Herders blamed for tasking children with grazing cattle

What you need to know:

As a result, the cattle end up invading farmers’ fields in villages in Mvomero District, Morogoro Region.

Morogoro. Pastoralists have been blamed for delegating their responsibility to their children by telling them to graze large herds of cattle, which they fail to manage.

As a result, the cattle end up invading farmers’ fields in villages in Mvomero District, Morogoro Region. This has been aggravating conflicts between farmers and pastoralists.

This is what came out during a debate that brought together farmers and pastoralists at Dakawa Village.

It was argued that the children’s inability to handle huge herds of cattle aggravated land conflicts that led to frequent clashes.

The debate aimed at maintaining peace and finding solutions to land disputes.

It was organised by Tanzania Initiate for Social Economic Relief (Tiser) through a project on good land management by involving stakeholders in good policy formulation.

A farmer, Ms Fahamia Ally, said children aged between five and 10 were the ones looking after the herds of cattle. She added that, it was impossible for the them to manage the cattle on their own, particularly in areas close to farms.

“The time has come for pastoralists to change. They are supposed to take their children to school, instead of grazing cattle, which is supposed to be the responsibility of adults,” said Ms Fahamia.

For his part, Dakawa Village Executive Officer Andrew Mohamed, said the big challenge facing village leaders was lack of a programme on good land management.

Tiser has been collecting public views with a view to maintaining peace and resolving land conflicts between the farmers and pastoralists in Mvomero District through the project.