AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE

FOSS Training at the University of Dodoma

2010-09-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

The training is scheduled at the University of Dodoma from 27th September to 1st October 2010. It is being organized by Hector Mongi with support by ICT@Innovation. Other partners include Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), Capacity Building International (Germany) - (INWENT) and the University of Dodoma (UDOM)

Broadband Internet in East Africa: Uncertainties on Rural Connectivity

2009-07-24T00:27:00.000-07:00

The first undersea cable to bring high-speed internet access to East Africa has gone live. The fibre-optic cable, operated by African-owned firm Seacom, connects South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia. The firm says the cable will help to boost the prospects of the region's industry and commerce. The cable - which is 17,000km long - took two years to lay and cost more than $650m. But it is not clear whether the internet revolution will reach the villages, many of which still struggle to access reliable electricity.

Read more from:
BBC Website
Tinyurl.com
Seacom Website

Call for Proposal: START Grants for GECRA

2009-07-11T02:28:00.000-07:00

START announces the Call for Proposals for the 2009/2010 START Grants for Global Environmental Change Research in Africa. A proposal is to be prepared using a special application form available at the START website.

Due date for Proposals is: 30 August 2009.

For more information, click HERE or contact the undersigned:

Charles S. Kauffman
International START Secretariat
2000 Florida Avenue NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC, 20009, USA
Tel: +1-202-462-2213
Fax: +1-202-457-5859
cskauffman@agu.org

Nokia Life Tools

2009-06-26T05:48:00.000-07:00

TED's website reports about the emerging mobile technology - Nokia Life Tools (NLT). It is a range of innovative agriculture information and education services designed especially for rural and small town communities in emerging markets. Accurate and regular information on weather, prices and availability of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and prevailing market prices for the produce are sent to directly to farmers; while the Education service of Nokia Life Tools aims to give students a decisive advantage by boosting their English language and local, national and international general knowledge -- delivered to the palm of their hand.

For more stories and videos on what Nokia is doing, visit Nokia Conversations.

Euro-Africa ICT Conference: a call to remove roadblocks

2009-03-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

The SECOND day of Euro-Africa ICT conference has just commenced. The major theme this morning has been dominated by hot discussion on how Europe, Africa and the Carribean regions can work together to remove roadblocks. Some participants were concerned about the definition of roadblocks and suggested a word "challenge" instead. However, at last it was used interchengeably with "challenge". The biggest challenge identified was lack of adequate infrastructure to deploy the technology to rural and unreached areas. The status of two major infrastructure projects in Eastern and Southern Africa was presented.The SEACOM project is at the completion stage and is expected to start operation sometimes after June 2009. EASSy project is the second. Its construction shall start soon and be completed by the end of 2010. More about the two projects click here for SEACOM and here for EASSy.

Tanzanian participants during the 1st Euro-Africa Forum on ICT Research in Brussels. With me are Professors Tolly Mbwete, the Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania (center), and Faustine Kamuzora, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Mzumbe University in Tanzania (right)

Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research Opens in Brussels Today

2009-03-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

The 1st Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research co-organised by the European Commission (DG INFSO) and the African Union Commission with the support of the EuroAfriCa-ICT initiative has been opened this morning (25th March 2009). The two day forum which closes tomorrow on 26th March 2009 is taking place in the EU premises in Brussels, Belgium (below).
Three keynote speakers have inagurated the presentations and discussions among over 400 policy-makers and ICT researchers from Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa participating in this meeting. The event was officially opened by Ms Viviane Reding, Commissioner, Directorate-General for Information Society and media, European Union Commission (EUC). Ms Reding spoke via a video link. Other keynote speakers during opening session were Ms Vera Brenda Ngosi, Director of Human Resources, Science and Technology, African Union Commission (AUC) and Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General for Communication and information, Uited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

15WCTOH: Singapore 2012!!

2009-03-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Singapore has been selected to host the 15WCTOH after three years from now. Singapore has been selected because of its unbeaatble struggle to fight diseases and other social problems including related to tobacco use.

14WCTOH: more photos shared

2009-03-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Find more photos on Mumbai and 14WCTOH posted by Dr. Maria-Paz Corvalán from MEDEF, Chile by clicking here

14WCTOH: Sessions in brief and networking

2009-03-09T23:56:00.001-07:00

THE THIRD DAY of WCTOH has ended. As usual there were plenary session and parallel sessions on different aspects of tobacco control. Some of them were: Partnership and capacity building, women and tobacco, point of sale, smokefree implementation, and the role of media in promoting and reducing tobacco use.Deborah McLellan, The Executive Director of TReND (left), Prakash Gupta, The President of the 14WCTOH (centre), and Hector Mongi, The editor of this blog, after one of the sessions.

During the evening, all conference partipants were invited to a networking night coloured by shows of different Indian cultures. Hypothetical villages from across India, with diverse cultural foods, dances, and so on were created in the venue.

Networking Night at the Cricket Club of India (CCI)

14WCTOH: Bloomberg Awards Panama, Thailand, Mexico and Nigeria

2009-03-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

A SECOND day of the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (14WCTOH) has ended by four organizations in four countries receiving Bloomberg awards for their exemplary commitments to tobacco control. The organizations are:Coalición Panameña contra el Tabaquismo (COPACET) of Panama, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)of Thailand, Secretaría de Salud Ciudad de México of Mexico and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth of Nigeria (ERA/FEN). Each award includes financial support for a continued tobacco control activities. Bloomberg awards are initiatives by the Bloomberg Philanthropy Foundation and its partners on fighting global tobacco related public health problems. The awards were presented by the Deputy Mayor of New York, Patricia E. Harris on behalf of the Lord Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. However, Mayor Bloomberg spoke to the audience through a video link.

WCTOH conference inaugurated today

2009-03-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

Mumbai, 08 March 2009 – The fourteenth World Conference on Tobacco or Health has been inaugurated today by the Honourable Shri S. C. Jamir, Governor of Maharastra.

The Director General of World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan addressed the ceremony through a video link. Other VIPs in attendance were Indian Minister of Health and Government officials.

Watch a video of Indian Navy Band playing Raag Kaag "Emathan" during the opening ceremony of 14WCTOH.

Arrived in Mumbai

2009-03-07T05:46:00.000-08:00

I have arrived in Mumbai since yesterday 6th March 2009. It is a nice city with a lot of stories to tell. Driving between 35 and 40 km away from BOM airport to the Central Business District (CBD), I must say Mumbai is the largest city I have ever visited.

Tomorrow, 8th March 2009, I will attend and make presentation in a pre-conference on Research to reduce tobacco-related inequalities organized by the Tobacco Research network on Disparities (TReND). Later during the evening the main conference is expected to be inagurated by Her Excellence Pratibha Devisingh Patil, the President of India .

2009-03-07T05:45:00.001-08:00

Listen to the Interview with Aveseh of RNW

2009-02-24T00:08:00.001-08:00

You can now listen to the interview between me and Aveseh Asough of the Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

This event took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 28th October 2008. To listen a part of the interview, click here

Tobacco Control Initiave: the reasons I have endorsed it

2009-02-15T11:15:00.001-08:00

Between 8 and 12 March 2009, scientists, researchers, politicians, journalists, health specialists and many other professionals would meet in Mumbai, India for the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (14th WCTOH). The meeting will be preceeded by a number of pre-conferences on specific themes and other networking sessions on 8th March 2009 before official opening ceremony. It is expected that more than 1500 participants from more than 114 countries in the world will attend.

I am invited to attend the pre-conference about tobacco research on health disparities organized by the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND). I will also attend the main conference. I may be blogging on specific issues related to conflicting policy objectives of improving health and the environment while promoting tobacco at the same time especially with special focus to Tanzania.

I am endorsing the campaign for tobacco control because if its effects on the environment, health and other socio-economic consequences both in growing areas and beyond.

Updated Directory for Development Organizations

2009-01-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

This resource lists development organizationsing by region and by country. Currently there are 53,750 organizations. It has been prepared to facilitate international cooperation and knowledge sharing in development work, both among civil society organizations, research institutions, governments and the private sector.

