Tanzania: Water-Efficient Maize Boosts Harvests for Drought-Hit Farmers

By  Kizito Makoye 
Makutupora — Balisidya Jacob has been farming for many years, but it's the novelty and size of his new crop of maize that is making him smile.
The 56-year-old, who is sole breadwinner for an extended family of 17 children, is happy at the prospect of being able to feed them all, thanks to an experiment with drought-resistant seed.
Although maize is a staple crop in Tanzania, farmers in Makutupora, a village 27 km (17 miles) north of the capital, Dodoma, are more used to growing millet, sorghum and legumes. Tanzania's great central plateau, which sprawls across Dodoma, Singida and parts of Tabora regions, has suffered from drought for years, and maize has not been widely cultivated here because it cannot withstand the arid conditions.
But as part of an international research project dubbed Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), Jacob and his neighbours are now using five varieties of maize seed that are being tested in an effort increase food production and help farmers adapt to the effects of climate change.
"I was not sure these seeds would be any good, but it's amazing - they require little water and they grow fast," said Jacob.
FAST-GROWING, DROUGHT RESISTANT
WEMA's lead researcher in Tanzania, Barnabas Kiula, said that one of the maize varieties being introduced, situka, can be grown in arid conditions and could be ready for harvest in just 75 days. Most maize varieties require at least 90 days to mature.
Kiula added that the new varieties are expected to increase yields by up to 50 percent compared with maize seeds that are not drought-tolerant.
Makutupora's village chairman, Juma Gambo, said it took him less than three months for his crop to grow fully, despite the dry conditions.
"In this area the rainy season is very short but despite that I managed to get 27 bags of maize using these new seeds," he said. "My maize plants had wilting leaves but researchers assured me it was okay."
Marijani Mrisho planted situka seeds on his one-acre (0.4 hectare) farm in Makutupora in November of last year.
"It was very dry but the researchers told us to sow them," he said. "I did not have to do any irrigation yet the seedlings looked good."
Mrisho added that a short period of rains in December helped the maize to grow, and he was able to harvest it in early February, three months after planting.
"I have filled up 30 bags of maize this season on my small farm. If I used normal seeds I could hardly get five bags. That's why most farmers here shunned the crop initially," he said.
WEMA is a public-private partnership coordinated by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, a non-governmental organization which works to support poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. WEMA is being implemented in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa, countries whose national agricultural research systems are contributing their expertise in breeding, field testing, seed multiplication and distribution.
Makutupora, where the project started in 2010, plays host to WEMA's research centre in Tanzania. The research facility offers the opportunity for the villagers to exchange ideas with researchers.
"Some villagers were (initially) unwilling to come here to learn," said Juma Gambo. "They thought the researchers were probably aiming to grab their land ... (but) they now see the benefits."
Makutupora's farmers are receiving the new seeds free while different varieties are being tested. The researchers say villagers will eventually pay a subsidized rate of 200 Tanzanian shillings (about $0.13) per kilo.
Kiula, the WEMA researcher, said that the pressing need for food security in the region led to the decision to experiment with introducing maize to areas which have not traditionally grown the crop.
"People are dying of hunger in this area. They live by food handouts every single year," he said. "We hope that drought-tolerant maize could reverse this situation."
Farmers in Makutupora said they no longer care what crop they grow and eat, as long as it produces enough.
A REVERSAL
Across some areas of Africa, increasingly drought-hit farmers are being urged to move away from maize toward more drought-tolerant crops such as sorghum. But maize is a favoured staple in many countries in southern and eastern Africa, so the creation of more resilient varieties potentially could allow communities to both deal with worsening drought and avoid changing their traditional diet.
"We believe that the success of this project means that 14 to 21 million people we are targeting in five countries will have enough (maize) to eat and sell," Kiula said.
Hassan Mshinda, director-general of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, which is coordinating WEMA activities in the country, said that affordable, drought-resistant varieties of staple crops will be important for dealing not only with climate change but also general poor growing conditions and low yields in some African countries.
"Better seeds are beyond the reach of most farmers in rural areas and they are often not the suitable varieties," he said. "The introduction of drought-resistant varieties of maize will raise productivity."

souce;All Africa.com

Bagamoyo women acquire fuel briquetting technology

 

By Dora Tesha

 

Environmental degradation is becoming a serious problem across the world where efforts are required to mitigate the situation for the benefit of our livelihood. The current global and national environmental challenges necessitate the need for recycling of wastes because waste has huge negative impact on the environment as its amount increases all the time due to the population increase where more people create wastes.

