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President cautions on food shortage
2006-01-01 09:58:08
By Correspondent Michael Haonga
President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has cautioned Tanzanians to use food sparingly in the wake of national food shortage due to weather changes that may cause some green basket parts of the country to experience rain shortage leading to possible low production.
In his maiden new year message to the people last night, President Kikwete revealed further that regions predicted to be affected by impeding drought include Mwanza, Shinyanga, Mara, Coast, Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Arusha.
He said already some districts in twelve regions in the country have started experiencing food shortage as a result of the normal annual August, September to November short rains failure this year.
This, he said, has deprived the country of the normal food supply which is usually to the tune of 30 per cent of national food annual supply.
The regions are Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Manyara, Mwanza, Mtwara, Mara, Shinyanga, Singida and Tabora.
He added that the government has paid for 10,000 tons of maize from the National Grains Reserve to be sent to the affected districts on sale basis for the affected people to buy at 50/= per kilo.
The process should be supervised by officials of the respective city councils.
President Kikwete said luckily, enough the short rain failure had been predicted, indicating that some 613,405 people would be affected and that some 21,499 tones of food would be needed for the November 2005 to February 2006 period to avert the shortage caused in the affected areas.
He cautioned further that the figures of those to be affected and food required were just estimates and that realities could turn out to be higher than hitherto predicted.
’’Our expectations for the 2005/2006 is that the government would manage to avert the impeding food shortage by using the 96,689 tons of maize from the National Grains Reserve (NDR)’’, he said.
In addition to appealing to people to use food sparingly, President Kikwete has urged the people to plant.
drought-resistant and fast yielding crops, and that business people exporting food should follow laid down procedures.
He said regions such as Rukwa, Ruvuma, Mbeya, Iringa, Tabora, Singida, Dodoma, Lindi, Mtwara and some districts in Shinyanga, Kigoma, Morogoro and Manyara regions which usually start getting short rains mid November have been affected by rain failure.
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