Click for Organizations in TANZANIA

Click for Organizations in AFRICA

Click for Organizations WORLDWIDE

New Publications from ARI - Tumbi

2008-12-15T03:03:00.000-08:00

The year 2008 is coming to an end where people tend to evaluate their success and failure. Some scientists at Tumbi Agricultural Research Institute in Tanzania would probably evaluate themselves positively at least for their publications in the referred journals. Good news is that all publications are freely available for downloading through the links provided:

Tulole Lugendo Bucheyeki - Principal Agricultural Research Officer
Click for his First publication
Click for his Second publication

Peter Nyaruba Matata – Principal Agricultural Research Officer
Click for his Publication

Atugonza Luta Bilaro – Senior Agricultural Research Officer
Click for his Publication

CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE: CTA TV PROGRAMME IN TANZANIA

2008-11-23T00:59:00.000-08:00

The Centre for Technical Cooperation in Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA) has planned for telecasting its film on Climate Change and Agriculture across countries in Africa being a part of the TV programme Initiatives Africa. According to the programme coordinator,Yodit Kebede, the broadcasting of the programme in Tanzania is planned to take place on Monday 24th November 2008 from 19hrs and Sunday, 30th November 2008 from 16h30 through the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC1). The film shall also be aired through Channel 10 on Friday 28th November 2008 from 20h30. The same programme shall be repeated during the week of 8th December 2008.

Robert Reich on Barack Obama: One of the Most Accurate Predictions

2008-11-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

My colleague Charles S. Kauffman of the International START Secretariat has read my post on Robert Reich and reminded me of his successful predictions. I admire Prof Reich for two important reasons. His strong belief in his profession as an economist. When I interracted with him as among the CMU community in Adelaide Australia, Robert disclosed his family friendship with Bill Clintons. However, during the democratic race for presidential candidature, Reich decided to act professionally by defending what he believed as the right path for the America and American people. He endorsed the Barack Obama's Campaign for change, remained firm on this despite a lot of challenges from his readers. Today, 5th November 2008, Obama is a president elect of the US and Reich has emerged as a Hero. I believe Obama would keep him by his side.

Beyond CTA Seminar: Celebrating Memories of Adelaide in Ouagadougou

2008-11-02T04:42:00.000-08:00

I have met a long outstanding friend, Mahamoudou Sawadogo and his family in Ouagadougou. Thanks to the CTA seminar for making this a reality. I and Mahamoudou met for the first time in Adelaide, South Australia in February 2007 and stayed together to December 2007 when I returned back home. We had shared the loving memories of Adelaide yet in our own lands.

CTA Seminar: Fourth and Fifth Day

2008-10-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

The seminar has been closed this afternoon by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Hydraulics and Fisheries of the Republic of Burkina Faso. Before the closing ceremony, Prof MVK Sivakumar from the World Meteorological Organization read the Ouagadougou declaration, one of the outputs of the seminar. The declaration recommended many steps to addressing climate change. Among the principle recommendations are:
1. Urgent implementation of climate change adaptation measures in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
2. Ensure timely provision of agro-meteorological forecasts and products.
3. Develop rigorous research and policy analysis.
4. Ensure adequate and consistent funding for climate change adaptation.
5. Establish task forces in different ACP regions for follow-up actions.

Yesterday, the 30th October 2008, the participants divided themselves in three groups and visited three different sites where climate adaptation measures have been successful. The sites are between 15 and 30 km away from the city centre. I joined the biophysical group to visit the Manamfian forest. The site is located in the Northern part of Burkina Faso, about 26 km from Ouagadougou along the Ouagadougou – Ouahigouya road. This is an example of community management of a village project. According to the forest manager “commitment by the population alone is not enough. There is a need to develop common-agreed sanctions against offenders”.

For more information visit the seminar website

CTA Seminar: Second and Third Day

2008-10-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

The second day has been the busiest day for the participants. Before this date, there were two important events: presentation of lead papers (cross cutting issues) chaired by Prof Sivakumar (WMO) and Panel session chaired by Rod Harbinson (Panos London). More about these sessions and summary of the first day activities visit the seminar webpage at http://ctaseminar2008.cta.int

The second day began by presentation of three papers under panel session on impact of livestock carbon emission on climate change. The session was chaired by DR Pierre Gerber from FAO. The session was followed by parallel sessions defined by the four themes of the seminar: cropping systems, agro-pastoral system, biophysical issues and socio-economic issues. More than 40 papers were presented in these sessions. Poster presentation followed with more than 20 posters available for the participants to read and get clarifications from the presenters. During this day, I had interview by Aveseh Asough of Radio Netherlands.

With Professor M.V.K. Sivakumar of WMO after my presentation.

The third day began by presentation of information and communication strategies in a session chaired by Dr Neun, the Director of CTA. Six papers were presented and discussed by the participants. Details can be found from the seminar website. The early morning session was followed by working group session were participants in their theme groups worked on the theme specific outcomes expected from the seminar.

CTA Seminar Opened Today

2008-10-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

I have arrived safely in Ouagadougou on the 26th October 2008. Today, the seminar has been officially opened by the Minister of Agriculture, Hydraulics and Fisheries of the Republic of Burkina Faso Mr Laurent Sedogo. The event was also attended and addressed by the representative of EU in Burkina Faso Dr Amos Tincani, Director of CTA Dr Hansjorg Neun and the Deputy Executive of Sectretary of CLISS Mr Issa Bikienga. The Director of UNEP, Dr Achim Steiner addressed the participants through a video link. More information to be posted soon.

CTA SEMINAR ON IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

2008-10-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) will host a 5 day seminar on implications of global climate change for sustainable agricultural production in ACP countries
in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 26th to 31st October 2008. The objectives of the seminar are to:

(i) Raise the awareness of policy makers and rural communities about the way in which climate change is affecting agricultural and rural development;

(ii) Identify the information and communication needs of decision makers and rural communities so they can protect their livelihood systems against climate change;

(iii) Identify strategies that will meet the information needs of policy makers and rural communities in ACP countries.

I am invited to attend this seminar and shall try to post something about the presentations and other activities. You can view the detailed programme here

1st ALL AFRICA BIOTECH CONFERENCE

2007-12-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

This premier Conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya between 22nd – 26th September 2008, and will bring together scientists, policy makers, farmers and media personalities from all over Africa with a host of invited foreign guest scientists, development partners, Research Organizations, Biotechnology companies and farmers alike. For more information visit http://www.abneta.org and http://www.absfafrica.org

A NEW RESOURCE ON BIOTECHNOLOGY

2007-11-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

Dr C. Kameswara Rao has informed me about another biotechnology resource (FBAE Blog) accessed at http://www.fbaeblog.org. FBAE blog is mastered by Dr Rao and highlights applications of agricultural biotechnology in India. This is the second blog on biotechnology to be added on this site after GMO Africa. Despite varying opinions on biotech and GMOs, I concur with those who take the two as items in the basket of options for solutions to crises that mankind is facing today and will do so in future. A few months ago the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) had to pop in to clarify the remarks by its chairman, the former Secretary General of the United Nations Dr Kofi Annan. In a widely criticized statement, Annan was quoted as suggesting that his organization would disregard modern crop biotechnology in its campaign against hunger and malnutrition in Africa. In a press release, the organization makes a U-turn from Annan’s comments.

THE WORLD FOOD DAY: "FOOD" FOR THOUGHT

2007-10-15T19:45:00.001-07:00

October 16 each year is the World Food Day, a commemoration of a day that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was founded in 1945. The theme for 2007 is "The Right to Food".

To mark this day, may I invite you to read the article (see an extract below) by Mr Atugonza Bilaro, a colleague of mine and graduate student at Sokoine University of Agriculture. The article "New approaches for marginal and food-insecure areas: The need for innovative, concerted action", appears in the Agriculture and Rural Development newsletter, Volume 14 No 1/2007.

Click to download the full text (PDF)

SPORE EXPLORES ON WEB 2.0 POTENTIAL

2007-09-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

Spore, the bi-monthly magazine of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development , (CTA) issue number 129 carries an interesting article on Web 2.0 toolkit and its foreseen application on development in the South. The article mention blogs, citing an example of this blog, as the beginning of massive alternative view on the world’s problems created and disseminated from ACP countries themselves.

THE US SUBSIDIES AND THE GOOGLE/WB MASHUPS

2007-08-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

On 1st August 2007, the former US Secretary of Labor during President Clinton administration, Professor Robert Reich (Photo below) visited CMU – Australia. He was the guest presenter during the bi-monthly convocation normally organized by the School. I realized with great interest two things about Professor Reich. One, he is a blogger on economic and political issues. As we approach the World Blog Day on August 30th, his blog at the link http://robertreich.blogspot.com may be your next site to explore. Second, he is against the US farm subsidies, as they do not provide a level ground for fair competition in the global agricultural commodity market. Prof. Reich therefore, lubricates the wheel being rolled by individuals and organizations like Oxfam, Make Poverty History, IFAT and others towards the world market void of distortions, void of unfair trade and the better welfare of farmers throughout the globe.

