MAKE GOOD CHILD, MATERNAL NUTRITION A TOP PRIORITY

It is common knowledge that good maternal nutrition plays a key role in giving offspring the best possible start in life.

Maternal nutrition has been the focus of public health experts, who root for policies that promote improved maternal and child nutrition across the world, Tanzania included.

By adopting the right nutrition for mothers and their newborns, we effectively protect their wellbeing from infancy, and this has a long-lasting impact on their health.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), good nutrition positively impacts children’s development.

There is evidence that a woman’s nutritional status during pregnancy determines whether the child will be born healthy or not. During pregnancy, the foetus is dependent on the expectant mother’s micronutrients in her blood supply for its optimal development.

If, for instance, a child is born to an undernourished mother, its growth may falter. The child might fail to reach his or her developmental milestones, in effect adversely impacting the ability to learn, and predisposing him or her to infectious diseases.

Malnutrition in babies also inhibits their cognitive development, and reduces their chances of leading healthy lives.

Tanzania is blessed with an abundance of food varieties, and there should be no difficulty in placing maternal and child nutrition on top of the development agenda.

This way, we would readily avoid micronutrient deficiencies that could result in health complications for our children, with the possibility of adversely affecting them in later life.

Micronutrient deficiencies also impair physical and cognitive development in humans, resulting in poor performance at school and beyond.

The good news is that we can avoid – and even reverse – all that by nutrition-based interventions using the food and related resources at our disposal. All we need to do is to always ensure that we turn those resources into a well-balanced diet.

REVIVE THE OLD COFFEE GLORY

It seems a long time since sisal and coffee were Tanzania’s leading exports in terms of foreign exchange earnings. Studies attribute this downturn to low supply of quality hybrid seeds/seedlings; shortage of professional extension officers; inadequate investments, and shortage of quality data.

Coffee production has stagnated for over three decades, according to a study titled Unlocking Institutional Constraints to Increasing Coffee Production in Tanzania by the Morogoro-based Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA).

Availability of correct, comprehensive data at all times – as well as quality seeds; prudent investments; readily accessible credit, and diligent extension service providers – can be pivotal to quality crop yields. Experts also suggest revisiting the extant policies and regulatory frameworks, stressing that this could effectively unlock the country’s annual coffee production potential of 150,000 tonnes, up from the current 50,000 tonnes.

Surely, this is timely beckoning for the relevant authorities to sit up, take notice, and get on out there to implement the experts’ recommendations. This is one surefire way of reviving the old glory of coffee (and sisal) exports.