END THESE HERDER-FARMER CONFLICTS ONCE AND FOR ALL
A conflict of interests between crop farmers and livestock herders has been raging on for decades in Tanzania, resulting in tragic consequences. This is compounded by such factors as ever-increasing livestock populations, thus calling for more pastureland.
This is also especially the case on account of the seemingly endless/relentless global climate change that is increasingly having adverse impacts on economies and living conditions generally.
This is even more serious for Tanzania, where nearly 70 percent of the working population is engaged in Agriculture in one way or another – thereby contributing about 27 percent of the gross domestic product, and over 90 percent of all the food consumed domestically. But Tanzania is also home to the second-largest livestock herds in Africa, beaten in that only by Ethiopia.
If nothing else, the foregoing factors make a conflict of interests between the two sides a matter for great concern, sometimes resulting in human deaths and considerable loss of property in different parts of the country, including farm crops and livestock.
As reported by the Inter-Press Service News Agency on January 16, 2014: “The Tanzanian authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with ongoing conflicts between farmers and pastoralists as they fight over limited land and water resources…”
Take, for instance, the latest such conflict in the Morogoro Region last week, when cattle herders killed a farmer and injured four others simply for shooing the herds away from the farmers’ crops.
In December 2000, a similar conflict occurred in Kilosa District in the same region, in which a record 38 farmers were killed by cattle herders.
It’s been suggested that farmer/herder conflicts are usually fuelled by local administration officials accepting bribes from herders for inaction.
Whatever is the case, we urge higher authorities to delve into the matter and come up with a lasting solution for harmony in the two important economic sectors.
NO NEED TO RUSH CLASSROOMS
There is a race against time in various parts of the country to complete thousands of classrooms before public primary and secondary schools reopen for the new academic year in early January 2022. In all this rush, questions are bound to be asked about the quality of workmanship, bearing in mind that the construction of the classrooms began barely two months ago.
Earlier this month, Kagera Regional Commissioner Marco Gaguti ordered that the construction of 452 classrooms be completed within 48 hours. It is highly unlikely that the contractors were able to meet this unrealistic deadline, but, unfortunately, more or less similar directives have been issued in other parts of the country.
The government did very well to set aside part of the Covid-19 relief loan issued by the International Monetary Fund for building classrooms. However, building standards need to be observed to the letter in the project to avoid potentially tragic consequences that may result from shoddy workmanship.
We should not endanger our children’s lives by rushing the construction of classrooms just because leaders want them completed before schools reopen next month.