In a few months ago, the weekly World Bank (WB) newsletter had a link to the “global business rank”. The page showed the countries by their speed to create the favorable environment for business and investment. As for any good citizen would do I hurriedly searched for ‘Tanzania’. Wow!! It was among the top 10 reformers in the World. However, in a surprising situation, the same WB in collaboration with Google has recently released the Mashups which rate a country in terms of how easy or difficult it is to do business. I expected the same Tanzania to be among the top 10 easy category. However, it is different. Click here to see the ratings!!!

FUTURE OF TOBACCO AND PREPAREDNESS FOR ALTERNATIVES

2007-07-15T02:49:00.000-07:00

I joined the GLOBALink a few weeks ago. This an international network of tobacco control communities. A new experience I gained in this network is how the world has joined effort against tobacco smoking. From Nairobi, Mombasa, to big cities like London and many countries tobacco smoking is considered a dangerous habit. The trend shows that the coming generations will have a very little incentive to smoke as the restrictions and campaigns increases.

Tobacco production and marketing has a highly at risk in very near future. According to the Secretary General of Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum (TTCF) Mrs Lutgad Kokulinda Kagaruki, Tanzania has declared all airports in the country to be free from tobacco smoking. Tobacco, one of the resource intensive crops is again under a great threat. This time, resistance does not only originate from the health and environment activists but also from the producers. In her interview with BBC-Swahili recently, Kagaruki noted small scale farmers are totally against the tobacco farming. At the end of 2006, TTCF conducted a survey in Tabora and Ruvuma, the chief producer of tobacco in the country. The findings show that farmers are reluctant to opt for other crops should the rope that ties them with tobacco trading companies be cut off. I am worried that the speed of campaign against tobacco does not match our preparedness for alternatives crops to tobacco farming in Tabora, Ruvuma and Rukwa.

VOTE FOR YOUR LEADER

2007-06-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

Tanzanian Blog Community will hold its first election on 29th and 30th June 2007. Voting will be open to Tanzanian bloggers and blog fans. Visit the community blog to read the details - including contestants' information.

The TED GLOBAL CONFERENCE: UPDATE

2007-05-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is to remind everybody that the conference will take place as scheduled in Arusha, Tanzania from 4th June 2007 airing global and Africa issues from the top of Mount Ngurdoto. Unfortunately, I will not be able to travel to Arusha and therefore I now confirm that will not attend the conference.

However, there are dozens of bloggers who are either attending or will probably be writing something about the conference. Some of them are:

Ndesanjo Macha

Africancorps

African beats

Timbuktu Chronicles

Kenya Purndit

It is also possible to update yourself about the conference from the TED website. For more details click here

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: A STRATEGIC INVESTMENT IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

2007-05-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Stephen Were Omamo, a hitherto economist with IFPRI has recently co-authored a research report which analyzes agricultural development priorities and investment patterns and evaluates opportunities for increasing both agricultural and overall economic growth in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Region. Were Omamo and his co-authors are suggesting areas of investment and type of crops that will have a sound comparative advantage for each country in the Region. The research shows that Tanzania has comparative advantage over other SA countries in a variety of livestock and crops production. The Were Omamo report supports the similar observation by the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), which shows that Tanzania’s potential and comparative advantage far exceeds other ESA countries. Presenting the “Tanzania Investment Overview” to Australian investors in Adelaide, recently, the Executive Director of TIC, Mr. Emmanuel Ole Naiko, shows Tanzania is currently the best investment destination in Africa. It is hoped that the centre will extensively use the report in the further campaigns for investment especially in the agricultural sector in the country.

MEETING WITH 'MWANDANI'

2007-04-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

On 7th April 2007, Tanzanians living in Adelaide, South Australia
prepared a dinner party for the new commers. It is there I met Joe
Tungaraza nicknamed "Mwandani", the name of his famous blog. We have known each other
before through our blog network, but meeting physically was a very
wonderful moment to both of us. Joe, who live and work in Adelaide
was one of the organizers and sponsors of the event.

TED GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2007 ARUSHA TANZANIA: I will be there

2007-03-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Arusha, Tanzania will be the home to the TED Global Conference to be held from 4 – 7 June 2007. The conference, the first to have ever taken place in Africa will carry a message “AFRICA: GOOD NEWS”.

TED is an abbreviation of three subjects: Technology, Entertainment, and Design which are making the phenomenon of global village a reality. The TED conference is an invitation-only event which brings together about 1000 world's thinkers and doers for sharing wisdom, inspiration and insight.

TED in collaboration with its partners (Google GE, Sun Microsystem and AMD) has made available 100 scholarships to people from around the world who in the organization’s view have an important role to play in Africa’s future. I feel honored to be considered among this unique group of people. I thank TED and sponsors for such recognition. I am therefore expecting to attend and blog from this historic conference.

Besides the fellows, the conference will also bring together the top world innovators, thinkers, doers, and leaders to discuss the future of Africa. There will be 50 great men and women speakers including inventors, business-leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, artists, writers, activists, musicians and mavericks. These are people who are passionate about Africa and care about the continents underpinning issues such as poverty, education, healthcare, HIV/AIDS, economic development, nutrition, hunger, climate change and technology. Among the prominent figures are:

Onesmo Ole MoiYoi - A Tanzanian molecular biologist, regarded as a leader in the global research effort to develop environmentally sound ways to combat disease in humans and animals.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin - Economist and leading researcher on African agricultural markets.

Moses Makayoto - A globally recognized Kenyan scientist with a string of successful inventions, such as a pesticide for use in refugee camps, new technologies for processing honey and cotton, and a low-cost detergent made from local materials.

Andrew Mwenda - Leading journalist, activist and Stanford Fellow.

Dele Olojede - A journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on Rwanda.

Jane Goodall - Famous for her pioneering work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, she has become a globally recognized conservationist and a United Nations "Messenger of Peace."

Simon Mwacharo - CEO of Craftskills, an innovative manufacturer of renewable modular energy systems based on solar and wind power.

Others not by importance are Binyavanga Wainaina, Bola Olabisi, Ken Ofori-Atta, Carol Pineau, Chris Abani, Chris Johns, Danniel Annerose, Ernest Chijioke Madu, George Ayittey, Noah Samara, H Chinery-Hesse, Jacqueline Novogratz, James Shikwati, Seyi Oyesola, Florence Seriki, Kwabena Boahen, Leon Kintaudi, Ndidi Nwuneli, Alieu Conteh, Ory Okolloh, Patrick Awuah, Russell Southwood, Ted Kidane, Ron Eglash, Raoul Peck, Spencer Wells, Patty Stonesifer

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW: PRECISION AGRICULTURE AND THE DROUGHT

2007-02-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

The world is under a big threat of natural disasters related to warming. Making a presentation at the bi-monthly convocation at Carnegie Mellon University, John Heinz School, Australia Campus, the Executive Director Timothy J. Zak, analyzed the current situation of global economy and social prosperity. Tim provided detailed map and statistical data on how the global wealth is distributed with comparison between the most privileged and underprivileged regions of the world. Statistics indicated that about 85% of global wealth is accumulated in the developing countries with less than a quarter of the population estimated at 6.5 billion. Only 15% is appropriated by the rest of the population mainly found in the developing countries which were marked in the maps by a red color. At the worse of it comes the climate change. Developing countries are expected to be disproportionately impacted by changes in sea level, warming temperatures, stresses on forest and agricultural systems, and increased climate variability (The WorldBank). This is due to low mitigation and adaptive capacity including low technology and poor infrastructure. The simulated effect of global warming is well presented in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow”. The movie is very much emotive showing how the earth can respond to our environment insensitivity and dishonesty.

One of the effects of global warming in tropical countries is drought. This effect is expected to increase vulnerability of about 80% of people in developing countries who depend on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihood. While irrigation is the main focus of the most developing countries, the major challenge will be how to make it efficient under decreasing water resources [1, 2]. Small micro-projects involving the use of precision agriculture would be one of the alternative solutions. The technology can improve the efficiency of resource use especially water in the irrigated systems.

SALAMU ZA MWAKA MPYA: UMUHIMU WA MATUMIZI BORA YA VIUATILIFU

2007-01-15T02:32:00.000-08:00

Kutokana na changamoto nyingi nilizopokea tangu nianze kuandika katika ukurasa huu, nimeamua kutoa samu zangu za mwaka mpya wa 2007 kwa lugha yetu adhimu ya Kiswahili. Mwanablogu Jeff Msangi aliwahi kuandika katika blogu yake kuwa kiingereza siyo lugha yake mama; wala siyo lugha ya pili, pengine ni ya tatu au ya nne. Hii ni hali halisi ya Watanzania walio wengi - waliozaliwa, kukulia na kusomea Tanzania. Hii pia inatokana na juhudi kubwa zilizofanyika huko nyuma kuikuza lugha hii. Pamoja na
ukweli kuwa lugha ya Kiingereza siyo lugha yetu mama bado ni muhimu kwa mawasiliano katika nyanja
ya kimataifa. Siyo nia ya makala haya kulinganisha lugha. Muhimu kwangu ni kuwa sijawahi kujuta kwa kuwa Mswahili na nimekuwa naheshimu sana mfumo wa elimu niliobahatika kupitia.

