By Bilal Abdul-Aziz: IT’S still long before dawn. Yet Tatu Tunduguru, a young mother of two, is already painstakingly trudging a bush track separating her grass-thatched mud-and-pole house and the other side of the village, where she owns a farm.For Tatu, just like other villagers in Mzenga, Kisarawe in Coast Region, this happens daily, if one has to keep…
By Anthony Tambwe: A few years ago, Othman Mrushid would show up each morning at his clinic in a tiny rugged Matemwe village,Unguja, Zanzibar, to find a group of shivering villagers waiting for his services. After checking the patients, majority would be suffering from malaria. It used to be a daily routine. How things have changed! Malaria was ravaging…
By Angel Navuri: DOUBLE taxation is likely to slow down sunflower production in the country if the current trend of heavy taxes to farmers continues. There is need of shifting some burden to other players along the value chain, namely agro-processors and consumers. A survey carried out by this paper sponsored by PANOS Eastern Africa on the theme of…
By Abraham Makinda: It is a curse and a blessing for women villagers at Bweleo, Mjini Magharibi District in western Zanzibar. Seaweed farming binds the women together into a vicious cycle of poverty. Yet for the majority, the crop is the only assured means of livelihood. For a few, it is also offers a hope to entering the world…
Francis Muguro: In making decisions, everything, including falsehood and half truths have an important role to play. But more often than not, people are overwhelmed by domineering negative trivialities at the expense of truth. Is it that human nature is so innately pessimistic that it always focuses on negativity? I watched a televised documentary on tetanus immunization at the…
* * * * *(Kenya, 16 July 2011) *ActionAid has today warned that women in Kenya are resorting to the life-threatening practice of binding their stomachs as hunger in East Africa escalates. The revelation comes as the UN announces that 11 million people have been affected by one of the worst droughts in 60 years.**** The women say that…
Faraja Mgwabati: ATUL Mittal, an agro-processing businessman, represents many of the victims of the politics of Africa’s special Economic Zones (ASEZ). Mr Mittal, the owner of Arusha based Mount Meru Millers Limited, quit business under EPZ after what he calls, “Two years of frustrations and problems with TRA and local authorities.” The company had invested over 15 million US…
Na Grace Mkojera : Nchini Tanzania kuna watu zaidi ya milioni mbili ambao wanaishi na virusi vya ukimwi huku wengine wakiwa bado hawajajitokeza kupima ili kutambua afya zao. Aidha, Takwimu mbalimbali za mwaka 2003 zinaeleza kuwa watu wapatao milioni 25 waliokufa kwa Ukimwi katika Afrika, zaidi ya asilimia 90 wanatoka katika familia maskini sana. Pia, zinaeleza kuwa vijana wa…
MNAKU MBANI : In previous years – before 2009, when people heard a blast or a crash, whether it was a gunshot, car crash or tyre bursts, they would run towards the area of the incident, to see what was happening. They would rush to the incident, as they believed it was not deadly, keeping in the mind that…
By ORTON KIISHWEKO,:AS the 2011/12 cotton buying kicked off in the Western Cotton Growing Zones last week, expectations were that the cash crop producers would pocket at least 300bn/- by the end of the season. There was news to celebrate about as the farm gate price has almost doubled from 600/- per kilogramme last season to 1,100/- this year….