RAIS JAKAYA KIKWETE ATEMBELEA MASHAMBA YA MANANASI

Rais Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete akitazama manasi yakitayarishwa kwa ajili ya kusafirishwa na kuuzwa nje ya nchi katika kiwanda cha Bomarts Farms Ltd. katika kitongoji cha Dobro nje kidogo ya jiji la Accra leo Agosti 11, 2012

Rais Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete akitazama ukulima wa kisasa wa manasi yanayolimwa kwa ajili ya kuuzwa nje ya nchi katika shmaba la Bomarts Farms Ltd. katika kijiji cha Dobrokatika eneo la Nsawam nje kidogo ya jiji la Accra leo Agosti 11, 2012. Kulia kwake ni Mtendaji Mkuu wa shamba hilo Bw. Anthony Botchway na mwenye suti ya buluu ni Waziri wa Chakula na Kilimo Mhe Kwesi Ahwol

Rais Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete akiangalia upandaji wa miche ya mananasi katika shamba la Koranco kijiji cha Obotweri nje kidogo ya jiji la Accra. Kulia kwake ni Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Koranco Farms Ltd. Bw Emmanuel B. Koranteng ambaye amekuwa akilima shamba la matunda kwa miaka 27. Mwalimu Nyerere aliwahi kumtembelea shambani hapo katikati ya miaka ya 1980 kujionea ukulima huo wa matunda.

KATA YA KWADELO YAJIKITA KATIKA KILIMO KWANZA

Diwani Kata ya Kwadelo Kondoa mkoani Dodoma Alhaji Omar Kariati akizungumza na waandishi wa habari wakati wa hafla ya wakulima wa kata hiyo kukabidhiwa matrekta mannem kwenye Ofisi za Suma JKT, Mwenge Dar es Salaam, leo. Julai 26, 2012.

Diwani wa Kata ya Kwadelo, Alhaji Omari Kariati, akimkabidhi funguo za trekta, mkulima wa Kata hiyo, Abdallah Ramadhani, katika hafla ya diwani huyo kukabidhi matrekta manne wakulima kutoka kata hiyo, kwenye Ofisi za Shirika la Uchumi la Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa (JKT)-SUMA JKT, Mwenge jijini Dar es Salaam, leo Julai 26, 2012. Kufuatia walikuma hao kukabidhiwa trekta hizo nne, sasa Kata hiyo ina trekta 20 zilizopatikana kutoka kampuni hiyo kwa udhamini wa diwani Kariati. Trekta moja ambayo inauzwa kwa sh. milioni 20 wakulima hao wanakabidhiwa kwa kulipa nusu ya bei hiyo na kisha kulipa zilizobaki katika kipindi cha miaka minne kwa udhamini wa diwani huyo. Wengine, ni wakulima wa kata hiyo ya Kwadelo, Alifa Hurufya, Gabriel Galahenga (wapili kushoto) na Meneja wa Mradi wa SUMA JKT, Kanali Felix Samillan.

Meneja wa Mradi wa SUMA JKT, Kanali Felix Samillan akisalimiana na Diwani wa Kata ya Kwadelo, Kondoa mkoani Dodoma, Omar Kariati wakati wa hafla ya wakulima wa kata hiyo kukabidhiwa matrekta mannem kwenye Ofisi za Suma JKT, Mwenge Dar es Salaam, leo. Julai 26, 2012.

Mkulima wa Kwadelo, Kondoa mkoani Dodoma, Gaberiel Galahenga akimkabidhi barua Diwani wa Kata hiyo, Omari Kariatikwa ajili ya diwani huyo kumpelekea kama shukurani Mkuu wa JKT, kwa shirika la Suma JKT kuwawezesha wakulima wa kata hiyo kukubali kuwapa mattekta wakulima wa kata hiyo kwa nusu ya bei na kisha kumalizia pole pole. Wengine katika picha ni, Alifa Hurufya, Gabriel Galahenga (watatu kushoto) na Meneja wa Mradi wa SUMA JKT, Kanali Felix Samillan.