Katika salamu zangu hizi ninapenda kuongelea viuatilifu ambavyo kimsingi ni madawa ya kuua visumbufu vya mazao mashambani na hata katika maghala. Ni ukweli kuwa wengi tumekuwa aidha tunapuuzia kutumia madawa haya kwa uangalifu na kitaalamu na au hatujui jinsi ya kufanya hivyo. Sio nia yangu kutoa somo la namna ya kutumia na kutunza viuatilifu bali ni kutoa tahadhari juu ya madhara tunayoweza kupata. Nilipokuwa ningali kijana mdogo na nikiwa mtoto wa mkulima, nilihusika sana katika kupulizia madawa katika kahawa. Dawa maarufu sana katika shughuli hii ilikuwa Kopa ya bluu au nyekundu. Dawa hii ilichanganywa na DDT (kimatira) na nilikuwa napulizia shamba kubwa la babu yangu bila kinga (protective gears) zozote. Ni ukweli usiopingika kuwa wengi wetu hadi leo tumeendelea na mtazamo huu wa kutojali madhara ya madawa.

Asilimia kubwa ya Watanzania tunaishi vijijini ambapo chanzo kikubwa cha maji ni visima, mara nyingi visima vifupi. Ieleweke maji ya visima sehemu kubwa yanatokana na mvua kunyesha, kupenya na hatimaye kutuama katika kina fulani ndani ya ardhi. Hivyo madawa yasipotumika kitaalamu yaweza kuchafua maji haya na kusababisha magonjwa kama vile kansa. takwimu za hivi karibuni toka Taasisi ya Kansa Ocean Road zinaonyesha kuwa kila mwaka kuna idadi ya watanzania 20,000 wanaokutwa na tazizo la kansa. Inawezekana sehemu kubwa ya hawa hawatokani na matumizi holela ya viuatilifu. Hata hivyo kinga ni bora kuliko tiba.

THE BRIGHT FUTURE FOR PRO-POOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING

2006-12-15T06:46:00.000-08:00

The information and communication technology (ICT) is a cross-cutting issue involving all sectors of the economy. It is recognized as a driver to attaining the millennium development goals (MDG). However, there has been a widening gap between haves and have-nots with respect to access to information and communication technologies and its consequent role in ameliorating the general levels of the quality of lives of people [i4D]. This is referred to as ‘Digital Divide’. Therefore, a concern worldwide has been to narrow the gap and enhance development. The international, regional and local organizations particularly in Africa have come up with strategies to narrow down the information gap.

The Eastern and Southern Africa countries in collaboration with New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) are engaged in a plan to establish the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy). The project is facilitated under the NEPAD Infrastructure Programme. The EASSy cable, one of the NEPAD ICT broadband infrastructure network, is expected to benefit mote than 24 countries. There are other pro-poor ICT potentials to narrow the digital divide in the developing countries. Key potentials discussed in the “Pro-poor ICT workshop” held in Dar es salaam included:
• The potential of ICT-enabled development locally, facilitated through the availability of low cost voice, video, and internet, and including the development of local content and the provision of a wide range of services.
• The potential for the creation of a community-owned enterprise that would build and operate such a network on behalf of the community, leveraging community resources and building on develop experience elsewhere in terms of local cooperatives

OARE was launched in October 2006 to provide free access to environmental related literature to registered public institutions in developing countries. OARE is managed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with Yale University and more than 35 publishers. OARE provides access to more than 1000 scientific journals in a wide range of disciplines contributing to our understanding of the natural environment, including environmental toxicology and pollution, zoology, botany, ecology, environmental chemistry, geology, hydrology, oceanography, meteorology, climatology, geography, environmental economics, environmental law and policy, conservation policy and planning, environmental biotechnology, environmental engineering, energy, and many other disciplines.

AGORA was launched in 2003 to provide access to online resources for research in agricultural and allied sciences. AGORA is managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with Cornell University and almost 30 publishers. AGORA provides access to around 900 high quality international journals covering agriculture, fisheries, food, nutrition, veterinary science, and related biological, environmental, and social sciences in public institutions across the world. Access allows the member institution to download the abstract or full text, read and save or print a hard copy.

HINARI was launched in 2001 with objective of enhancing availability of scholarly literature for Health Research. Today, a close to 2500 public institutions already registered for access in 113 developing countries. The initiative is managed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with Yale University Library. Around 90 publishers contribute their journals to HINARI. HINARI provides access to over 3400 peer-reviewed journals covering medicine, nursing and related health and social sciences. It also includes many databases, indexes and reference books, as well as journals in several languages. The journals can be searched through a special version of PubMed (Medline).

The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) popularly known as library in a box was the first of its kind availing over 400 journals in CD-ROM to the developing countries in highly subsidized price. The initiative was spearheaded by the Mann Library at Cornell University. Tanzania through the Ministry responsible for agricultural affairs purchased and distributed the resources throughout its seven zonal research and training institutes in the country.

TANZANIA BLOGGERS’ CONFERENCE

2006-11-15T02:53:00.000-08:00

Bloggers and blog fans from Tanzania will hold their first conference on Saturday November 18, 2006 from 14.00 hrs to around 16.00 hrs East African time. The event is being organized by Ndesanjo Macha, Jeff Msangi and Egidio Ndabagoye. More updates are available in the conference's WIKIpage.

WORLD FOOD DAY: INVESTING IN AGRICULTURE FOR FOOD SECURITY

2006-10-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

Today October 16 is the World Food Day. The Day also commemorates the the day on which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) was founded in 1945. The UN recognizes that agriculture has contributed to human civilization by improving nutrition and living standards. Its roles of production and distribution of agricultural, fishery and forestry products and enough food to feed everyone on this planet are still maintained. The theme for the World Food Day 2006 is "Investing in agriculture for food security." Despite the achievements, hunger and famine are still widespread in parts of Africa and Asia with alarming statistics, literaly announcing some degree of failure. More than 852 million people or about 13 percent of the world population do not have enough food each day to sustain a healthy life. Of this, about 815 million people live in developing countries, 28 million in "transition" countries of the former Eastern Europe and ex-Soviet republics, and about nine million in the industrialised world.

Why food crises in Africa, for example, where about 50% of global natural resources are found? I summarize some few reasons below although are not justifying food insecurity in our countries:

One, while the majority of the hungry live in Asia and Africa, with about 80 percent living in rural areas and depend on agriculture and pastoralism to survive, there is general absence of development policies geared toward providing support for rural development and small-scale farmers to ensure long-term food security.

Two, the donor countries and international financial institutions preventing a developing country from implementing economic and trade policies that would support local producers and their markets, which could prevent a country from facing widespread hunger and destitution.

Three, "dumping" of overproduced food (which are subsidised) at cheap prices into developing nations, ravaging the livelihoods of small farmers. Supermarkets full of cheap imported foods make it impossible for local producers to compete.

Four, lack of enough work, or access to productive resources like land and water sufficient to feed the household members.

While millennium development goal number one is to reduce the number of hungry (815 million) by half by 2015. Today, the gross food production in the world is enough to feed the entire 6.5 billion people. However, FAO estimates that over 852 million people including 400 million childen are chronically malnourished. It is estimated that six million children die of malnutrition and related illnesses before they reach the age of five. The millennium goals are hard to achieve in hunger prone zones unless there is global political will and resolve.

GMO AFRICA BLOG

2006-09-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

A farmous Swahili blogger, Mr. Ndesanjo Macha, once asked me about my views on Genetic Modified Organisms (GMO). A few days ago I have received e-mail from James of Gmo Africa Blog . This is a part of what he wrote:

I have visited your website and would like to suggest an additional resource. Gmo Africa carries blogs and news on the benefits of genetically modified food in Africa and the rest of the developing world. Gmo Africa would be useful addition to the http://mongidreams.blogspot.com/ section of your website. Gmo Africa is an important resource on modern agricultural biotechnology. It will give your users an opportunity to understand the place of modern agricultural biotechnology in Africa and the rest of the developing world.

