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ATC, TRL DEBACLE PROVIDE LESSONSFOR KILIMO KWANZA

When Tanzania resolved to form its own nationalairline, after the collapse of the regional airline (theEast African Airways) following the demise of theEast African Community, EAC, in June 1977, it hadone of the best conditions for such a move.

Apart from being in possession of not less than five planes,two Fokkers and three Twin Otters, it had 147 pilots, aircraftengineers and technicians.

What was more, even the EAA Deputy Chief engineer, oneMr Lyatuu, was a Tanzanian while the Chief Engineer, a Briton,was an expatriate.

It was thus not surprising that a London based monthly mag-azine, Africa Business carried a very positive story on the birth ofthe new airline, giving it over 90 percent chances of blossominginto one of the most successful airlines in the continent.

However, two decades later, the airline, Air Tanzania Cor-poration, ATC, nosedive into a series of management problems,forcing the government to enter into joint venture, in running theairline, with the South African Airways (SAA) which eventuallycame unstuck!

Since then the presence of the ailing airline has remainedmore or less nominal, what with its operation of two planes.

At the peak of the airline’s operation, ATC had nine planesthat had included two Boeing 737 that had been bought brandnew by the nascent airline.

The reduction of the number of planes from nine to its presentfleet of two appeared to have irked President Jakaya Kikwete whohas more than once wondered how the airline could have lostseven aircrafts!

The President however, recently vowed to revive the airlineso that it can, simultaneously, help in boosting the vibrant touristindustry.

ATC’s failure to live to the prophesy of Africa Business maga-zine despite having had capital and skilled human resource, hasunderstandably raised numerous question marks.

Interestingly, what befell ATC also afflicted another Tanzanianinstitution, Tanzania Railways Corporation, TRC, (which later be-came known as Tanzania Railways Limited under the stewardshipof an Indian management company).

The railway company just like the ATC was endowed withboth capital and skilled human resource!

However, a close scrutiny of both institutions showed thatapart from lacking leadership in the form of robust managements,the foregoing institutions also lacked commitment, on the part ofits staff and monitoring mechanism.

And the absence of robust management-a result of employ-ment on the basis of know-who as opposed to know-how, gaverise to untold theft, corruption and other ills with the resultantcollapse of the companies.

Interestingly, conditions that favoured the establishment of anational airline in Tanzania late in 1970s, a very similar to condi-tions that presently favour the transformation of Tanzania into afood basket, especially for African countries.

However, the proverbial million dollar question that hangs inthe air is will such favourable conditions once again lead to thefailure by Tanzania into becoming the continent’s food basket inthe same way ATC and later, TRL failed?

Before one looks into whether or not Tanzania will this timearound make it, it is important to look critically into the conditionsthat favour the country into bringing about green revolution.

With 945,087 square kilometers, Tanzania’s size is biggerthan the combined sizes of its EAC partner states of Kenya,Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

Apart from the size of its land mass, Tanzania has biggerarable land and water regime-lakes, rivers, and springs than itsneighbouring partner states.

Perhaps the only challenge that currently faces the country ishow to protect its water sources by bringing to a halt depletion ofits forests, especially in water sources areas.

During the just ended Parliamentary Budget session inDodoma, central Tanzania, the Minister for Agriculture, FoodSecurity and Cooperatives, Mr Stephen Wasira told the Housethat Tanzania would next year have food surplus.

He said: “in the 2010/11 financial year, Tanzania will produce12.8 million tones of food against the National demand of 11.4million tones”.

The minister said because of the good news, the governmentwas now planning to lift food export ban that it had introduced dur-ing food shortage a few years ago.

However, the semi authoritative government owned Englishdaily, The Daily News cautioned the government against the moveon its editorial of June 24th this year.

Writing on the issue, the paper told the government to liftthe ban gradually, stressing on the dangers inherent in rusheddecision.

Although the government has yet to lift the ban on food ex-port, the newspaper’s caution was evident a few weeks later whenthe minister cautioned farmers against selling their food cheaply.