Skills on recycling are important to enable the societies produce alternative energy as much as possible that will not only reduce damage to the climate but also contribute to providing them with alternative sources as well as resources. In ensuring value is added to wastes surrounding the communities, the Rural Energy Agency(REA) has trained a total of 36 women from Bagamoyo district on charcoal briquetting technology using waste, as a way of ensuring women benefit from the wastes that are seen as of no any value by most of the people.

The training which was conducted at Kibaha Folk Development College (KFDC) also aims at enabling the rural women to secure grants and loans from REA and other financial institutions through the business plans which they were also skilled on how to prepare them during the training. REA Training and Capacity Building Officer, Ms Mary Ngusaru said that the programme has selected both literate and illiterate women many of them already in the seven groups as a way to ensure that their communities benefit from the same technology while saving their environments and increase income.

According to Ms Ngusaru, the women had themselves sent letters to REA asking for an opportunity to be trained on the charcoal briquetting saying it would contribute a lot to the improvement of their lives, their families and that of their communities by using the available resources in their localities. “We have decided to equip them with the knowledge on the activity of their choice to enable them fulfill their dreams…Their request was unique and for us we have seen its importance on producing alternative energy,” she said.

The participants had in four days trained and practised ways to produce the briquettes while the remaining three days were spent on the preparation of business plans to enable them acquire loans and grants as soon as they start the business. Provisional statistics have it that from 2001 to 2007, the proportion of households in Dar es Salaam using charcoal as their primary energy source increased from 47 to 71 per cent The Chairman of BEDOKO Traders Limited,Mr Berny Komba,the trainer said that the communities should add value to wastes and at the same time obtain employment by producing alternative energy as a way to lessen the use of energy that is harmful to the environment.

He said most trees are cut for fuel but noted that communities have to change their mindsets by using charcoal briquettes which were also cost effective and quick especially in cooking. “Unless we apply such technology in our communities, we will not be able to control environmental degradation and the situation will harm us in the future…These briquettes are very effective compared to firewood which takes a long time to blaze,” he said. According to Mr Komba, the alarming figures of waste generation in the cities such as Dar es Salaam region amounts to 3,000 tons a day of which 40 percent could be briquetted and used as alternative energy while saving the environment.

He said the city uses more than 500 tons of charcoal yearly of which one ton was equivalent to ten tons of felled trees while calling for more support from stakeholders in ensuring wastes were being recycled sustainably. He cautioned the trained women to ensure they use wastes that were really harmful to the environment in ensuring that other uses are maintained especially fertilizers. Mr Komba noted lack of awareness on the product and inadequate funds as the major challenges hindering the activity adding that the business has also been treated as any other commercial where high interests rates were being charged by financial institutions when facilitating the business in terms of loans.

He said the Bagamoyo women were expected to be able to use the available agricultural, industrial and forest residues at their areas to produce the alternative energy which he said has ready made markets across the country mostly in institutions. “I am happy these women were eager to learn this technology and have shown cooperation especially in practicals from the begging o f the training… My company will guide them continuously to ensure they benefit from it in a successful manner,” he said.

Maria Shedrack, one of the participants from Mshikamano group at Bwilingu area said that the technology would improve her life since the market for briquettes was readily available in the area. “We are assured of markets in our areas because most schools, hospitals and colleges are currently using the briquettes as fuel,” she said. A primary teacher Judith Mugeta of Songambele group at Kudiembe area in Chalinze Ward says the technology will contribute a lot to the development of the group and that of her family.

She said the group had decided to ask for such training from REA after they had seen the briquettes consumption in their areas expanding day after another. She said the group would utilize the available grass, tree leaves, maize and rice residues to produce the fuel soon after submitting their business proposal to REA where they will secure loans to get the required machines.

The KFDC Community Development Manager Ms Lucy Sendi said the women were expected to perform better in the activity because they have been performing better than men in entrepreneurship activities at the area. Ms Costancia Dominick of Jikwamue Kilimo Kwanza group says the skills would enable her and the group to use the agricultural resides from their farming activities to produce alternative energy.

Ms Dominick says she would transfer the technology to the other members of the community including her son, to be able to get rid of poverty by engaging idle people in the area employ themselves.

Environmental police unit a welcome move

THE National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) and the Police Force will soon establish a special unit that will be responsible for monitoring environmental protection.

The environmental police unit will inspect farms, mining sites, textile mills, garages and factories, among other responsibilities.

It would be able to arrest, investigate and take necessary legal action against individuals and institutions implicated in practices that will harm the environment.

NEMC officials revealed the plans to the Vice-President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, who visited the institution on Monday. NEMC is one of the institutions under the VP's office.

The establishment of a unit for policing the country's environmental health was conceived some two years ago and culminated into signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NEMC and the Police Force.

