Prison chief appeals for inmates and farm inputs
Songwe Prison farm manager Sebastian Mganga clarifies a point to members of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence committee when the team visited the facility in Mbeya Region yesterday. PHOTO | GODFREY KAHANGO
What you need to know:
- A House team and Home Affairs deputy minister visited Songwe prison this week to inspect productive activities at the facility
Mbeya. The Head of Songwe Prison, Mr Lyzeck Mwaseba, has asked the government for more prisoners, farm inputs and machinery to enable it to produce more food.
Mr Mwaseba sounded the appeal to members of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Committee and the deputy minister for Home Affairs, Mr Hamad Masauni.
The committee and the deputy minister visited the prison to inspect its productive projects. “The prison owns 2,170 acres of land, but only 250 acres have been put to production. We have only 165 inmates who is very small workforce,” he said.
He said for them to fully implement the directive by President John Magufuli that prisons should produce enough food to meet their consumption levels, they need at least 500 inmates to cultivate all the land.
“We don’t have enough manpower. In order to cultivate 1,000 acres, we need between 400 and 500 people. But we now have only 162, that’s why we have managed to cultivate only 250 acres,” he said.
He said, in the past they were harvesting more than 15 bags of maize in an acre but production has now dropped to between 10 and 12 bags.
He attributed the drop in farm productivity to fake inputs, particularly seeds. He asked the government to monitor companies supplying seeds to ensure that what they give to farmers is up to standard.
Reading a speech before the committee members on behalf of his fellow inmates, George Albert, asked the government to send them books on modern agriculture so that they could acquire necessary skills as they prepare to produce enough for themselves as President Magufuli directed.
He said, the knowledge would also help those who will finish their jail terms when they return to their communities.
In his remarks, Mr Masauni noted that from now on each prison should use its resources to produce enough food to sustain their needs.
“There is no need for the government to give prisons food subvention while you have enough manpower to produce more food than you can use. Let the government worry about other needs of prisoners, not food,” he said.