The minister made the call after it became apparent thatfarmers in the regions appeared to be falling prey to business menwho were going around buying cheaply in order to sell dearly laterboth internally and externally.

Major importers of Tanzania’s grains, have been Kenya to thenorth and Zambia to the south which have repeatedly been hit byfamine due to a variety of factors that include unreliable rainfall.

Mr Wasira called on the farmers to be patient, noting that thegovernment was bracing upto buy most of their grains for CONTINUES PAGE 3

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Agro-web a boost to Kilimo Kwanza“Generally, statistics is a major problem in Tanzania,” the Assistant Director for Irrigation in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Mr Gabriel Kalinga told me as we settled down in his office for an interview.This was the second time in a space of one week that Mr Kalinga had lamented over problems related to statistics.The first time Mr Kalinga complained over the issue was when I spoke to him over the phone in the course of seeking an appointment for interview with him over a variety of issues related to irrigation activities in Tanzania.My meeting with the youthful director was coming five days after I had attended a meeting related to statistics in Morogoro town, 200 kilometres west of Tanzania’s commercial city of Dar es Salaam. The all-important working meeting was organized by the no-nonsense National Coordina-tor, CountrySTAT Tanzania, Mrs Joyce Urasa who is employed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as Principal Statistician.Although getting information on irrigation activities in Tanzania was on this particular day one of my top priorities. However, unlike my involvement in journalistic work in the past, this time around my main objective was to find out how correct were Mr Kalinga’s statistical data on the ministry’s irrigation activities. During the three days meeting held in Morogoro town (from June 9 to 11), data custodians from Ministries of agriculture, water and irrigation, forestry and their counterpart ministries in Zanzibar worked on data collected from district, regional level in the United Republic of Tanzania.In the course of the Morogoro meeting, I had had a close working relationship with a data custodian from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Mr Patroba Mafuru, an economist by profession.What was quite encouraging about my meeting with Mr Kalinga, five days later, was that all statistical data on irrigation in Tanzania was similar to the statistical data that Mafuru had had on his laptop in Morogoro as he jointly worked on the data with his colleagues from other ministries under the watchful eyes of Mrs Urasa.For instance, whereas Mr Mafuru had shown me the total number of hectares under irrigation in Tanzania stood at 331,490 until May this year, the same figure was produced by Mr Kalinga.Mr Kalinga says the number of hectares under irrigation is very low compared to the country’s available land or potentiality. He divides Tanzania’s irrigation

potentiality into three parts, high, medium and low potentiality.According to the assistant director high potential has 2.3 million hectares, medium, 4.8 million hectares and low potential, 22.8 million hectares, hence bringing Tanzania’s total irrigation potential to 29.4 million hectares.Mr Kalinga said they used three criteria in determining the three divisions of high, medium and low irrigation potential.He named the three criteria as agricultural land suitable for irrigation, water and what he describes as socio-economic issues prevailing in a given area.On socio-economic issues, Mr Kalinga says the people’s preparedness/readiness for irrigation activity is very important.“An area may be of very high potential for an irrigation scheme. However, for the people living in such an area, irrigation scheme may not be a priority for them!” he says.“What is more,” he says “and because the government is not in business, as it is just there for the provision of technical support to the people, it cannot force such people to engage in irrigation,” he says.