The move is highly welcome since such a unit was long overdue. Environmental challenges are on the rise and collective efforts are needed to rectify the situation.

But while the environmental police will help in dealing with offenders, the government must also put in place the right infrastructure to facilitate compliance to environmental law and rules.

While it is proper to punish people who recklessly throw garbage, city authorities are supposed to put in place dump sites.

On Monday, Dr Bilal rightly described the state of environment in the country as "pathetic", citing a few cases, including pollution of the beaches, rivers, lakes and the sea.

According to experts, deforestation and environmental degradation are now among the serious problems that threaten the country's social and economic sustainability.

Tanzania loses thousands of hectares of forests annually due to illegal timber business and production of charcoal. Deforested areas, as a result, no longer provide a home for wildlife - leading to biodiversity loss; and are also susceptible to soil erosion.

Another problem is overgrazing. Having bigger livestock numbers may be good for farmers. But when their numbers exceed the area’s natural carrying capacity, it turns out to be a disadvantage.

In towns and cities, solid and liquid wastes are left untreated. As a result, air and water are contaminated with pollutants, a health hazard for those who live in under-privileged areas.

In Dar es Salaam, some studies say hardly five per cent of the population is connected to a sewage system. Worse still, waste is discharged raw into the Indian Ocean.

Let us work together to end these problems.

Tanzania: UNDP supported clay stoves make life easier for rural women

                                                      

Until January of this year, Stella Fungameza – a 30-year-old mother of three children –wandered into the forest twice a week for 12 hours, bringing home up to 30 kilograms of firewood from each her trips.

Now Stella can cook with half the amount of firewood thanks to an energy project piloted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Tanzania, a country facing a critical energy shortage.

UNDP is working with the government to provide more efficient cooking stoves so that people will not have to collect and burn so much firewood. The new stoves emit less smoke indoors – improving overall public health – and, in addition, women like Stella can spend more time with their children or launch a second income stream.

“I now collect firewood only once a week instead of going there twice,” Stella said. “I can sit in the kitchen with my children because the new stoves give out very little smoke. The smoke was bad when I was cooking on the traditional three-stones; my children used to cough quite a lot and complain from painful eyes.”

More than 40 million – about 94 percent – of Tanzania’s population relies on firewood and charcoal for cooking. As a result, the country’s forest cover has been reduced over the last 50 years from 6.3 hectares per capita to around 0.8 hectares in 2010, leaving behind miles of barren land incapable of absorbing water or supporting plant life.

When the project began three years ago, UNDP trained 80 young men and women to construct firewood stoves using clay soil and sand. In 2011 they constructed 7,500 stoves and, in turn, have trained more than 350 other villagers to do the same.  UNDP has encouraged the use of clay stoves because they use less firewood and burn out slower than traditional open firewood stoves.

“If the 7,500 improved stoves are used well they will reduce annual firewood consumption from 27,000 tonnes to 13,500 tonnes,” said Bariki Kaale, a UNDP Tanzania forest expert.  “If all households in the country started using improved firewood stoves, deforestation could be reduced from the current 412,000 hectares to around 206,000 hectares per year. This would enhance the conservation of water resources and biodiversity, and reduce deforestation’s contribution to climate change.”

In the last three years, US$850,000 has gone to this project from UNDP, with an additional US$152,000 from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

Currently, there are two ongoing pilot projects in Kwimba and Moshi districts, which are home to more than a million people.  Plans are now under way to extend the same programme to other parts of Tanzania.

World Water Day, grim reminder of water shortage

By JOYCE KABIGI

As Water Week closed last Thursday, many villages in the country still face shortage of clean water.

Mothers in the rural areas, with a baby on their back, still walk long distances in search for water to use in their daily activities like cooking, drinking and washing. In towns too there is a shortage of water.

‘’I do not think it is right to celebrate World Water Day while we are still facing water shortage in our country,” says a resident of Kimara, Dar es Salaam, called Ally Mustapha. “People are still facing a severe shortage of water. In Kimara the problem is chronic.”

On account of that, Mustapha adds that it is an irony to celebrate the World’s Water Day because Tanzanians is still plagued by shortage of clean and safe water.

But Judith Shoo, another Dar resident, supportive of the momentous day, differs with Mustapha and says it  is important to commemorate the day because it makes water stakeholders remember the need to supply clean and safe water to the people.

"The day reminds water stakeholders to remember their duty of  providing safe water to the people,” Ms Shoo says.

 The fact that over two thirds of our planet earth is covered by water and our body is mostly made up of it, underscores its importance.

An international organization, WaterAid called for people all over the world to have safe drinking water on the day.

