The call comes at a time when President John Magufuli has urged regional and district commissioners to come up with better strategies to ensure their localities have enough food and use the current rains to grow crops.
In 2014 Chamwino District was faced with a serious hunger, a situation that forced people to eat wild fruits, insects and worms.
District Commissioner, Farida Gomi, urged farmers in the area to grow drought-resistant crops such as sorghum and cassava.
She said the problem was due to the lack of enough rains which led to smaller harvests, adding that they expected to harvest 62, 000 tonnes but were able to harvest only 32,000 tonnes.
She noted that the district has set a good strategy to deal with hunger and construction of dams has already been incorporated into the Council’s budget for the upcoming financial year.
“We want citizens to get used to irrigated agriculture and strengthen the beekeeping sector and poultry to improve their livelihoods,” the Commissioner said.
However, she said they have already taken cassava seeds and will distribute them to the entire district through divisional officers for farmers to be able to prepare their farms. Due to cassava’s ability to tolerate and withstand drought, it has become the farmers’ favourite crop.
She said it will be able to help to eliminate the problem of hunger in case of food shortage in the district.
For their part, some citizens of Chamwino District said the hunger problem affected them significantly in the last seasons. This year, she noted, during the rainy season they will plant drought-resistant crops.
One of the residents, Editha Ngambalile, said this year’s rain has given them hope because unlike last year, they will be able to harvest crops without wilting. They asked the government to pay closer attention to drought-stricken areas, including Chamwino.
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