Mr Kalinga further says that in other cases, the area potential for irrigation may in its bowels of the earth be endowed with minerals resources, hence making the people occupying the area more interested in minerals rather than irrigation activity.According to Mr Kalinga, if the best agricultural practices in paddy farming are employed, one hectare should be able to yield between 1.8 and six tones of rice, onions between 13 and 26 tones per hectare and tomatoes between five and 18 per hectare.The implication of this is if Tanzania was to make full use of its total irrigation potential of land that stands at 29.4 million hectares, it would get a total of 176.4 million tones of rice if it produced six tones per hectare.However, if it made use of the high potential area of irrigation land alone that presently stands at 2.3 million hectares, the country would get 11.5 million tones of rice at the same rate of five tones per hectare.He said the foregoing impressive rice production figures could easily make Tanzania one of the world’s leading net rice exporters especially if you consider the fact that presently rice requirement in Tanzaia stands at one million tones!This means that Tanzania would be able to export 175.4 million tones of rice that would go towards boosting the country’s foreign exchange.However, Mr Kalinga says the provision of their technical support in the irrigation sector is hampered by lack of money. What was quite interesting during my interview with Mr Kalinga was that all the data he had provided me tallied with data contained in Mr Mafuru’s laptop.What this means is that all the data worked on by Mr Mafuru and his colleagues in Morogoro town now constitute the sole and only source of data, nationally and internationally.The data, soon to be posted in the CountrySTAT Tanzania website,

is certain to serve the objective with which it was established in the first place, namely that of providing a one-stop centre both for local and international consumers of the statistical data.This development is a new phenomenon in Tanzania that had in the past been bedeviled not only by the absence of correct and quality data, but also poorly processed and kept data.Every data custodian’s work in the form in his or her docket was later jointly verified by the rest of the team, in terms of presenta-tion, easy use etc, with Mrs Urasa being assisted in the task by an IT wizard, Mr Faraja Komba, Ms Beatrice Rwego-shora and Mr Oswald Ruboha.If you told somebody who is well-schooled in statistics and data processing in a developed country on one’s excitement about what is taking place in Tanzania, as far as statistics are concerned, he or she is likely to raise eyebrows for the simple reason that statistics is not a problem in such countries.Indeed, statistics in such countries is not only their bread and butter, but they have advanced so far in the sector that today they are able even to tell you how many trees they have in their countries!But to appreciate the importance of this revolution for a country like Tanzania, it is important to go back in the proverbial time tunnel three decades previously when the Minister for Agriculture, Professor Machunda was forced to resign after giving President Julius Nyerere wrong data on how much tones of food the country had in its national silos.It all happened after the country had been severely hit by prolonged drought that threatened a number of regions, especially in northern part of the country, with famine.The minister was forced to take political responsibility after it was later discovered that the figures he had presented to the President was wrong. President Nyerere had required data on food deficit so that his government could import food and thereby avert an impending famine.Despite facing more than once famine problems, Tanzania appeared to have learnt nothing on the importance of collecting, processing and keeping correct statistics for their use.However, this problem which has time and again haunted Tanzania finally appears to slowly, but steadily becoming a thing of the past!This change of fortunes follows what happened in August 2008, when the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) developed, for Tanzania,

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FROM PAGE 1the National Food Reserve.

One thing that come out veryclearly here is that as the countrybraces up to implement itsnational agricultural policy, KilimoKwanza (agriculture first) aimedat bringing about food self-suffi-ciency and poverty reduction.

Unexpectedly, Tanzania findsitself in very favourable conditionsto bring about the long awaitedand yearned for agriculturalrevolution.

For instance, the presenceof food surplus next year meansthat Tanzania will, for the time,

not worry about famine as it goesabout implementing its KilimoKwanza agricultural policy.

However, for Tanzania tobe on the safe side, it needs tocontrol its food exports in orderto avert imports especially duringthis critical time.

Another positive condition isthe availability of the CountryS-TAT website that is well loadedwith the requisite statistical datarequired for any planning processby decision makers in varioussectors in agriculture, irrigation orforestry.

Availability of reliable datais something that was unheardof in the past, hence contribut-ing, to some extent, to the failurein the implementation of pastagricultural policies such as Siasani Kilimo (agriculture is politics)of 1971.

The presence of the Coun-trySTAT website which apart frombeing constantly updated is thesole source of all important sta-tistical data in the country meansthat now decision makers can,through the use of the data, planwith ease for the future.