Diwani wa Kata ya Kwadelo, Alhaji Omari Kariati (wa tatu kushoto) akiwa kwenye trekta na wakulima wa Kata hiyo, Abdallah Ramadhani (kushoto), Gabriel Galahenga, baada ya kuwakabidhi wakulima hao matrekta manne, kwenye Ofisi za Shirika la Uchumi la Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa (JKT)-SUMA JKT, Mwenge jijini Dar es Salaam, leo Julai 26, 2012. Kufuatia walikuma hao kukabidhiwa trekta hizo nne, sasa Kata hiyo ina trekta 20 zilizopatikana kutoka kampuni hiyo kwa udhamini wa diwani Kariati. Trekta moja ambayo inauzwa kwa sh. milioni 20 wakulima hao wanakabidhiwa kwa kulipa nusu ya bei hiyo na kisha kulipa zilizobaki katika kipindi cha miaka minne kwa udhamini wa diwani huyo.

Lives on Hold : AgriSol's Land Deal in Tanzania

Lives on Hold

AgriSol's Land Deal in Tanzania Creates an Uncertain Future for More than 160,000 People

A new report provides details from the ground as the investor faces the Iowa Ethics Commission

http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/land-deal-brief-lives-hold

Oakland, CA - A new report by the Oakland Institute, Lives on Hold, exposes the consequences of Iowa-based AgriSol Energy LLC's plans to lease more than 800,000 acres in Tanzania. The project initiated in 2007-2008 has moved forward without public debate or consent, and will evict more than 160,000 long-term residents of Katumba and Mishamo, who remain in the dark over compensation and relocation plans. The AgriSol land deal is a part of Kilimo Kwanza, or Agriculture First, the Tanzanian government's scheme to promote agricultural development through public-private partnerships.

In June 2011, the Oakland Institute revealed how Iowa-based Bruce Rastetter, CEO of AgriSol Energy, leveraged the involvement of Iowa State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to provide legitimacy to this deal. Initially masquerading the project as responsible agricultural investment, the university completely withdrew any support or association with it in February 2012 under growing public pressure. While AgriSol claims to have halted operations in Katumba and Mishamo until the refugees have been relocated, Lives on Hold depicts how the relocation is to be accomplished.

"Caught in the crossfire of this egregious land deal are more than 160,000 newly naturalized Tanzanians--former Burundian refugees who fled civil war more than 40 years ago. Initially promised citizenship, the residents still await their papers, conditional on them vacating their homes and lands in order to make way for the foreign investor. The residents have been banned from cultivating crops including perennial crops such as cassava or building new homes and businesses, leaving them with no other option but to consider moving. This is how the situation will be resolved for AgriSol," said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute and coauthor of the report.

A Katumba resident, a farmer and house builder, who's name has been withheld to ensure his safety told the research team: "I'm greatly disappointed by the decision that forbids us from making progress. Our livelihoods, activities have been stranded."

Lives on Hold documents how the residents of the Katumba settlement contribute to the economic and agricultural well-being of the region. While initially referred to as "abandoned refugee camps" by AgriSol, OI's field work depicts the Katumba settlement as a thriving community with well-established homes, farms, places of worship, and businesses. Yet the policy of Kilimo Kwanza is being misused to subject the villagers to human rights abuses, which range from the burning down of houses and crops and violation of their freedom of speech to inequities in social services.

Amid the announcement of relocation in a town hall-style meeting with the authorities in 2010, several villagers reported threats and arrests by the security forces for demanding fair compensation; the argument against their inquiry amounted to "Katumba is not your land for you to start asking questions." But residents of the settlement have called Katumba their home for the last 40 years.

"It is true that the Tanzanian government donated the land for the camp. But this is a case of good will gone wrong," said Mittal. There has been significant value added to the land by the refugees during the past 40 years. Currently, the compensation stands at $200 per person in a family. This paltry payment is for the land their livelihoods depend on, upon which their houses have been built, where the crops that feed them and the neighboring communities are grown, and where they have built churches and other community infrastructure.

Lives on Hold also reveals how AgriSol plans to develop large-scale monocrops, use high levels of chemicals, and even ask for changes in the national biosafety regulations so that genetically modified crops can be grown--all within a protected forest reserve and the Malagarasi-Moyowosi wetland system, one of the wetland sites protected by the international Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

AgriSol's model of industrial agriculture poses a high risk to biodiversity, with the pollution of rivers and drying out of water sources being highly likely, which will affect the health of the people downstream and also wildlife in the area. The protected forest reserve and its biodiversity will be sacrificed for a large-scale plantation for exports. The Oakland Institute is asserting that the needs of the Burundian Tanzanians in Katumba must be met clearly, efficiently, and fairly while preserving one of the world's most important and fragile waterways and landscape.

Earlier this month, an Iowa-based group, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, filed an official conflict of interest complaint against Rastetter with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, and are lobbying for Bruce Rastetter to be removed as Iowa Board of Regents President Pro Tem.

