Water scarcity hampers livestock keepers' project in Longido

By Arusha Times Correspondent

Scarcity of water has affected a project being implemented by the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) to support smallholder livestock herders in Longido district, Arusha region.

Villagers told a team of researchers recently that raising of livestock through a raft of modern animal husbandry techniques like fattening has not been successful because of lack of water.

"Many of our people appreciate the innovation but we are facing an acute shortage of water", lamented Mr. Kesoi Sipira, the secretary of Irparaku group at Irkaswa village during a meeting with researchers from the Morogoro-based university.

He told the dons and evaluators that many traditional herders in the area were keen on the project under which calves are fattened and sold to increase their income.

The project is being implemented by SUA through a Norwegian-funded Enhancing Pro-poor Innovations in Natural Resources and Agricultural Value-chains (EPINAV) programme.

Sua in collaboration with the Agricultural University of Norway is an executing agency of the research programme launched in 2011.

The Nordic country had extended a grant of 72 million Kronors for the implementation of the programme which has been extended to next year.

At Irkaswa on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro the project supported the villagers in raising 30 calves which were fattened and later sold at Sh. 424,000 each up from Sh. 250,000 and 300,000 with the traditional herds.

However, the scheme could not be sustained because of shortage of water. The village is located on the shadow of the snow-capped mountain where most of the water streams have dried up.

"Availability of water is crucial for the successful implementation of this project", he said, adding that efforts being made by the local leaders to address the problem have not been successful.

At the adjacent Enaboishu village, the herders told the SUA monitoring and evaluation team that they were short of the cattle feed and called for support from the university.

The team led by Dr. Flavian Magayane was visiting the project sites in the northern zone regions, specifically in Mwanga, Hai, Moshi, Longido, Arusha, Monduli and Hanang districts.

EPINAV has two components; capacity buidling for Tanzanian agricultural scientists and research and facilitating strategic interventions in agriculture.

In all it has a total of 17 projects covering 128 villages in 18 districts in 12 regions in the Mainland.