The beauty of the Coun-trySTAT website is that for thefirst time in the country’s historyofficials in agricultural, irrigation,forestry and other importantplayers in the nation speak withone language when it comes toreference of agricultural or anyother important commodity.

However, apart from institut-ing a monitoring mechanism totake care of the implementation ofKilimo Kwanza policy, it is criticalthat all the players are committedto what they doing.

ATC, TRL debacle provide lessons for Kilimo Kwanza

After two decades of Tanza-nia government’s involve-ment in governance andbusiness, in 1986 it shed offbusiness and maintained

governance following the coming ontoth scene of President Nyerere’s suc-cessor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi.

Since then all governmentdepartments and ministries, includingthat of water and irrigation, have beenconfined to the provision of advisoryand technical services.

And because of that, theAssistant Director of Irrigation inthe Ministry of Water and Irrigation(MOWI), Mr Gabriel Kalinga is simplyto provide technical support to largescale farmers and what he describesas small scale holders.

This approach, he says, is aimedat helping those who are alreadyinvolved in some kind of irrigationactivities.

Most parts of the countryinvolved in irrigation have traditionalirrigation schemes, “and it is theseschemes that the government hasbeen busy, trying to promote andmodernize them,” he says.

“At present the government’sattention is focused in the same aridregions in the northern region ofArusha, centrally located regions ofDodoma, Singida and Shinyanga andMwanza located in the southern tipof Africa’s biggest fresh water LakeVictoria”.

Mr Kalinga describes theforegoing areas as marginal areason account of being subjected toseasonal rains, adding that whatthey are involved in, in these areas isharvesting rains and trapping waterfrom rivers”.

He says they usually move in tooffer their technical support once theyare convinced over the existence ofcommitment on the part of the peoplein a given area.

But what criteria does the gov-ernment use in determining betweenlarge scale farmers and small scaleholders?

In terms of hectares, Mr Kalingasays from 0-500 hectares falls undersmall farm holders, from 500-2000,medium and from 2000 hectares

upwards under large scale farming.Some of the large scale farms in

Tanzania which are over 2,000 hect-ares are Mbarali and Kapunga paddyfarms in Mbeya Region, southernhighlands region.

However, another equally largefarm, Madibira which is also locatedin southern highlands region with over3,000 hectares, does not fall underlarge scale farm category becauseit is occupied by small scale holderswho own hectares from one to threein the large farm.

Out of 331,490 hectares cur-rently under irrigation, large scalecommercial farms constitute 55,230and small scale farms constitute276,260 hectares.

The irrigation system dominantin Tanzania is that of open channel inwhich water flows by gravity, hence itsname Open Channel Gravity System.

But Mr Kalinga says the domi-nant irrigation system is slowly, butsteadily being replaced by a modernirrigation referred to as the Drip Irriga-tion System.

He said the move towards dripirrigation system has mainly beenbrought about by increased competi-tion between and among farmers.

Drip irrigation system is alsoreplacing what had until then beenconsidered a modern irrigation sys-tem, namely the Sprinklers IrrigationSystem.

There are three main advan-tages in drip irrigation system.

One, since it uses water moreefficiently compared to the two othersystems, open water channel gravityand sprinklers systems, hence makingit more ideal for areas where wateris scarce.

Secondly, because the waterirrigates only the plant, in a waterdripping form, leaving other areasdry, it reduces quite considerably thegrowth of weeds which tend to affectthe growth and the general wellbeingof the plant.

Thirdly, drip irrigation combineswell with fertilizer as the latter couldeasily be mixed with water that isdirected through the drip irrigationsystem to the desired plant.

According to Mr Kalinga someof the leading farms in the country

where drip irrigation is fast replacingsprinklers irrigation system is theTanganyika Planting Company, TPC,situated in near Moshi town at the footof Africa’s roof, Mount Kilimanjaro.

TPC which is famed for sugarproduction produced from its ownsugarcane plantation was firstestablished in 1930 and another firstfor the company is that it was the firstcompany to introduce not only orga-nized football team in the then Britishmandated territory of Tanganyika, butalso semi-professional footballers inthe East African region.

