign on the still controversial Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) that aims to give seven upstream countries equal rights to use of the Nile waters. The CFA seeks to strip the historical rights that Egypt and Sudan enjoyed over the Nile waters, where courtesy of a colonial era agreement Egypt enjoyed rights over 90% of the Nile waters with the remainder flowing to Sudan. A Nile Discourse Forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia has however jointly expressed appreciation for the content of the CFA, terming it principled, just and providing a legal basis for fair sharing and utilization of the Nile. ‘The forum also supports the positions taken by the Nile basin countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda with regard to CFA and calls upon DRC to sign the CFA and extends its call for Sudan and
Egypt to come on board and sign on the CFA,” a position statement from the meeting states. The position statement on the Benefits and Cost of Nile Cooperation to Ethiopia also expressed the stakeholder’s commitment to advocate for the signing and ratification of the CFA so that Nile cooperation process will eventually lead to the formation and institutionalization of the Nile basin commission that will work to the benefit of all riparian states. Noting that sustaining shared gains from the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Programs requires political will from Eastern Nile (EN) governments to complement national water development efforts and add value to regional gains, member states were urged to renew their political commitment and will to the Nile Cooperation processes and programmes to sustain the gains achieved by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) projects and programmes. “The forum acknowledges that the Nile cooperation process has been slow and in some countries has come to a stop. Realizing the benefits of cooperation, the forum urges countries to en-
sure that the process continues,” the statement says. The riparian states were called upon to make the transition process from the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) to the Nile Basin River Commission to be transparent and inclusive of Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) and communities of the Nile Basin. The forum also urged riparian states to give priority to the over arching need for a sustained utilization and management of our finite resource- the Nile River, so as to address the Nile communities vulnerability to poverty and to prevent the likelihood of regional food crisis. While expressing their understanding that there are shared benefits as well as shared costs when engaging in the cooperation process, the stakeholders stressed the need for the civil society to play a more critical role in bringing on board all riparian states to participate and endorse the Nile cooperative process. Based upon the dialogue and deliberation conducted during the forum, the participants recommended that increased efforts need to be made at na-
tional level to ensure the meaningful inclusion and participation of local communities including women and the most marginalized in project processes. The forum also supported and acknowledged the need for a permanent institutional body to facilitate an integrated Nile River Basin Management and to also ensure the coordinated and sustainable utilization of the Nile waters. “The Forum believes the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Programs contribute towards reversing regional environmental degradation, provision of regional power trade, reducing regional food insecurity and alleviating poverty,” the position statement adds. The purpose of the forum was to raise awareness and facilitate dialogue on the issue of Nile cooperation with respect to Ethiopia. The Nile Basin Discourse (NBD) is a regional network of civil society organizations established to facilitate and sup¬port civil society engagement in Nile Basin Cooperation and development processes in pursuing a shared vision of “One Nile, One Family” for sustainable use of the Nile waters.
Tanzania Milk Processors Association (TAMPA) Tel: +255 222 450 426
Rural Livelihood Development Company (RLDC) Tel: +255 26 2321455 Tanzania Cotton Board Tel: +255 22 2122564, 2128347
Horticultural Development Council of Tanzania (HODECT) Cell: +255 789 222 344; Fax: +255 27254 4568 TATEECO Ltd – Tel: +255 784 427817 AGRO-PROCESSING ERTH Food - Tel: +255 22 2862040 MUKPAR Tanzania Ltd Tel: +255 28 250038/184
ASAS Diaries Limited - Tel: +255 26 2725200 Tanga Fresh – Tel +255 27 2644238 NatureRipe Kilimanjaro Limited Tel: +255 22 21 51457 EQUIPMENT Achelis Tanganyika Ltd +255 22 2700 760 or +255 784 300 084
National Service Corporation Sole (SUMAJKT) Cell: +255 717 993 874, 715 787 887 FINANCE Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) Tel: 023-3752/3758/3765 Community Bank Association Tel: +255 22 2123245
Bank of Tanzania P.O. Box 2939, Dar es Slaam,Tanzania AGRO-INPUTS
Minjingu Mines & Fertilizers Ltd Tel: +255 27 253 9259 250 4679