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We’ve enough food stocks, Kikwete assures nation
2006-03-01 07:21:39
By Guardian Reporter
President Jakaya Kikwete assured the nation yesterday that there is enough food to last until May.
In his monthly address to the nation via radio and television, President Kikwete said the government had taken precautionary measures to deal with the famine threat in the country.
’’I’d like to assure you that your government has already taken measures to ensure that the country has enough food to feed all people who face food shortages between now and May this year,’’ the President said.
He said the government had bought from the Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) 21,499 tonnes of food worth 4.3m/- for 631,405 people between December last year and last month.
The government has also spent 976,661,800/- in transporting the food to the needy in various regions, he added.
President Kikwete said his government was also working round the clock to respond in good time to the Food Security Information Team (FSIT) assessment report.
The report, which was compiled by the Prime Minister’s Office shows that over 3.7 million people are at risk of famine and need at least 99,676 tonnes of food between now and end of next month.
’’The government has already released and started distributing 14,951 tonnes of maize to 564,726 people that cannot afford to buy food at a subsidised price of 50/- per kilogramme,’’ President Kikwete said.
He added that the government is also distributing 42,669 tonnes of maize to people who can buy it at the subsidised price.
President Kikwete said that the government was sending food directly to villages to ensure that it reaches the needy.
He warned that stern measures would be taken against irresponsible leaders who jeopardise the efforts to stave off famine.
He said that local businessmen had already imported 170,936 tonnes of cereals, including maize and were finalising plans to bring in 116,000 tonnes following the tax waiver on imported food.
President Kikwete said the government would buy food from abroad to bridge the 42,055-tonnes deficit from the total 99,676 needed to offset famine in the country.
’’A tender to import 24,000 tonnes of grain has already been advertised and another for 18,000 tonnes will be announced soon,’’ he said.
However, he warned that the food situation would get even worse if the season rains expected between this month and May would not be enough to enable farmers grow crops this year.
As part of measures taken to deal with any possibility of prolonged drought in the country, Kikwete said the Prime Minister’s Office had already lodged an appeal with foreign partners to donate 100,000 tonnes of relief food worth about 30bn/-.
A total of 3.108bn/- had already been raised locally from Tanzanians, which include a funds-drive at the Dar es Salaam State House last month, he said, adding:
’’We expect to increase the amount to over 7bn/- by the end of this month through donations from ministers of the Union government.’’
Regarding drought, he said the government was taking seeds shortage seriously. He also said the threat of armyworms in some regions would be tackled in time to forestall an extended food shortage.
He said that a total of 3,434 tonnes of different seeds to farmers and approximately 900m/- is needed to deal with armyworms in affected regions.
On power shortage, President Kikwete said the situation was more critical now compared with January 31 when he addressed the nation and the rationing time had reached 16 hours from hardly 8.
He attributed the worsening problem to the decreasing water levels at Kihansi and Mtera dams due to the prolonged drought.
He said that power crisis in the country is critical, but promised that the government, in collaboration with Tanesco, would work on medium and long-term solutions.
He said that the focus is now on enabling the country shift from over-reliance on hydro electric power to other sources, including fuel and gas.
On fuel prices, he conceded that it had become a major problem and ruled out possibilities that the prices would be reduced.
However, he assured that the country that the government had enough foreign currency reserves to import fuel.
Regarding the recent spate of armed robberies in major towns and cities, President Kikwete said he had waged a major war against armed robbery and the government would not relent until crime is wiped out.
He directed the police force to lead the battle against thuggery and appealed to wananchi to provide information to the police in the national interest.
He assured the nation that security was top on government’s priorities.
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