What is more, it was throughTPC footballers from Kenya, Ugandaand Tanganyika who first donnedtracksuits and modern football bootscomplete with studs in a region wherefootballers played bare-footed.

During the time, the TPC teamused to provide more than 90 percentof Tanganyika’s national football teamplayers.

Other farms where sprinklersirrigation system is being replacedby drip irrigation system are MufindiTea plantation in Iringa Region, insouthern highlands region, a 650hectare coffee farm at Mweka, nearMoshi town in Kilimanjaro Regionwhich takes its name from MountKilimanjaro and horticulture farms inArusha and Kilimanjaro Regions.

Mr Kalinga says they recentlyintroduced a pilot irrigation schemewhich uses wells and pumps ingetting water for use through dripirrigation system.

“The pilot irrigation scheme hasbeen introduced in two districts, onein Iringa Rural District, Iringa Regionand the second one in Moshi Districtin Kilimanjaro Region.

In Moshi District the schemesare known as Kochakindo andKyomu schemes and in Iringa RuralDistrict the schemes are located atTanangozi, Mgama, Wangama andIgingilanyi.

The other important sources ofwater for irrigation schemes in IringaRural District include the Great Ruahatributary.

Mr Kalinga told me that underthe Public Private Partnership Pro-gramme, the government through theMinistry of Water and Irrigation can

provide technical support to a farmerin need of expertise in irrigation.

He says many people withadequate funds are always afraid ofinvesting their money in agriculturemainly because of the high risk busi-ness in agriculture carries.

However, he says that under thenew, two year National Irrigation Mas-ter Plan unveiled by the governmentthis year, the ministry helps those whoare prepared to plunge into irrigationschemes.

The assistance is two-fold: One,the ministry helps the client in gettinga title deed for his or her farm, andsecondly, it helps in getting what isknown as water use permit initiallyreferred to as water right.

He says water right was replacedwith water use permit because experi-ence showed that those bestowedwith water right tended to take wateruse literally, that is, as if it was theirbirth right!

The creation of the National Ir-rigation Policy has helped the ministryin coming up with package, that in-cludes, among others, title deeds andwater use permit, which are in turnregistered by the Tanzania InvestmentCentre, TIC.

What this means is that foreignand local investors who want to investin irrigation schemes in Tanzaniacan now get in touch with the TIC,who have temporary rights over thepackages, and negotiate with them forany number of registered packagesfor their use.

The ministry of water andirrigation draws part of its funds indesigning the packages from a basketfund under the Agricultural SectorDevelopment Programme (ASDP)which was formed in 2006 and drawsfunding from both government anddevelopment partners.

According to Mr Kalinga thebasket fund has 2.5 trillion shillings,and apart from the ministry of waterand irrigation, the fund is also at thedisposal of other lead ministries ofagriculture, livestock and fisheries,industries and the prime minister’soffice regional administration and localgovernments.

The ASDP’s tenure (it started in

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By Attilio Tagalile

There is something unique about theofficial launch of the CountrySTATTanzania web based informationtechnology on February 24th thisyear (2010).

The web system established for agri-cultural led ministries was launched on theeve of a major conference organized by theTanzania National Business Council, TNBC.

The conference, on Kilimo kwanza(agriculture first), came under the name ofProspects for Agricultural Growth in a Chang-ing World and was held at Dar es Salaam’ssprawling Moevenpick Hotel on February25th this year.

What makes the CountrySTAT Tanzaniawebsite launch unique is the fact that itsimportance to the agricultural conference heldon the following day was such that one wouldnot be wrong if he or she compared it withthe very conference which had set out to putKilimo Kwanza in perspective.

Indeed, whichever way one looks at it, itis indisputable that agricultural developmentin Tanzania will, from now onwards, heavilydepend on the main players first being armedwith correct statistical data, and here comesin the all-important saviour- CountrySTATTanzania website.