However, a WaterAid report shows that 783 million people still live without this essential service over one in ten across the globe.

According to the WaterAid country representative in Tanzania, Mr Paul Obura, ensuring that everyone on the planet has clean water to drink would be a great achievement.

 “Ensuring that everyone on the planet has clean water to drink would rank as one of the great achievements of humankind. Delivering upon this human right would also improve public health and drive economic development.

“Meeting the Millennium Development Goal on water by providing access to 2 billion more people in the last twenty years shows what can be achieved. However, we must not lose sight of the 783 million people, who still have no choice but to drink unsafe water.

“Everyone on the planet has a right to safe water to drink and this could be achieved with the right political will within our lifetime - let’s not settle for anything less than 100 pe cent,” he said.

The report released recently by WaterAid shows that on April 20, this year, the Sanitation and Water for All partnership will bring together Government ministers from around the world and WaterAid will be calling on them to act with urgency to end the water and sanitation crisis.

The report also revealed that diarhoea caused by unsafe water and sanitation is the biggest killer of children in Sub-Saharan Africa and the second biggest killer of children worldwide - taking more young lives than HIV/AIDs, malaria and measles combined.

The report further revealed that sanitation remains the most off track of the Millennium Development Goals. Currently, 2.5 billion people live without access to sanitation, over 1 in 3 of the world's population.  On current rates of progress, it will take almost 70 years in South Asia and over 250 years for Sub-Saharan Africa to reach universal access to sanitation.

Around the globe, 300,000 people are taking part in the World Walks for Water and Sanitation to call on governments to bring about universal access for these services and put an end to the water and sanitation crisis. 

The importance of water made WaterAid earlier this year to launch their five-year water strategy in the country is a welcome move. At the ceremony, the guest of honour, Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training Mr Philip Mulugo said, the government all by itself cannot provide water to the whole country. However, with the cooperation of private institutions and NGOs, the target of water to reach the whole country will be reached.

"Despite efforts to combat malaria, the government has in addition a target to provide clean water to its people to fight against diseases caused by unclean water, for example cholera,’’ said Mulugo.

By Mulugo’s account, the government took a step to fight against malaria but it is also going to fight against diseases caused by dirty water by providing clean water to the people.

The Director of International Programmes WaterAid, Mr Girish Menon said WaterAid will continue to help people to reach the target of providing clean water whether in villages or in towns.

"We are going to help Tanzanians to have clean water especially in schools because the most students affected are girls,’’ said Menon.

Established in 1981, WaterAid focuses exclusively on provision of safe domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education to many countries.

It works in partnership with the Central Government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and communities in Tabora, Dar es Salaam, Singida and Manyara.

The main mission of WaterAid is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities.

JK : Ihefu wetlands out of bounds

President Jakaya Kikwete has said the government will not allow pastoralists or farmers to return to Ihefu wetlands because the area is of great economic  significance  to the nation.

He advised civic leaders to stop  seeking votes  by cheating people that they were capable of forcing  the government to  allow  farmers back to the wetlands.

The president was addressing hundreds of Iringa residents who turned up to mark the climax of  the Water Week.

Earlier, Ruaha National Park Chief Warden Mr Stephano Qolli told the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Ezekiel Maige that pastoralists were  gradually  moving back to the wetlands area.

“The minister has been informed that farmers and pastoralists  are returning  their herds to the wetlands and want the government to apportion them  some land in the area. That is impossible and MPs and councillors should understand it,” the President said.

He said it was time for political leaders to take decisions that might anger the public but benefit the nation.

He said the world is grappling with water scarcity, and many people are scrambling for the little that is available due to climate change.

The president said Ihefu pours  its waters  into the Great Ruaha   from where Mtera dam generates electricity.   Rufiji basin which is famous for farming, through irrigation also depends on Ihefu

In celebrating the water week, the president also inaugurated the Iringa Urban Water Project expected to benefit 200,000 people in Iringa town, neighbouring communities and villages.

The project cost a total of Euro 33,458,000 (About 73 bn/-) and was implemented by Iringa Urban Water Supply

Authority (IRUWASA).

Of the funds ,Euro 17,076,000 (about   35 bn/-) was donated by the European Union  while  the rest came from the Water Basket, the Federal Republic of Germany and IRUWASA.

The EU Ambassador to Tanzania, Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi in a speech read on his behalf by the Head of Infrastructure Section of the EU Delegation to Tanzania Adam Grodzicki said EU believes that access to improved water and sanitation facilities leads to improved health as targeted under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Head of Cooperation of the German Embassy, Gisela Habel, welcomed the successful conclusion of the Iringa water project, noting that Iringa  resident will now feel the impact on improved water supply and sanitation.