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Farming: Why wait for the rains?
2005-10-03 23:47:24
By Deodatus Mfugale
That agriculture is the simplest way to survive in Tanzania, there is no dispute about it. Neither can it be denied the farming method used by the majority of our farmers is still outdated.
To be more precise, to depend on a hand hoe today, is as good as courting food shortage, a disaster that usually culminates in begging for relief food.
Another not so healthy environment about Tanzania is her dependence on rainfall for agriculture. When it does not rain, farming stalls, crops die and famine sets in.
Some areas like the southern regions of Mbeya, Iringa and Ruvuma are lucky, though. Rainfall is regular and sufficient.
The climate in other regions can be erratic as the pattern keeps on changing. Getting sufficient rainfall throughout the year is not ’a given fact.
The negative effects of non-improved agriculture in Tanzania could be many. However, the most obvious outcome is poverty, the kind of life many Tanzanians have been grappling with since independence.
One need not emphasize how poverty has adversely affected the lives of people and their health.
If food production as the main economic activity for a given family is not sufficient for home use, that means there is no extra produce for sale to accumulate wealth.
It goes without saying that medical bills, paying school fees and decent housing are only a dream to farmers whom poverty is part of their life.
Yet, the same people suffering from poverty, their lives could be transformed for the better, if the means of their livelihood – farming, is given a different approach and outlook.
Farming as way of life should be made economically viable for the poor and not the last resort for desperate people. But how can this be done?
Our countless rivers are some of the greatest natural resources Tanzania is endowed with but has unfortunately failed to utilize them fully.
They just empty their waters either into the lakes or the Indian Ocean.
Just one example; it was only recently water from Wami River was tapped for distribution to villages in the Coast Region.
Otherwise, the river has been literary dumping useful water into the ocean without serving villagers for home and agricultural use.
Irrigation farming was once popularized in Kilimanjaro Region when Japanese helped establish rice farms at Ndungu in Same and Chekereni in Moshi.
The residents of these areas managed to more than double their harvests per hectare.
Why can’t all the lowlands adopt such a simple technology?
In some regions like Dodoma, swampy areas could be rehabilitated for irrigation and turned into rich moneymaking vineyards.
As a matter of fact, if irrigation was to be given a thrust, much of Coast and Dar es Salaam regions would be able to produce rice, maize, fruits and so on. Other regions have their potentials, too.
We suggest a through research should be done on the possibility of starting countrywide large-scale irrigation projects drive.
That would be one of the best ways to use our waters to improve the economics of our people.
Countries in the developed world are able to recycle wastewater and reuse it for irrigation. Why can’t Tanzanians pool resources and venture in a useful causes like turning virgin lands into arable land?
Why can’t we advocate irrigation as a viable economic vehicle to greater heights of development, when we are blessed with so much water?
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