It was varying statistical data that forced,in 1980s, one of the country’s most learnedsons-an entomologist, Professor John BaptistMachunda to resign as Minister of Agriculture.

This was the era of the no-nonsensefounding father of the Tanzanian nation, DrJulius Nyerere and Tanzania was smartingfrom famine following prolonged drought.

The Tanzanian government could notimport the country’s staple food, maize inorder to offset its acute food shortage withoutfirst knowing, precisely, how many tones ofmaize the country required.

President Nyerere ordered the haplessminister to provide him with data on howmany tones of food was required.

And as fate would have it, ProfessorMachunda handed his boss figures whichwere within hours disputed, hence leading tohis forced resignation.

The rest is of course history. However,what is interesting about the macabre incidentis that it later transpired that the ministry ofagriculture had more than one figure for thesame produce!

Now the good news is that the erstwhilestatistical problem is presently being takencare of by the establishment of the CountryS-TAT Tanzania website.

The CountrySTAT Tanzania website nowserves as a one stop-centre, and it is this par-ticular characteristic which makes it difficultfor any agricultural led ministry served by thewebsite to come up with differing statistics onthe same product.

And now back to the conference. TheTNBC Chairman, Mr Salum Shamte, setthe proverbial ball rolling when he took theparticipants on Kilimo Kwanza through thepresentation of his paper titled: Prospects forAgricultural Growth in a Changing World.

He explained that Kilimo Kwanza whichwas officially launched by President JakayaKikwete in Dodoma, central Tanzania, on

August 3rd 2009, was a national resolve toaccelerate agricultural transformation in thecountry.

Mr Shamte said the seriousness withwhich both TNBC and the governmentviewed Kilimo Kwanza was such that theyconsidered it as a central pillar in achievingthe country’s Vision 2025.

The linkage between the CountrySTATTanzania web based system on one handand Kilimo Kwanza and the TNBC organizedconference under review on the other onceagain emerged when Mr Shamte had thisto say:

“Agriculture in the context of Kilimo kwan-za conforms to the FAO (Food and AgricultureOrganisation) which includes crops, livestock,fisheries, forestry and bee-keeping”.

What is interesting about this linkage isthat apart from being involved in agriculturaldevelopment the world over, it is the sameUnited Nations body that was involved inthe design, in August 2008 in Rome, Italy ofthe CountrySTAT Tanzania web informationtechnology system.

As already noted in the past, what makesKilimo Kwanza’s success almost inevitableis the fact that it was formulated under theauspices of the TNBC.

Thus unlike in the past government ledand driven agricultural policies which camea cropper, this time around the governmentplayed a facilitating role.

In a nutshell, one can rightly say thatKilimo Kwanza is a private sector drivenagricultural policy, a factor that ensures itssuccessful implementation.

What IS TNBC?

The Tanzania National Business Councilis a forum for public/private dialogue on stra-tegic issues for Tanzania’s socio-economicdevelopment.

The TNBC is made up of 40 members,20 from the private sector and 20 from thepublic sector appointed by the President ofUnited Republic of Tanzania who also hap-pens to be the TNBC’s Chairman.

Private sector representatives arerecommended in the TNBC by the TanzaniaPrivate Sector Foundation (TPSF), the focalorganization for private sector associations inthe country.

The TNBC Executive Council has atotal of 12 members which are equally splitbetween private and public sectors.

The work of the Executive Committeeis to, among others, oversee functions of theCouncil.

The Executive Committee is chaired bythe Chief Secretary who is the Head of theCivil Service (sitting in the office of the Presi-dent of the United Republic of Tanzania) andco-chaired by the chairperson of the TPSF.

However, the day to day functions of theTNBC is undertaken by a Secretariat headedby an Executive Secretary.

The TNBC dialogue is conductedthrough council meetings; Local and Interna-tional Investors’ Roundtables (LIRT and IIRT);Regional and District Business Council; Work-ing Groups-professionals and practitionersfrom public and private sectors.

