FARMERS have been urged to spearhead the demand for green agricultural technology and irrigation support as part of mitigating climate change effects in the forthcoming 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The advice takes into mind that Tanzania is colloquially named a food basket for eastern and southern African countries where it exports its farm products to feed the population and boost the economy by providing considerable industrial raw materials.
Speaking in an interview on the state of climate change threats to the economy and food production, Dr Edmund Mabhuye, the Coordinator of the Center of Climate Change Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), said that changing rain patterns, floods and drought, needs greener adaptation methods to meet food requirement in the region and agro trade.
"Tanzania has nine river and lake basins potential for producing more food for her people and export but the main challenge was unstable precipitation.
As we go for COP27 this coming November in Egypt, Tanzania needs to push for the support of greener and effective farming technology to rescue regional economies," Dr Mabhuye said that it is evident that rains seasons are declining and misbehaving causing flooding which doesn't only wash away crops, but they as well neutralize soil fertility, where manure and irrigation technology was to be considered for the part of Eastern African people dependent on Tanzania's farmland for affordable food.
More than 70 per cent of Tanzanians depend on agricultural activities for livelihood, while traditional food crops like maize, beans and rice are now forming part of cash crops to fill the gap widened by unstable cash crops production hugely threatened by pests and disease due to changing weather patterns.
The Minister of Agriculture Mr Hussein Bashe told the parliament recently that between July 2020 and December 2020, Tanzania sold 89, 725.35 tonnes of maize to Kenya, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
