Hope, Concern as Tanzanians welcome 2023

Arusha. Tanzanians in their millions are praying for favourable weather conditions as they ushered in the New Year.

This would allow the country to avoid a food shortfall this year if the forecast rains failed in some areas of the country.

They are also urging the government to prioritise food production this time around for fear of poor harvests in the 2022/23 season.

“As we usher in the New Year, our biggest challenge is unfavourable weather,” said Didi Kidawa, a resident of Arumeru District in Arusha.

He told The Citizen that the recent rains in the northern regions were insufficient to entice farmers to return to their farms.

“Without enough rain, there is a chance that this year may see a food shortage, which will have an effect on the economy,” he pointed out.

His remarks were echoed by farmers in Hanang District, Manyara Region, once considered the zone’s breadbasket for cereal production.

“I am in my farm now cultivating. We had some rains recently, but to our shock, it had stopped,” said Gilloya Mwammwaya, from Mogitu village.

He added in the affirmative when reached on the phone: “We need rain for our livelihood. We have had enough dry spells last year (2022).”

The Tanzania Meteorology Agency (TMA) recently warned that this season’s rains will be below average in some parts of the country, notably the northern regions.

This will deal a major blow to food producers given that millions of smallholder farmers, in particular, are much dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

Julius Gidabuday from Nangwa village, also in Hanang, said he was not much worried by this year’s rain patterns in the area.

“In our village, our concern has been the availability of tractors for tilling our farms. The demand for tractors has lately gone up,” he said.

Tractors in most of the northern regions are hired from large scale farmers who charge Sh 50,000 to till one acre of farm.

A large-scale farmer in Arusha, Mr Walter Maeda, wondered as to why the critical farm inputs were not readily available this season.

He cited the fertilizers whose prices, he said, had gone down to Sh 70,000 from Sh 140,000 but were not readily available.

The bulk of agricultural inputs is sourced from the government and distributed or sold through the agents scattered all over.

He also expressed his concerns about increased incidences of livestock keepers grazing their animals in his vast estates in Simanjiro.

“The village leaders are always to blame. They have not addressed this issue and would often support the herders,” he explained.

On tourism, Mr Maeda who is also a hotelier and chairman of the Arusha regional business chamber said there were signs of increased visitors. He said there was no contention on the government’s commitment to revive the sector which was severely impacted by Covid-19 pandemic.

“But if we are really serious about tourism we should rehabilitate the roads to and within Ngorongoro and Serengeti,” he said in an interview.

He wondered as to why the roads to the iconic sites were “in a pathetic state” whereas the two destinations were generating billions of shillings in tourism revenue.

He warned that several tour operators based in Arusha are contemplating withdrawing their vehicles from the route due to the poor condition of the roads.

But withdrawing tourist vans from the Ngorongoro-Serengeti road would be at the disadvantage of the tour operators themselves.

The route, which extends westwards for over 400km from Arusha is most popular as it attracts most tourists heading to the northern circuit.

The two destinations have some of the finest hotels, lodges and tented camps found in the country matching the area’s wildlife splendour.

A tourism business executive, who did not want his name mentioned, decried the scarcity of currency exchange facilities in Arusha.

After the government closed dozens of forex shops in the tourism hub in October 2018, the service is now confined to a few bank branches.

“We need tourists but there are not enough facilities to change money,” he said, noting that this is a drawback to the industry. He faulted the government for closing the forex shops in Arusha and Moshi, bearing in mind that the two cities attracted thousands of tourists from abroad.

“If there were problems with some owners of the forex bureaux, this would have been addressed separately but not close all the shops,” he opined.

Mr Gadi Mbuya, the CEO of Green Inspirations, an Arusha-based destination management company (DMC) said he was optimistic about the tourist flow.

“We should brace up for more visitors. Hotels and lodges should be upgraded to cope with the numbers,” he told The Citizen.

However, he called on the key stakeholders in the sector to address “some unnecessary” challenges that continue to impact the industry.

These include long queues of visitors at the entry gates of the national parks and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

This is mainly due to the slow clearance of the visitors after their hosts (tour companies) had paid their entry fees online.

“In many cases, the delay is caused by the system not working. We should upgrade our technologies in order to reduce the queues,” he said.

This should also apply to main entry ports such as the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA), Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA) and the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).

As Tanzanians begin the New Year with hopes and fears, the trends in the East African Community (EAC) region have their way.

This year may see a further expansion of the seven-nation bloc should Somalia be admitted as the eighth member.

The Arusha-based Community founded by the host country Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya is increasingly becoming diverse in almost every facet.

According to the EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki a verification team will be dispatched to Mogadishu this month to assess the Horn of Africa country’s readiness to join the bloc.

Early last year Dr Mathuki - the EAC boss since April 2021 - oversaw the admission of DR Congo - nearly doubling the population and the geographical size of the Community.

The EA region has also recorded encouraging signs of quick recovery from the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the hospitality sector.

The East African Business Council (EABC), an apex body of private sector associations based in Arusha, is also full of optimism.

It has predicted that businesses in the region are set to increase by 11 percent in 2022/23 spurring more investments and increased regional trade.

It mentions Tanzania as among the countries which had seen improvements in business climate and government’s interventions in recovery efforts.

“It is notable that businesses in Tanzania stood out with an optimistic view of the outlook across all dimensions,” said EABC in its Business Outlook report for 2022/23