How CountrySTAT web fitsinto Tanzania’s agro set up

The CountrySTAT Tanzania is a webbased system for food and agriculture statis-tics at the national and sub-national levels.

The main objective behind the establish-ment of the web based system is to improvethe accessibility, relevance and reliability ofa country’s national statistics on food andagriculture.

It is hoped that the end result of theforegoing development will help in facilitatingplanning and decision making by policy mak-ers and analysts.

Tanzania is not alone in this develop-ment, aimed at, among other things, ensuringthat countries become proud owners of qual-ity statistics, throught their CountrySTATs.

There are presently 16 other countries inthe league in the sub-Sahara with Tanzaniataking the 17th spot.

Perhaps the beauty of the web basedsystem is that in Tanzania it has come at atime when the country is busy on what hasbeen dubbed country’s green revolution.

The revolution is set to be implementedthrough what has come to be known in thecountry’s national language, Kiswahili asKilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First).

Before the introduction of the new agri-cultural policy by President Jakaya Kikwete’sadministration, Tanzania has had since inde-pendence two agricultural policies, Kilimo niUti wa Mgongo (Agriculture is the Backboneof the economy) and Siasa ni Kilimo (Politicsis Agriculture).

Unfortunately both agricultural policiescame not only unstuck, but left the countrypoorer than ever before with the culprit lyingsquarely on the implementation process.

However, the main difference betweenthen and now is that the latest Kilimo Kwanzapolicy is backed up by the new web basedsystem.

Unlike their counterparts in the lastthree decades, present policy makers in theministries of agriculture, water and irrigationare better placed to bring the Kilimo Kwanzapolicy to fruitition through the availability ofcorrect data, afforded to them by the newweb based system.

It is hoped that the present policy mak-ers would make good use of the statisticsafforded them through CountrySTAT in chart-ing out their food and agricultural strategiesthat should bail out Tanzania from continuedthreats of famine and poverty.

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Agro-web a boostto Kilimo Kwanza

2006/07) is seven years and isexpected to end in 2012/13.

For irrigation scheme or any proj-ect for that matter to qualify for fundingfrom the basket three conditions orcriteria must be fulfilled.

One, how many villagers arein the given District, secondly, thepopulation distribution in the area andthirdly, what is referred to as rainfallindex.

Scores or marks allocated tothe three conditions or criteria are asfollows: the number of villagers in aDistrict gobbles 80 marks while popu-lation distribution and rainfall index is10 marks each, bringing the total to100 marks.

But criteria or conditions forirrigation schemes are somewhat dif-ferent as they may not be a space forhousing such an irrigation scheme in adensely populated area.

What is more, given the im-portance and complicated nature ofirrigation schemes, they are allocatedmore funds from the basket.

For instance, according to MrKalinga, 75 percent of the ASDP’sbasket will be allocated to irrigationschemes.

However, even then, says Mr Ka-linga the funds are not adequate giventhe enormity and complicated natureof irrigation schemes that require veryexpensive infrastructure.

It is for this reason that irrigationschemes have additional funding fromanother basket funding referred toas the District Irrigation DevelopmentFund, DIDF

However, Mr Kalinga pays glow-ing tribute to the fourth phase adminis-tration of President Jakaya Kikwete forshowing enormous goodwill towardsirrigation schemes.

Of course, it would have beensurprising if such political will didnot exist given the fact that it is thesame administration that has since itsinception in January 2006, has beenpropagating for what has come to beknown as Kilimo Kwanza (agriculturefirst).

However, when all is said anddone, irrigation remains the onlysalvation for Tanzanians given theincreasing lack of reliability of rains inthe country.

However, when all parties playtheir part coupled with the presenceof a robust Tanzania CountrySTAT,Tanzania’s policy makers are betterplaced for success now than everbefore.

Irrigation sole weaponagainst hunger, povertyFR OM PAGE 3

What is CountrySTAT?