Govt admits acute food crisis pinching 1 million-plus people

MORE than one million people nationwide are in need of relief food, the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Charles Tizeba, has told the National Assembly in Dodoma. 
In his synopsis of the national food and nutrition situation for 2016/17 before the august House yesterday, Tizeba said both delays and inadequacy of rains in many parts of the country have had a debilitating effect on food production in general.
“The assessment done by the government has identified a total of 1,186,028 people facing a looming food shortage in 55 district councils,” Tizeba said, adding: “We therefore need 35,491 tonnes of food to counter the food shortage forecast for February to April this year.”
According to the minister, about 118, 603 people are currently without food at all, and will need 3,549 tonnes that will have to be sold to them at subsidized prices.
He told legislators that in the case of the district councils facing food shortages, the government has already responded by providing straight from the National Food Reserve in a bid to keep prices from going through the roof.
The move is meant to shield low-income families from hunger if food prices end up inhibiting their purchasing power, the minister explained, remarking that the wananchi - especially the poor who can’t afford high-priced food - are not the victims in this situation.
The government, he said, is also a big loser as the poor rains and consequent low crop harvests will also eventually have an impact on its own coffers, with substantial revenue in the form of farm levies imposed by municipal authorities and export tax from cereal traders who take their product out of the country is likely to be lost this year.
According to Tizeba, increased levels of livestock malnutrition and conflicts between farmers and pastoralists over grazing and water resources are also to be expected this year due to the prevailing situation.
The uneven and unreliable rainfall will also have a negative impact on the production and availability of seeds for future crop production, he added. Basically, Tizeba said, the government’s assessment found that the 55 district councils identified as facing a food crisis need 1,969 tonnes of drought-resistance, short-term seeds that do not take long to harvest crops like maize, millet and tubers.
“The seeds should reach the councils by February this year (this month) so that they are planted as soon as it rains,” he told the House. He said in the government’s broader plan to avert hunger, focus will be on the distribution of drought-resistance, short-term seeds of millet, sorghum, cassava and sweet potatoes.
The government’s food situation assessment was completed in January this year in collaboration with partners like UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), also using experts from the University of Dodoma, and Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC).