Training on land ownerships benefits villagers in Iringa

A total number of 940 villagers of Ilalasimba of Nzihi ward in Iringa rural district council have been handed village land titles through MAST programme at a value of sh.127,393,200/- which was coordinated by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) known as Tanzania Grassroots Oriented Development (TAGRODE) in collaboration with Care International of Iringa region for the last seven months. Presenting the certificates the Assistant Commissioner for land responsible for rural from the Ministry Headquarter, Frolah Luvanda said that the government has really appreciated the contribution of the programme as most villages in the country have not benefited. He said despite of the fact that the programme has not yet applied in many areas in the country, this is the reason why there has been some land crisis in some parts in the country between farmers and livestock keepers. He said sponsors of the MAST programme  for USAID and care have done a commendable job in the pilot project as the benefits of the programme results from the land titles given to villagers. He said the government through Land Act of 1999 was supposed to survey as many villages as possible in the country, but it had failed to execute the duty due to fewer human and financial resources and said once a strategic investor id fou8nd to help people in this exercise is a bless to all people. Either he has called upon 940 villagers who have benefited from this programme to take care of their land certificates  as these are most important documents that could b e used to acquire loans and other incentives to help them for their future lives. 

The historical town of Iringa.

While delivering a report of the project, the TAGRODE’s Director Zuberi Mwachula said that NAST programme started in February 2015 and is expected to be completed in August 2015 at the cost of Sh. 127,393,200/-. He said through this project there are two important things tio be taken into account which includes to put an awareness to the public on the use of village land title deeds, whereby about 40 in the village were issued with training and the second thing is that the nominated villagers put to work for the land surveying,. He said the MAST project has been divided in to three main areas and the most important one is whereby the community is being prepared to institute a system of good governance. Another is to cope with the emerging technology that helps in the use of statistics. Another important area he noted is the training over the use of  Mapping of Property Rights to middle income people who are directly concerned with the date collection and present them to the concerned organ in the country. TAGRODE director thanked the government (Lad unit at Iringa district council) and the Ilalasimba villagers for their cooperation in the implementation of this project which has been made successful by the American based Sid institute known an USAID which worked under the consultancy work by CLOUDBURST also from USA. Earlier when reading the reports on MAST Vedastus Kidakule said that the Ilalasimba village that is composed of 1,982 villagers is lucky to have been chosen to become a pilot project for the land surveying programme whereby a total of 940 villagers are lucky to have acquired such land titles.