Reaching out to farmers in Tanzania
After a three-hour visit to what is now Teagasc Moorepark in Fermoy, in 1979, he asked the Government to make Irish expertise available to help his people increase food production. He was taken on a tour of a 350-acre hillside at Coolnakilla, which the Agricultural Institute was reclaiming and converting to dairy farming.
President Nyerere was deeply interested in the land reclamation work, which he believed was particularly relevant to agriculture in his country. He was also keen to see research-based dairy technology at Moorepark. The President said he was returning home with the knowledge that Tanzania could learn a lot from the Irish, and that the Irish were willing to make that experience available.
Moorepark research staff members were involved in preparing a heifer replacement and dairying development scheme at Kilrosa in central Tanzania.
More than 10 times the size of Ireland, Tanzania is one of the largest countries in east Africa. It is also one of the poorest in the world. Poverty levels are greater in rural areas, where 80% of the population lives, and highest among households that depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
Agriculture is the backbone of the economy, contributing more than 40% of gross domestic product and employing up to 80% of the population. Yet it is a significantly underdeveloped sector.
Life expectancy remains low, at just under 51 years, with an estimated 58% of the population living below the international ‘dollar-a-day’ poverty line.
In 2008, it was estimated that 1.3 million people, including children, in mainland Tanzania were living with HIV.
For many years, Irish missionaries and aid agencies such as Concern and Oxfam Ireland have had a presence in Tanzania, which gained independence in 1961, and now has a population of more than 42 million.
Irish Aid, the Government’s programme of assistance to developing countries, has been active in Tanzania since 1975. Bilateral aid to the country totalled €40 million in 2008. In 2007, Irish Aid gave €4.5 million to the Tanzanian agricultural sector, which gets €32 million overall in support, when funding from other donors is included.
Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Peter Pinda met with Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin and Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith during an official visit to Ireland last year. Among the places he visited was the Teagasc Ashtown food research centre, underlining Tanzania’s continuing interest in developing its agricultural base.
Prime Minister Pinda asked Ireland and other development partners to fulfil their commitments of assistance to developing countries, despite the world financial crisis.
Taxpayers, through Ireland’s development programme, will spend €671 million this year in some of the poorest countries in the world in the fight against hunger, poverty and exclusion.
* Ireland is one of Tanzania’s leading development partners, with a programme concentrated on agriculture, health, good governance and general budget support.
