Paradise blog:
According to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Dr Yohana Budeba (pictured), a total of 16 forests and game reserves have so far been identified for the purpose after verifying that they were, among other factors, no longer inhibited by wild animals.
Dr Budeba told The Guardian in an exclusive interview that pastoralists who benefit from the plan will be required to develop the land they are given by preparing grazing pastures and constructing their own dips and dams.
“The beneficiaries will be those who own more than 1,000 heads of cattle. We are only awaiting the funds required to conduct a proper survey of the identified areas before we hand them over to the beneficiaries”, the PS said without mentioning how much the survey exercise was expected to cost.
He said the beneficiaries would be provided with title deeds or Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy. The motive of the whole plan was to encourage local pastoralists to practice zero grazing and thus keep away from designated farm-land, he explained.
According to Dr Budeba, some of the land will also be offered to serious investors who show similar interest in developing it for sustainable productive purposes.
Tanzania is endowed with 94.5 million hectares of land, out of which just over half (48.7 million hectares) is arable land. According to Dr Buleba, only 2.2 million hectares of land is available exclusively for pastoralists throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the number of cattle in Tanzania has increased tremendously to 25.8 million from 9 million in the 1960s, the PS added.
On the ongoing violent farmer-pastoralist conflicts in parts of the country, Dr Buleba said this was a cross-cutting issue which needed to be resolved through collaborative efforts between various government ministries.
He named these as the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries; Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism; Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; and President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government).
Dr Budeba said the fifth phase government was determined to bring such conflicts to a decisive end, as promised by President Magufuli during his 2015 election campaign rallies.
But according to the PS, some of the conflicts said to be between farmers and pastoralists were in fact not so, but rather involved local villagers against investors. In some cases it was the farmers and pastoralists teaming up to clash with local conservation authorities, he said.
At least one person has been killed along with hundreds of cattle, sheep and goats in a series of deadly farmers-versus-pastoralists clashes in Mvomero District, Morogoro Region since December last year. Just over a couple of years ago, more than 15 people were killed in a similar battle that lasted for more than three days in Kiteto District, ManyaraRegion.
The Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mwigulu Nchemba, recently noted how the recurring farmer-pastoralist clashes were causing death and mayhem in both communities and badly hurting the national economy as a whole.
Nchemba called for a strategic review on how to deal with the conflicts.
EmoticonEmoticon