The Oakland Institute first exposed AgriSol's land investment deal in June 2011. View the June 2011 report and related documents here.

The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time.

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We need your help to prevent deals like this from ever being on the table.

That the AgriSol deal has gone sour is just one example of how research with a purpose can change the world. That's what we do at the Oakland Institute.

The Oakland Institute research has been critical in empowering local communities and decision makers in many countries so they can make informed choices about the investment they need to develop their agriculture and overcome hunger and poverty. By providing information and analysis, sponsoring radio programs in local languages, and hosting events on the ground around agricultural investments, the Institute is working to ensure people have a say in their own future. This work has already resulted in popular mobilization in countries such as South Sudan and Sierra Leone as well as increasing awareness for many decision makers across the world.

We are committed to a world free of hunger, which requires policies and investments that will benefit the people, not just a handful of businessmen, investors, and politicians. It is our mission to unearth and publish information that propels activism and builds change. To continue this work, we look to individuals and foundations that are committed to the same work and goals for support.

We hope that we can count on your continued support and ask you to make a generous gift to the Institute today so we can continue our shared work and build coalitions to make real change.

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Rais Jakaya Kikwete na Mama Salma Kikwete Wakagua Mahindi Shambani Kwao

Rais Dk. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete na mkewe Mama Salma Kikwete wakikagua mahindi shambani kwao kijijini Msoga,Chalinze,wilayani Bagamoyo wakati wa mapumziko ya mwisho wa wiki.Picha na Freddy Maro-IKULU

Adapting agriculture through local knowledge

This policy brief summarizes the central themes arising from an e-discussion among members of the AfricaAdapt network. The participants considered the following question: What are the impacts of climate change on smallholder farming and how are farmers coping with or adapting to these impacts?

Representatives from grassroots community groups, academia, and extension organizations shared their experiences of how climate change is affecting smallscale farming. The group suggested four major policy recommendations.

http://www.africa-adapt.net/media/resources/809/africaadapt-policy-brief-adapting-agriculture-through-local-knowledge.pdf

African Stakeholders Want Governments to Take Action to Stem Drought

Some African stakeholders on Monday at the ongoing Africa Development Bank (AFDB), annual meetings in Arusha, Tanzania, said that Africa was paying lip service to the age-old issue of drought and its economic consequence.

They said that their consensus stemmed from the static position of drought related initiatives in the continent in the past three decades.

The stakeholders drawn from AFDB, East African Economic Commission, ECOWAS and the private sector, also warned that drought has assumed a continental dimension contrary to earlier regional concerns.

Addressing a cross section of participants on the theme, "Drought Crisis and Food Insecurity in Africa: In Search of a Cure, Abdirahman Beileh, AFDB Acting Director said that lack of political will by the various African states government had made development partners effort ineffective.

"Apart from the lack of political will from the various African governments, poor coordination, absence of drought policy harmonisation and the question of peace and stability were also obstacles affecting drought management in the continent," Beileh said.

Madam Anah Abdulkadri, an Ethiopian consultant on drought management, said that the changing global environment and its effect on agriculture make it imperative for African government to declare a sustainable inclusive plan of action.

Abdulkadri, a former member of Ethiopian parliament said the unchecked effect of the continental drought on food security has made it a major impediment to Africa's sustainable development and growth.

"We now need visible proactive implementation of drought policy action plans and not the usual talk shop. We must depart from doing business as usual by seeking harmonisation of the age long identified programmes to free our people from poverty and diseases," she said.

Mahbouh Moalim, Executive Secretary, inter-Governmental Authority on Development, said that funding and sustainable management of resources were the major problem in checking the dangers of drought in the African economic value chain.

"Having things done in a timely and a coordinated manner through the existing policy framework remains the only way forward in tackling African drought problem and ensuring continental food security," Moalim said.

Dr Hammadou Mahalmoudu of the Niger-based CLSS order in West Africa said that the nongovernmental organisation (NGOs')' fix dated approach to the issue of drought negates the overall development needs of Africans.

"In West Africa where most of the NGOs' operate, we noticed that their fix dated approach is driven more by the amount of money they would earn and not development or building sustainable capacity," Mahalmoudu said.

AFDB Vice-President Kamal El kheshen said that the focus was on collaborating with member states and development partners in seeking innovative management approach to drought related problem in Arica.

"We belief that the issue of skill, technology driven production and increasing the valued added to African goods remain our priority," he said.

Contacts

Felix Njoku