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