I have added the link to Gmo Africa on the “Important websites” section of this blog. I hope Mr Macha and many of us will benefit from the resources.

THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL R & D RE-EMPHASIZED

2006-08-14T01:53:00.000-07:00

Agriculture is an important sector for reduced poverty and suffering among people in the least developed countries (LDC). Agriculture has remained the single most important sector for employment and livelihood in LDC. It is also indicated that the highest proportion of the people living below poverty line is made by poor small scale farmers. Improving agricultural productivity is therefore a big step towards attaining the millennium development goals. Drawing an experience from India, agricultural research and development (R & D) is found to play a critical role in enhancing productivity. Agricultural development strategies in India emphasize on shifting from resource and input based growth to knowledge and science based growth triggered by innovations and the application of science to agriculture. More

DO WE REALLY NEED MKUKUTA AND MKURABITA?

2006-07-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

Tanzania Parliamentary assembly is still discussing and approving ministerial budgets for the fiscal year 2006/2007. Almost every budget speech contains plans on how to implement Mkukuta and Mkurabita. Some plans are said to be good while others termed as poor, manipulative, biased, etc. The latest approved budget comes from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives. This budget was said to be well prepared and the plans are very good. However, one Hon. Member of Parliament questioned whether these strategies are boats safe enough to ferry us from the coast of extreme poverty to the better one. To me, the importance of Mkurabita and Mkukuta is a function of time. Implementation of the plans is time bound and good impacts results from good plans plus good implementation. How to attain good impacts from good plans? Open this PPT file, Read, Reflect and Take action. Sum of individual actions will make collective actions.

A HANDBOOK ON MONITORING AND EVALUATION FOR RESULTS

2006-07-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

This publication is intended to support United Nations Development Program (UNDP) country offices in aligning their monitoring and evaluation systems with a results-based management methodology, specifically in tracking and measuring the performance of UNDP interventions and strategies and their contributions to outcomes. However, can be very useful to people working in other development organizations. Download the entire handbook (152 pp) by clicking here. The Handbook is organised as Part I to IV plus resources and annexes. You can download the individual parts by clicking the word DOWNLOAD:
Part I: The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Download
Part II: How to Conduct Monitoring and Evaluation Download
Part III: Monitoring and Evaluating Performance Download
Part IV: Monitoring and Evaluation Information Download
Resources and Annexes Download

CONFLICTING PROJECTS’ SETUP WORRIES EXPERTS.

2006-07-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

The World Bank (WB) Specialists joined Tanzania Government Officials to form a follow-up team for the Participatory Agricultural Development and Empowerment Project (PADEP). Among the Districts visited is Uyui in Tabora Region which is in the second implementation phase. The team held discussion with the Project District and Ward Facilitation Team (DFT and WFT respectively) on issues related to implementation process at the District level.

The team composed the WB Environment Specialist, Warren, C; The WB Task Team Leader based at Dar es salaam office, Henry Gordon; Amon Z. Mattee, an Agricultural Extension Specialist and Professor of this discipline at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Others were Dr Shekania Bisanda, PADEP Community Development Officer; Mr Mbelwa, PADEP Information Officer and Mr. Kitosi from the Ministry of Livestock Development.

They urged us (District Project Managers) to ensure that the communities are empowered enough to utilize every opportunity to success. They insisted on the potential collaboration with stakeholders in agricultural development such as the research institutions, NGOs/CBOs and the Private sector. One of the important worries of the facilitation teams is the conflict that may arise in the villages that are implementing both PADEP and TASAF. While PADEP requires the community to contribute between 20 and 50% of their subproject costs, TASAF has a flat rate of 20%. The WB officers said they were concerned about this observation and are looking for the best ways to avoid any misconception. Both projects are financially supported by the WB.

WB ASDP APPROVAL

2006-06-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

The Board of the World Bank (WB) has approved an IDA credit of US$ 90 million to finance the Tanzania's Agricultural Sector Development Project (ASDP). The project has two complementary objectives: (i) to enable farmers to have better access to and use of agricultural knowledge, technologies, marketing systems and infrastructure, all of which contribute to higher productivity, profitability, and farm incomes; and (ii) to promote agricultural private investment based on an improved regulatory and policy environment.

The Bank has also approved an additional credit of US$ 98 million to support the Tanzania’s Local Government Support Project. The project will strengthen fiscal decentralization, improve accountability in the use of local government resources, and improve management of the intergovernmental transfer system. It would serve to increase access to infrastructure and services in unplanned areas of Dar es Salaam and to improve their operations and maintenance.

THE MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE: MBOLA VILLAGE TO REPRESENT MIOMBO WOODLANDS OF EASTERN, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA.

2006-05-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

The International community through the United Nations Organization has agreed to reduce extreme poverty, diseases, and hunger by the year 2015. There are eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to be met by 2015 using different approaches. One approach is 'The Millennium Village'. It draws upon the leading science-based action plan to fight poverty in rural Africa. It aims to identify the practical ways in which impoverished villages in Africa and elsewhere can adapt and implement the interventions. The Millennium Village approach recognizes the interdependence of the various Goals and stresses the need for simultaneous investments across agriculture, health, education, environment and infrastructure- all critical for success, and implemented in a time-bound manner with clear targets and goals.

The Millennium Village Project (MVP) is implemented using the MV approach and is funded by the Government of Japan. It has a total of 8 villages across different agro-ecological zones of Africa. Mbola village has been nominated to represent the Miombo woodland of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. Mbola village is located in Uyui District, Tabora Region about 850 km West of Dar es salaam, in Tanzania. Other villages are found in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and Mali.

Closely related to the MVP is the Millennium Promise (MP) a non-profit organization and an implementation partner of the millennium project, that seeks to out-scale performance of MVP to the surrounding villages.

On 26 May 2006, Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Director of Millennium Project, the MVP Cluster leader,
and the ABC reporter joined Tabora leaders and Mbola village community to discuss various issues related to MVP implementation.

AFRICAN CHAPTER CONFERENCE BEGAN IN NAIROBI

2006-05-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

A conference that will lead to inaguration of The African Chapter of International Agricultural Information Specialists has began in Nairobi today. Other objectives of the conference are: to showcase promising agricultural information activities and results in Africa; to exchange ideas and help develop the skills of African agricultural information specialists in information handling and management; and to create a platform where agriculture information professionals, scientists and other stakeholders interested in African agricultural information can interact and learn from each other’s experiences. The conference brings together a number of agricultural information professionals from Africa and across the World.

AN OUT-BREAK OF BANANA BACTERIAL WILT DISEASE IN MULEBA DISTRICT, KAGERA REGION, TANZANIA

2006-05-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

The current issue of African Crops Magazine carries an article on the out-break of suspected Banana Bacterial Wilt disease in Muleba District. The major symptoms of the disease are wilting and premature ripening of the fruits. According to Scientists from Maruku Agricultural Research and Development Institute, the disease has already affected about 100 households in the district. Further confirmatory tests are being conducted on the samples obtained from the infected plants. More ……..

DEPUTY MINISTER INSISTS ON PARTNERSHIP IN AGRICULTURE

2006-05-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

The Tanzanian Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives Honourable Christopher Kajoro Chiza called for strong partnership among organisations or institutions serving the same clients and seeking to attain the same goals. The Deputy Minister made a call today when he paid a short visit at the Tumbi Agricultural Research and Training Institute. Talking to staff of this institute, the Deputy Minister said it is through such partnership that organisations can be able to use effectively the scarce resources at their disposal such as human, financial and others. Another advantage of partnership is avoidance of duplication of activities. He also advised the people working in the agricultural sector to assist the sustainability of good practices and other outputs from the projects that were meant for a certain group of people. He cited an example of REDESO which is primarily working for the refugees and their outputs may not be sustainable as the refugees are repatriated. Lastly, he asked all agricultural actors including farmers to exploit fully the opportunities provided by the Tanzania’s National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA) and the Property and Business Formalisation Programme for Tanzania (MKURABITA) . MKURABITA is a socio-economic initiative based on public empowerment especially through land ownership. According to Prof. Hernando de Soto (a resource person for MKURABITA), when the place – say one square meter – of land, plot on which a young woman recharges mobile phones is recognised as a business premise and can even be registered, it is as good as capital.

UNEQUAL TRADE BETWEEN RSA & URT: THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN DECREASING IMBALANCES

2006-05-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

His Excellency Sindiso Mpenela, the Embassodor of Republic of South Africa (RSA) in the United Republic of Tanzania (URT) with his delegates today paid a short visit at ARTI - Tumbi. Speaking at the dispay of indigenous fruit products by the Tumbi Women Group, His Excellency said there is the great opportunity for reducing trade imbalances existing between RSA and URT through fresh and processed agricultural products. He called on the women groups,other participants and general Tanzanian public to take advantage of current initiatives by leaders of the two countries to see to it that more products from Tanzania are exported to South Africa.

ASDP PROJECT PASSED APPRAISAL STAGE

2006-05-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) Project is a multi-sectoral development intervention involving Irrigation and drainage; General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector; Agricultural extension and research; and Agricultural marketing and trade. The program objectives are:
1. To enable farmers to have better access to and use of agricultural knowledge, technologies, and infrastructure; all of which contribute to higher productivity, profitability, and farm incomes.
2. To promote agricultural private investment based on an improved regulatory and policy environment.
The project solicits funds from both bilateral and multi-lateral donors. One of them, the International Development Association (IDA), had a favourable appraisal to the project and the Board of the World Bank is expected to approve its involvement on 6th July 2006.

GLOBAL E-LEARNING COURSE

2006-04-24T02:13:00.000-07:00

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) through its Global e-Learning Program is running two separate e-learning courses on ‘How to Write a Convincing Proposal’ and ‘How to Communicate Scientific Research’. Registration for these courses is free. Myself is participating and find the materials provided very useful.

AVIAN INFLUENZA THREAT: IS IT ANOTHER ELITE NETWORK GAME?

2006-04-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last month I wrote an article questioning about the role of elites on the current food situation in Africa as commented by a Tanzanian journalist. Previously, a hot debate on cultural change to non-hand shaking as a means to control avian influenza has been concluded. Comments from one of the contributors, a respected scholar (elite) has attracted my attention. Despite the fact that the Moderator decided not to publish his comments here are his views:

"ABOUT 5,400 PEOPLE die every year in Italy by normal influenza. And we keep
hugging, hand shaking, kissing and visiting each other. I do not understand why also communication initiative has fallen prey of this psychosis of the avian flu.

Is this a new WMD affaire? Who makes (a lot of) money out of this artificial generation of panic?

- The scientific complex: biologists, medical doctors, researchers: lots of congresses, meetings, scholarships, research grants, consultancies...

- The companies producing hardware, software and disposable chemicals and tools (gloves, shoes, glassware, etc.) needed in the labs, for both human and animal analysis...

- The vaccines industry... not exactly located in the poorest countries in the world.

Please try to analyze the hard facts and act consequently. And keep expressing your friendship, love, admiration and feelings with
a) hugs, b) kisses, c) hand-shaking, d) nose touching, etc. etc.

This world needs love and friendship, not artificial terror. (We had enough of it..!!!)

Truly yours,

Prof. ***************
DSEA - Facoltà di Agraria
Borgo XX Giugno 74
06121 Perugia
Italia
Tel. + 39.075.5856267
fax + 39.075.5856263
www.agr.unipg.it/dsee"

Nigeria, the first African country reported to be infected by the deadly virus has been awarded a credit of $ 50 from the World Bank to implement a project on the Avian Influenza Control and Human Pandemic Preparedness and Response. It aims to prevent the further spread of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) to other parts of Nigeria not yet infected by the virus. Tanzanian Government has formed a Multi-sectoral National Task Force to coordinate the measures that alleviate the threat. The government is expecting to spend more than 800 million Tshs (about $ 0.69 million) to implement the National Avian Influenza: Emergency Preparedness and response Strategic Plan for this year alone.

A number of questions need answers: how much of this money goes to the areas that worried Professor and other concerned elites? Is there any logic in professor’s claim? Should we correlate the avian influenza on-goings and the costly millennium bug campaigns? Is this another game played by the “Trans-national Elite Coalition” on the expenses of the poor and poverty? Is this game (if so) similar to the millennium bug, origin of deadly HIV, drug companies imposed and other related threats going on worldwide?

BLOGGING AND INCREASED DEMAND FOR INFORMATION SHARING

2006-04-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Research has been conducted for a long time that there are a lot of information available but not reached the end-users. There are other useful information that dissapear with the owner without being documented or preserved in any form. Blogging is seen as the easiest way in which we can communicate ideas from every background, from story telling to provision of links to repositories of knowledge. As Jay Rosen puts it:

"Every reader is a writer, every writer is a reader."

Agricultural projects demand that whatever information generated from them be packed in a user-friendly form and widely shared. Blogging as a way to enhance the information sharing is a phenomenon that has been well explained by weblog editors (click here and here) and Clarence Fisher. Sometimes next week, The Drum Beat Chat discussion forum will host a debate on exploring the phenomena of video cameras, mobile phone cameras, and blogs used by "citizen journalists" . This is yet another opportunity to share experiences on these important tools.

FARMERS' FIELD DAY

2006-03-30T08:44:00.000-08:00

Farmers' Field Days (FFD) have been traditionally used to compare perfomance of agricultural technologies between the research stations and farmers' fields. It is one of the forums for information sharing and technologies dissemination. Tuesday, 28th March 2006 was an FFD for the Western Zone of Tanzania. Farmers from Kigoma and Tabora joined researchers, tutors and development partners from REDESO, CARE-TUMAUMA, ICRAF, TORITA and District Councils to visit technology development and testing sites at Tumbi Agricultural Research Institute.
Towards the end of the day, the participants had a wrap-up session, where emerged issues were discussed and resolutions made. The resolutions focus on how to improve the occasion and make it even colourful and to make sure that adoption of these technologies is increased.

FOOD INSECURITY IN TANZANIA: ARE ELITES HAVING HANDS ON?

2006-03-26T08:29:00.000-08:00

Tanzania is among Sub-Sahara African countries facing food shortage in many of her regions. There are several reasons given by key actors in agriculture on this crisis. The biggest one is prolonged drought triggered by environmental destruction. Without rains about 80% Tanzanians, who usually depend on rain fed agriculture, become jobless. Their peace and restfulness then depends on the to the Government support.

A respected Tanzanian columnist in Swahili weekly, RAI, has different opinion about the subject. To him hunger crisis has nothing to do with environment and drought. These are symptoms of a deeply burred root problem that most people fear to mention and solve. He mentions the problem to be an existing bond between elites in developing countries and their counterparts in developing countries. According to this journalist, the two groups have formed the so called “Multi-national Elites Coalition" that is responsible for most of sufferings in the so called third world countries.

ACHIEVING MDG # 1: SSA MOVES BACKWARDS

2006-02-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

The United Nations Organization (UNO) has set 2015 a benchmark for achieving eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The first goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by halving, the proportion of the world's population who live on less than one dollar a day and who are malnourished by 2015. The Drum Beat issue No. 336 of February 27, 2006 contains sampled ideas, experiences, and impact evidences from people working to achieve MDG No. 1 around the world. It is very clear from some of these resources that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are not doing well. Most of them have increased the number of people leaving on less than 1 USD compared to the year 2000 when the efforts to end hunger were universalized and institutionalized. The World Bank report indicated that about 70% of those being addressed by MDGs live in rural areas. This means agriculture is an important sector in overall achievement of the goals. Neglecting this important sector by any key player may constitute failure in meeting the targets set. While it is 5 years since implementation of MDG began, SSA has 204 million hungry and is the only region where both general undernourished and children’s underweight status are increasing. The phased out Government of Tanzania (1995 – 2005) admitted to have paid very little attention on farmers and hence rural development at large. Political and economic analysts and other critics claimed that this was not only a very big mistake any government could make, but also betrayed the majority labour force and voters in Tanzania.

NETWORKING RESOURCES

2006-02-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

The Tanzania directory of development organizations for the year 2006 is now available for free. The directory aims to promote interaction and active partnerships among governments, private sector and key development organisations in civil society, including NGOs, trade unions, faith-based organizations, indigenous peoples’ movements, foundations and research centres. We can add our institutions/organizations (incase missing from the list) in the next issue.
A book on wireless networking in developing countries is also available for free. The book has been published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license. Under this license, you are free to copy, distribute and display the book, to make derivative books and to make commercial use of the book under conditions stipulated.

ADB IS KNOCKING AT KIGOMA

2006-01-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

The
African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan of UA 43 million to finance a six year District Agricultural Sector Investment Project (DASIP). The project launching workshop was conducted in Dar es salaam from 17th to 19th January 2006. It was officially opened by the Director of Policy Planning Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFSC), Ms Janet Bitegeko. The project objective is to increase agricultural productivity and incomes of rural households in the project area, within the overall framework of the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS). It is intended to benefit more than 250,000 farmers in five regions namely Kigoma, Kagera, Mwanza, Mara and Shinyanga. In Kigoma Region, the project will be implemented in Kasulu, Kibondo and Kigoma Rural Districts.

