Vice- President of the United Republic of Tanzania Ms. Samia Suhulu Hassan has donated a tractor, and announced that the ruling party, CCM, plans to buy power tillers for empowering rice growers. The gestures emerged on the first day of her four-day of Unguja Island yesterday, pointing out that they were in fulfillment of the 2015/2020 CCM manifesto, which was highlighted ahead of the last General Election. Ms Hassan kicked off the tour by visiting the Kizimbani rice farm, where, during her speech, she remarked: “We are committed to ensure that the country produces enough food and wananchi are liberated from poverty, through improved agricultural productivity. ” The vice-president also donated 2m/= to the Kizimbani Farmers Association, but on condition that the money was deposited in a bank account that they would open. She saluted the association for its impressive work, manifested by the approximate 300 hectare rice farm, but urged them to pursue more sophisticated methods, in order to boost output. “I promise to hand over one tractor to the party in Zanzibar so that it can help you and other farmers,” said the vice President as the CCM-Zanzibar deputy Secretary General Dr Abdalla Juma Mabodi said his office had approved the purchase of power tillers for each rice farm in the islands.
Dr Juma also said that plans were underway for buying rice husk removing machines. However, the association’s secretary, Mr Shafii Kibwana, urged the authorities to switch to irrigation from the rain fed method for bigger yields. He elaborated: “We are 340 farmers in all, farming on 300 hectares. We now rely on rain, but we believe we can do more if we switch to Irrigation.” Legislators Ms Mwantaje Haji Juma (MP) and Mr Masoud Abdulrahman (House of Representatives – Bububu) said they had been supporting the farmers over the past five years. During a meeting with farmers and residents of Kizimbani, the vice president was briefed about water shortage and poor roads, which they said hampered their development efforts. In response, the Urban-West Regional Commissioner, Mr Ayoub Mohamed Mahmoud, informed the Vice President that the government had started taking remedial measures, including soliciting funds for the construction of the Kizimbani- Miwani Road. Another initiative was soliciting support from development partners (Exim- India), and Ras Al Khaimah). Ms Hassan also visited Fuoni- Kibondeni village in West District where she expressed admiration of mangroves fish farming by the village’s environment promotion association, whose conservation efforts she saluted. She also inaugurated a new CCM building at Kibondeni where an impromptu fundraiser yielded more than 2.5m/= for supporting the finishing touches phase of the structure.
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