OPRAS: A REQUIREMENT WITHOUT OPTION IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE

2006-01-24T05:48:00.000-08:00

By Justin Hanson Ringo

An Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) workshop was conducted at ARI-Tumbi by Dr M.E. Shayo and Mr. M. Ndungi from MAFS & Cooperatives HQ Dar es salaam. The event took place from 16th to 17th January 2006 with participants of various cadres from Tumbi, Western zone irrigation office, Crop protection department (Shinyanga), just to mention a few. The main agenda was to introduce the OPRAS which is supposed to be implemented effectively from January 2006.

OPRAS has resulted from Public Service Reform Programme (PSRP). It is laid on three important pillars namely; Medium Term Strategic Plan (MTSP), Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Client Service Charter (CSC).

The system refers to the way of evaluating performance of government employees transparently. It is an integrated system for building shared vision, understanding and agreement about the results to be achieved and review of activities for continuous improvement in standards of service delivery.

To practice the OPRAS, special forms need to be filled. These forms help both supervisors and subordinates to hold open and transparent dialogue on what they are required to do in their organisation /institution. The forms replace all other appraisal forms in public service institutions for assessing individual/employee performance throughout the year. They are designed to meet the requirements for continuously improving performance in all public service and are intended to cover a fiscal year July 1st to June 30th. The application of OPRAS is believed to improve quality of the public services in Tanzania.

A WONDERFUL MATCH TO FOLLOW

2006-01-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

ASPS II/ARTI-Tumbi project was formally designed to involve extension officers as key supervisors at the community level. However, not all project sites could provide the officers. In Kasulu District, for example, four out of five villages are supervised by Farmer Facilitators. These are farmers who have been formally trained and are considered by their fellows as ‘Bwana shamba/Bibi shamba’. In a surprising situation, we have noted that these sites are performing very well. Besides the original project objectives, I am now interested to assess the performance of the project in areas with professional extension officers against those with para-professionals (Farmer Facilitators). The study will contribute to the existing knowledge gap on whether investing directly on farmer education is rational or not. It sounds like a match. Keep on visiting to follow the progress.

2006: THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DESERTS AND DESERTIFICATION

2006-01-06T03:17:00.000-08:00

The world begins the New Year 2006 with many challenging problems on our environment and livelihood. Famine is hitting hard some parts of Kenya, Ethiopia,Somalia, and Djibouti, just to mention a few. Unreliable and erratic rainfall is claimed to be responsible. However, we have not been able to identify a part we play in our own suffering. Desertifications through forests clearance for any reason and irresponsible burning of vegetations, unfriendly gases from burning and industrial emissions are some within our own control. Until we realize and of course implement the strategies to break the vicious cycle of poverty related to environmental destruction, stories of hunger, drought, floods etc will remain parts and parcels of our life. The United Nations Organization has taken its measures by declaring 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The decision was taken to help prevent the exacerbation of desertification around the globe. The main objective of the year is to get the message across that desertification is a major threat to humanity, compounded by both climate change and loss of biological diversity. Down to the country level, Tanzanian President Mr. Jakaya Kikwete puts environmental rehabilitation among his 10 priorities. He went a step further to appoint a full Cabinet Minister responsible for the environments, Prof. Mark Mwandosya.

FAO AND MWALIMU NYERERE’S VISION

2005-12-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has its 33rd Governing conference ended in Rome on 26th November 2005 by approving a budget of 765.7 million USD for the coming 2 years. The conference also re-elected Jacques Diouf for a third 6-year term as Director-General. Normally such conferences are preceded by McDougall Memorial Lectures in honour of Frank McDougall, an Australian who proposed the UN FAO. This year’s Lecture was delivered by David Beckam, President, Bread for the World and the US Alliance to End Hunger. Delivering the same kind of Lecture in the 12th Session of the Conference, 42 years ago, the first President of Tanzania (then Tanganyika in 1963), Julius Nyerere warned about bias towards social against economic change and vice versa. What Mwalimu forecasted in those years and cautioned have been recurrent stories in the FAO’s conferences. Stories like Hunger slows millennium goals, Better education helps reduce malnutrition, Failure to educate childen perpetuates hunger and $96 million for urgent agricultural relief in 14 emergencies are key examples. NYERERE, What a man of VISION!!

PROJECT LINKAGE WITH MKUKUTA: AN IMPORTANT ASPECT IN RESEARCH BUDGETING

2005-11-28T07:33:00.000-08:00

A team of finance and planning officers from the Department of Research and Training, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has visited ARI-Tumbi today. They also conducted a one day workshop to Principal Investigators (PI) and Zonal accountants on new budgeting technique known as Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). In their presentations, these officers reminded scientists to observe the framework by linking their project activities and budgets with the national vision, policies, strategies and priorities. They cited examples of such to include Tanzania’s National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA), Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) and Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). Others are Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), Tanzania Development Vision 2025 and Agriculture Policy 1997 (under review). The team consisted of Mr. A. J. Ahmed, Ms. M. A. Mwamkemwa and Mr. D. Lwezaura. Prior to presentations, they paid a courtesy call to the Acting Zonal Director, Mr D. Byamungu.

SOFT SPOKEN TANZANIA AND THE REALITY

2005-11-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which is coming to an end today has been broadly highlighted in the world media. The Summit's ultimate ambition is to foster reduction of the technology divide and to promote the economies of developing nations through Information Communication Technology (ICT). There were important and interesting issues discussed that try to create a picture on the position of developing countries in the sphere of information and communication technology. There were in particular success stories on ICT in African continent. An International Information Specialist from IAALD notified us of great news about Tanzania profile to be presented at WSIS. Addressing the conference in Tunis, Tunisia yesterday, Prof. Mark J Mwandosya, Tanzania's minister for communications and transport, said that there are notable achievements in ICT application in the country. With an ICT policy in place, the country has seen the growth of community telecentres, rural mobile phones, open source content and nationwide e-government. According to Professor Mark Mwandosya, the country has established an ICT infrastructure that has become the foundation for e-government and other applications. The government is also mainstreaming ICTs into the country's educational system, through training teachers and localising software into Kiswahili. The remarks came forth while the current capital city, Dar es salaam including the country boss’s office “Ikulu” is in power rationing owing to some technical problems with the wazungu run power company, TANESCO. This is so for Dar which is a reference point of the whole country. The situation in the remote areas where accessibility is a dream of lifetime is catastrophy. Think of rural areas like Kasuga in Kibondo, Titye in Kasulu, Isangati in Mbeya rural, Azimio in Uyui and others. Simon Hancock of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)Click Online made a country study in Tanzania. His story singled out Tanzania as having the fastest expanding mobile services of all African countries. This story is supplemented by the similar one on ICT for rural people presented by Joseph Sekiku of FADECO. Despite the fact that only 10% of Tanzanian are served with electric power, mobile phone services are booming. The story, however, does not provide cocreate answers to account for personal or at least household gain derived from owning a mobile phone especially in the rural areas. There are many questions to answer with regard to such observations. Do we really owning mobile phones for economic benefit or just for prestige? How many people own mobiles but don’t know how to operate them? How many people own mobiles but would not afford their operation costs? How many people own mobiles but live in areas where power in not for rationing but a new terminology? How many...? How many..?

TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE

2005-11-08T09:10:00.001-08:00

IITA: The Research for Development Council of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, has announced training opportunities at MSc and PhD levels. Applications should be submitted on the application form provided. Fellowship will start in mid-January 2006. Deadline: 15 December 2005. More

Increasing Impact at a Landscape Scale: New Approaches For Rural
Development - Feb 28 - Mar 18 2006 - Turrialba, Costa Rica.
This course is designed to train managers and technical staff to increase the efficiency, scale, and impact of their rural development and natural resource management programmes. It merges lessons learned from the experience of USAID's GreenCOM Project and CATIE, a Latin American institution for agricultural and tropical forestry education.More

World Bank: The Agriculture and Rural Development department seeks a Senior Livestock Sector Specialist to advise client country and Bank operational staff in designing management strategies and implementing programs and projects in the livestock sector. More

TRANSFORMING BUGAGA: JOINT EFFORT REQUIRED

2005-10-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

We have today made a quick survey around Bugaga farm in Kasulu District Council, Kigoma Region. This farm, which is surrounded by hills is one of tens of potential valleys for agricultural investment in Kigoma. A total area of the farm is 1200 ha with water catchment areas, swampy areas and areas requiring conservation measures. Kigoma Region has declared agricultural development its priority number one in the year 2005 after successful development of education sector which was first priority in 2004. Stakeholders Workshop was held in Kigoma Municipality from 16-17 August 2005 under initiative of the Regional Commissioner Col. Edmund Mahawa. During the W/shop, one of the deliberations made was to redistribute Bugaga land among key players in agricultural production in the region. Tumbi Agricultural Research and Training Institute has been allocated with 100 ha. According to the Acting Zonal Director for Research and Training Mr Benjamin Gama, the area will be developed under short-term, mid-term and long-term plans to be made soon involving all scientists and other well wishers. Leaders of ASPS II/ARTI-Tumbi project have identified sites for laying out trials on Thursday, October 27, 2005. The project enjoys the privillage of being the first to utilize this opportunity under the new initiative. Other members from ARTI-Tumbi who visited Bugaga farm along with Mr. Gama and myself are Mr. Martin Kusekwa, Mr. Deus Byamungu and driver Mr. Shagihilu. We were also joined with Dr. Orota from Kigoma Regonal Secretariet and Mr. Mutakakwa from Kasulu District Council.

RESEARCH WITH DEVELOPMENT: KIGOMA FARMERS GET EXCITED OF A NEW PROJECT

2005-10-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

I am leading a team of Crops Research Staff from ARTI-Tumbi to Kigoma Region to begin the actual implementation of verification trials project for maize, bean and paddy varieties. The project is being implemented in the three Districts and one municipal Council of Kigoma Region namely Kibondo, Kasulu, Kigoma Rural and Kigoma Urban for three seasons from the year 2005/06. The project is funded by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) through Agricultural Sector Project Support. On top of verifying the 15 different seeds, the project will also create eliteness among farmers about the varieties and allow them to select the best using their own criteria. This means the project will contribute to decreasing information gap between research-extension and farmers by bringing them together in a common forum. Last month Mr. Atugonza L. Bilaro, Cereal Breeder and one of the Project Coordinators visited the region to introduce the project, assessing the readiness of farmers to collaborate with research and extension and creating an overall rapport. His report indicates the anxiety of farmers on the new project and their readiness to participate. The project aims at verifying the research technologies developed in different stations in Tanzania to Kigoma situation. Other members in the team are Charles Chuwa, Justin Ringo and driver Gerald Ndunguru.

AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: KEY FOCUS OF PRSC -III

2005-09-11T23:57:00.000-07:00

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on 8th September 2005 approved a US$150 million credit to support the implementation of Tanzania’s National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA). Tanzania’s third Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC-III) provides financial support to close the gap between the cost of implementing key elements of MKUKUTA and the resources available from the government’s own domestic revenue and other donor support.

PRSC-III will help implement the comprehensive structural reforms on which Tanzania has embarked to improve economic growth. Private sector and rural development are the two areas where reforms financed by PRSC-III are expected to have the biggest impact on reducing income poverty in Tanzania. The core reforms are expected in agricultural and rural development focusing on raising agricultural productivity and enhancing the incomes of rural dwellers, where poverty is most widespread and most deeply entrenched.

The measures in rural development will include improving the profitability of agriculture and export products through reduced marketing cost; improved access to markets and to financing; the removal of institutional constraints remaining on rural activities; and correcting the incentives provided by the overall tax regime. Read more

HUNGER AND OBESITY: TWO CONTRADICTORY PROBLEMS CONFRONTING UNDERPRIVILEGED PEOPLE

2005-08-20T05:02:00.000-07:00

According to recent findings by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), there are growing cases of obesity and chronic diseases in developing countries still suffering from hunger and infectious diseases — creating a new, double burden for health care systems. Today, low- and middle-income countries account for 80% of global cardiovascular disease mortality. The findings further reveal that in low-income communities, malnutrition and overweight even exist in the same household, with obese mothers tending undernourished children. Ten percent of children worldwide are now overweight or obese, heralding the development. Information from Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) show that overweight and obesity amongst adults and children is increasing at an alarming rate. While actors in the agricultural sectors are thriving to attain millennium goals of cutting down hunger by half by 2015, Nutritionists, food, social and medical scientists are called upon to find means of dealing with dietary transitions dominated by eating more sugary, fatty and salty foods, and too few fruits, vegetables and fiber. Read more

POLITICAL COMMITMENT: A KEY TO MOBILIZING INVESTMENTS IN SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

2005-07-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

"Science, higher education and research are back on the agenda of developing countries", said Carol Priestley, Director of INASP. "Pakistan and India are good examples of what can be achieved through sustained investment in education and research when there is the political will. The governments of other developing countries are beginning to adopt these approaches and the strong support we've garnered from across the scholarly and development communities will help ensure science and education become real engines for development"....more

POVERTY AND WEALTH: A MATTER OF PRINCIPLES

2005-06-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

It has been established by evidence that a long history of existance as a nation or being rich of natural resources does not guarantee by itself economic welfare. Differences between rich and poor countries do not base on these factors. Race or skin colour has nothing to count. Difference in intelligence among the professionals working in these two country-categories is insignificant. Some extra criteria are to be met......Read them in a full story in powerpoint presentation

RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CHALLENGES IN ECA

2005-05-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXTRACTS FROM PAPERS BY PARTICIPANTS OF GREAT RESEARCH ESSAY COMPETITION FOR THE EASTERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA.

...Culture of dependence, looking outside for funding and even research ideas, must be changed. It is time now the local researchers began to address issues and problems afflicting the local communities..By Bernardin Mfumbusa & Thaddeus Mkamwa (SAUT)

.....in most cases, a communication gap exists between the producers and consumers of research and development information. As a good majority of the consumers are small scale farmers, a language barrier creeps in..By L. Nshubemuki, L. Mbwambo, & E. Sabas (TAFORI)

...One great limitation in K experiments is that they were conducted in localized areas of central (Nandwa, 1988), and western (ICRAF, 1995) Kenya..By Shem Maina Kanyanjua, George Oduor Ayaga, (KARI) Joseph K. Keter (Univ. of Nairobi) & John O. Okalebo (Moi Univ.)

...Our research endeavors in East and central African countries are very much below the expected quality mark..By Anganile Mwamnyange, Wenceslaus Luoga & Juliana Mwakasendo (ARI-Uyole)

...research requires large investments for laboratories, equipments and researcher’s salaries..By Julius Mutegaya, Fortunate Bwambale James Tukahirwa Atuhaire & Bernard Diisi Atwiine (Mbarara Univ.)

...Researchers often forget that researchable issues are usually complex and multifaceted and therefore require inter/multidisciplinary holistic approaches..By Anne Muriuki (NHRI), Mwangi Gathenya & Wambua Kaluli(Jomo Kenyatta Univ)

...Here in East Africa, the phenomenon can be seen in the failures of scientifically sound intervention programs..Robert M. Karanja, Susan W. Nduru, Milkah M. Mwangi & Lilian A. Nyindodo (KMRI)

...To succeed in research, a strategic planning process is a prerequisite and must emphasize the connection between the scanning function, forecasting/futures research methods,..Joseph Hitimana, James Legilisho Kiyiapi & Eric Kipyegon Koech (Moi Univ.)

...I would like to argue here that availability of funds has been overstressed against human capital capacity building, research agenda, priority setting and design..By Stephen Kuoko Sebastiani (HoRTI) & Rhodes Noel Merro (SARI)

...Science literacy at the citizen's level in developing countries is essentially low.. By Christian Thine (Univ. of Nairobi) & George Okwach (KARI)

....There are so many research findings at research station which have not reached farmers and there are as well many problems at farmers which are yet to reach researchers.. By Hector Mongi & Atugonza Bilaro (ARI-Tumbi)

...The Africa Water Vision for 2025 visualizes “An Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources..By Bancy M. Mati, Rosalin Mukua & George Ndegwa (Jomo Kenyatta Univ.)

MY DREAMS

2005-05-22T02:10:00.000-07:00

The mission of this weblog is to have a high level of collaration; a well defined, uptodate and active networking and a fast, targeting and relevant technology dissemination among all stakeholders in Agriculture in Tanzania. For more than two decades of our independence (1961 - 1995), technology non-adoption was caused by ignorance and farm-level constraints. In the following years up to now, non-adoption has been caused by unfit technologies and farmers' inaccessibility to goods and services. Suggested solution has been to enhance networking among organisations and empower the farmers. The role of key players in technology dissemination therefore is to enhance public-private collaboration, organise and empower farmers. Technology developers have roles of understanding rural livelihoods, policy context and communication network. Lets do our part, attain millenium goals of halving poverty by 2015 and probably have A DEVELOPED TANZANIA thereafter. 'It can be done, play your part' J. K. Nyerere

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